Decent exposure

You get used to stuff by exposing yourself to it gradually and repeatedly. That's how training works. You don't overdo it, but you don't avoid it either. You want it broad, shallow and light. And you want to do it in an environment that supports that exposure. That doesn't make fun of you, or force you to do stuff that you aren't ready for, or don't wish to do.

Rather than marvel at the fact that any child, anywhere picks up the basics of its parents' tongue (or tongues) usually by the age of 4, without any real instruction, rigorous correction, comprehensive feedback, drills, or indeed any form of formal study, I take it as a given that it it is exposure, pure and simply, that is the basic mechanism that underpins the acquisition of any language.

You want to hear and see the language around you, connected to the real world of your experience.

I've done that for myself via the medium of books. If I go through them at normal speaking speed, then I'll touch upon about 100 words per minute, a thousand in ten.  I'm happy to do that in any of my current languages from English to Polish. As I listen, my eyes flit across the text, catching what I can, and letting go of the rest. I get a sense of the (as yet) unknown with my peripheral vision.

So I don't do it the way it is done in the classroom. I don't use a limited word list of 25 words and one grammar point per day. Rather, it's as if the language that I want to pick up is a plastic-dimpled meat tray that I set outside in the drizzle. All the holes fill up at once. I don't go about the job carefully, hesitantly, SLOWLY with a pipette. I leave it up to nature. The process of language acquisition is an organic one.

But enough generality. The next post looks at the nitty-gritty, for which the books themselves are the best place to start.