Scanner's approach

A bit a re-evaluation yesterday. What happened was that I listened to a webinar by Lydia Machovar. Her ideas got me thinking - especially the concept that you don't get better at speaking unless you speak. Which, in turn, got me to wonder why I haven't put any emphasis at all on that skill.

I realize that I've been avoiding it. Speaking feels uncomfortable to me. I prefer to read. I choose input over output. But why?

I'm not a good language learner. I'm a poor one. I'm probably one of the worst. And it'S worth examining why this is so, because that knowledge could well help me in other areas.

The reason I and many others shy away from speaking (even in our own language) is because of our conditioning. We have mistake phobia. Our education system together with our society have made us averse to making mistakes. We regard them as failures. That's why we would rather avoid to engage than risk failure.

When you are a beginner again - in a new language - you lose status. You feel yourself to be a child. You place yourself in an uneven power balance with repect to another. I know that I am particularly suceptible to the feeling.

Oh, and by the way - that picture of Tom Hanks from the movie Castaway? Lydia used the analogy of needing to swim out past the last strong wavein order to achieve that fluency and ability where you were comfortable in the language you learned. Otherwise you are always being pushed back to the shore.

What I want to do is remain true to my nature of being a scanner: maintaining an interest in many interests i.e. languages. But I'll start each day with an hour spent on one: Japanese. Then, in the evening I will cycle through another 5 or so for fun. I shall also keep a shelf of books on topics that I'm interested in. They will include a current book in each of the languages that I'm good at.