What it takes to learn a language

Sir Richard Francis Burton was a lot of things. He was an explorer, writer, soldier, orientalist, ethnologist, poet, hypnotist, fencer and diplomat. Most importantly, he was a translator and linguist who spoke 29 languages of European, Asian, and African varieties.

The Life of Sir Richard Burton quotes him explaining his technique:

I got a simple grammar and vocabulary, marked out the forms and words which I knew were absolutely necessary¹, and learnt them by heart. … I never worked more than a quarter of an hour at a time², for after that the brain lost its freshness. After learning some three hundred words³, easily done in a week, I stumbled through some easy book-work⁴ and underlined every word that I wished to recollect, in order to read over my pencillings at least once a day⁵ … Having finished my volume, I then carefully worked up the grammar minutiae⁶, and I then chose some other book whose subject most interested me⁷. The neck of the language was now broken, and progress was rapid. If I came across a new sound, like the Arabic Ghayn, I trained my tongue to it by repeating it⁸ so many thousand times a day. When I read, I invariably read out loud⁹, so that the ear might aid memory. I was delighted with the most difficult characters¹⁰, Chinese and Cuneiform, because I felt that they impressed themselves more strongly upon the eye than the eternal Roman letters.

I first heard of this account of Sir Richard Burton in Scott Thornbury’s How to Teach Vocabulary, and became very interested in his technique as it’s very similar to the process I go through in my own self-studies. Of course, he lacked a few tools that we have at our disposal in this age of IT, but breaking down his learning process we see the following ten points:

1. He made a list of core vocabulary. A commonly accepted basic core vocabulary of English is around 2000 words, which would give an understanding of 9 out of 10 words in the average text.
2. He managed his time wisely. Instead of pushing through cram sessions, he did study rounds. (This can also be referred to as timeboxing.)
3. He set short-term goals for his own language process. Instead of just having the amazingly intimidating goal of “Learn language X”*, he made short steps of progress. He most likely did this using distributed practice. (This can also be referred to as spaced repetition.)
   *It’s impossible to determine when you’ve “learned” a language, because how do you define the state of completion? Do you, for example, know the entire English language?
4. He engaged himself in graded readings.
5. He made studying a daily habit.
6. He analyzed grammar after being exposed to it.*
   *I’ll write in a later post a little more on my thoughts of the lexical approach to grammar.
7. He engaged himself with the language by studying topics that he was interested in.
8. He would keep the language in his mind throughout the day.
9. He vocalized speech as he read it, which made him use more parts of his brain and helped him to better internalize the language. I also think subvocalization is a legitimate application.
10. He was intrinsically motivated to study.

He did all of that without a computer, the internet, an electronic dictionary, a television, or an MP3 player, all while pursuing the advancement of his other trades. Now think of the sort of advantage that we have living in the age that we do.

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• Learn to speak Japanese in a social context
• Be your own master of language study