Three Myths

Language Learning Myths

1. Learning a language without much effort just comes naturally to some people.

After about 1,000 hours of effort, the average brain will begin to process in the new language. That does not mean you will be fluent, but rather that you can interrupt a conversation and ask a semi-relevant question. Your question might get people (if they like you) to adjust their language to you, just as when a four year old cuts into an adult conversation. That condescending adjustment made by others on your behalf is key to your being able to hang in any conversation. You can watch the news and, along with the video clues and your own previous knowledge, understand enough to be able to comment on it. Your speech will be unnatural, bordering on unintelligible, and there will still be gaping holes in your ability to understand. At the magical 1000 hour mark, your brain will be synthesizing, though there is no guarantee that anyone will comprehend the product of that synthesis.
Less than 1,000 hours and anything said in a normal conversation in the new language is gibberish; your brain can not so much as process it. Good language learners can get there with maybe only 950 hours of effort. Slower ones take longer.
According to this myth, I’m just one of those lucky natural ones who has miraculously started to, “get it”. But no one has ever been able to produce a person who has put in as many practice hours as me (about 2,000 in Dari) that has not started to “get it”. Progress has been painstakingly slow: my present ability - just surpassing the 1,000 hour level (on good days).

2. Since my Niece has a college degree in French, and my nephew has a degree in Spanish and neither one could ever really speak, learning language is impossible for most people.

A university language degree might require 8 courses, with about 40 classroom hours each. That is 320 hours in the classroom. An excellent student might practice as much on their own as in class, few ever do more than that. So, you would expect to find that University level language graduates’ brains should not normally be able to process the new language, unless they have spent an extraordinary amount of time working in the language outside the classroom. It requires THAT MUCH WORK.
Most people who study a second language never arrive at fluency. Most bilingual people never took coursework in their second language. Most of the world is at least bilingual.

3. The best way to learn a new language is (pick your highly advanced strategy) - total immersion, watching TV, speaking with people in normal conversations, attending meeting with native speakers, etc.. My niece speaks German fluently, and that’s what she did.

People who have survived the odyssey to get to the magical 1000 hour point do not usually stop there. They demonstrated all that perseverance with the goal of employing the language, so they almost always do. They progress and become fluent, which happens after, perhaps 3,500 hours. If you than ask them what strategy worked best for them, they will invariably pick one that worked AFTER the 1,000 hour point. Yes, they became fluent by speaking with nationals in natural paced conversations. No, it won’t work for you (nor would it have worked for them) before the 1,000 hour point. Until you put in that much hard, frustrating work, the strategies that produce real fluency will just be gibberish that never even enters your brain.