The fact seems to be that analysis gets in the way of native language acquisition. Can a three year old child feel that his language development is slow? Can he think for hours on end about whether a word should be pronounced a certain way or not?

I know that if we ever hold onto any excuse, it becomes fact, based on the reality that we’re holding it up as fact. The ALG program has shown that adults can indeed become fluent in a language acquired as an adult. Apart from ALG, people all over the world have demonstrated this as well.

Perhaps, rather than holding to an excuse such as those mentioned above, or by imagining that some people are just gifted (meaning that you aren’t and thereby negating yourself from the possibility that you could become fluent in a new language) it makes more sense to realize that language fluency is the outgrowth of enough exposure to understandable experiences. Then you could start to fill up your time with gaining memorable, interesting and understandable experiences  - this is much more fun than language classes anyway!

Adults often state that of course they can’t learn a new language because they’re no longer children, and they already have a language that [must] be in the way. What we’ve seen often enough is that adults actually grow language faster than children. Just not when they try to do it all manually.

I find it much better to not limit my thinking about the capacity of our brains. What I also find helpful, is to place the entire process into an age model – what is your language age? – and do things that are age appropriate. So many frustrations occur because we try to force things at the wrong time or place. This is as true for children as well as adults. In English my ability is nearing 50 years. In Thai, it’s probably around 20. That’s a fairly big difference and if I’m not sensitive to this, I’ll frustrate those around me, as well as myself!

I expect that many of you are feeling uneasy about what this means. Has Thailand changed? It will be impossible to ever recover that place it held for you. You may wonder what did you miss – how could such a wonderful people, so gentle and kind as they’ve always been, become so agitated as to purposely destroy each others’ lives in such an extreme way.

At 8 AM and 6 PM every day, the national anthem is played. Have you ever listened to what it means? Thais love peacefulness. But when there’s a reason – they will fight without reservation. I think we’ve just seen such a fight. Don’t begin to think that the Thailand you’ve loved and known has changed. Things aren’t coming apart. We have now seen a crisis that has bubbled through to the outwardly happy surface of Thai society, revealing the depth and seriousness of Thai values.

We are here as guests in another’s house. And it’s up to those of the household to sort out the difficulties. It’s not my purpose to bring up the politics or even really discuss the issues that are at the core of the matter. I would like to pass on a couple of thoughts from some Thai friends that I’ve found personally helpful.

There is no birthing process that takes place without struggle and blood. The struggles are a necessary part of growth and learning. As democracy continues to develop here, and as people grow in their understanding, knowledge and involvement, it’s inevitable that clashes will occur between democratic government, the powers that be, and the powers that want to be. In most of our countries, this process has been extremely bloody. Thais it seems to me, are moving through this process with much more care and regard for human life than many of our own countries did during the growth of democracy there.

Many of you weren’t here during the time of this article. Notice the date.Things will get back to normal.

Much of what we’re seeing in Thailand today, is a continuation of the growth of democracy. Certainly there are non-democratic issues you might say. I’m sure there are but they all seem to stem from a lack of aspects of democracy, such as the fact that money has always been used to buy votes. Such as the fact that a large proportion of the society has traditionally relied on what community leaders said in order to be informed and largely never cared if it didn’t appear to affect their daily lives. In order for Thailand to change quickly in some of the ways that many foreigners have suggested would require nothing less than a complete revolution of education, government, finance, and the very social fabric that makes up Thai society. We are living in a country that has been operated by mostly benevolent ‘elder rule’ for centuries. One can see this in every family unit, locally owned business, as well as nationally in every reference to the King.

All of a sudden, a great number of people want to be involved in politics. This can’t happen quickly without major upheaval and loss. Whenever the democratic process advances, stress and conflict will rise. Much of what has brought this ongoing struggle to a head, has been the fact that a growing number of people have become involved in issues that they’d have never thought about as little as 5 years ago.

Many, perhaps most of us live here because we have found the Thai people to be amazing. I want to say that nothing has changed. You may fear that Thailand can never be the same for you again. You’ve simply seen an aspect of the Thai that is normally hidden and reserved from your sight – fortunately. While death is tragic, perhaps we might have the grace and understanding to compare this transition to similar transitions in our own histories. They were often much more tumultuous.

The balance demonstrated throughout this crisis, between a firm stand, and a willingness to listen to opposing views was educational. Typically there have always been games being played on all sides. The big picture, the underlying question that will continued to be answered is what is the best path for the future. It is in the interest of the Thai people to stay united, so while the path to greater unity and broader involvement may not be smooth, it will continue to progress in an overall positive way.

(You can read Part 2 at: http://longinasia.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/the-thailand-youve-always-known-part-2/)

What does this have to do with language acquisition?  I think it has everything to do with it.  Societies seem to be defined by their values – those ways of seeing things, doing things, and beliefs that are distinctive to it.  Unless one understands a people’s values, how is it possible to communicate effectively?  Government representatives live abroad – normally in a little bubble of life that is based on their own values.  Because they are there to extend the agenda of their own country, this makes sense.  They should be living, acting, and communicating to everyone else out of their own values, and they do.

But in Thailand, it seems to me that a very large part of the foreign community actually wants to live here, to integrate, and have in many ways rejected many of the values of their own social groups.  Many here express reasons why they feel that life in Thailand is better for them.  Tens, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of foreigners have moved to areas throughout Thailand, desiring a more attractive life based on different values.  How are those values learned?  (I hope at this point that you don’t expect me to say through language study!)  I believe that they can only be learned by opened-minded experience.  I know that explaining the values differences is both fun, and ineffective.  People are left mainly unchanged but these types of stories – the differing values never become “mine” and always staying “theirs”.

It isn’t until I experience these differences that I’m brought to choose – will this be my value?  Most foreigners I know, prefer to avoid these life changing moments.

When I was in language school at AUA, two of our teachers decided one day to make somtam for the entire class.  By this time, we knew they were relatively poor, and worked quite hard by our standards to scrape enough money together each month just to meet their basic needs.  This particular day, there were about 15 of us in the class, and these two teachers came loaded with food stuffs to make a fantastic somtam meal for us.  While they were preparing the food, myself and a few friends decided that it would be a great idea to take up a small collection of money and to say thanks to them with it.  So we did.

What a surprise when giving them the money, I was met with anger I’ve rarely experienced from any Thai in over 20 years!  They were both visibly offended, placed the money down on the table and left the room.  I think at that moment, I realized that I probably needed to understand something more about Thai values.  According to my sense of things, it was a nice gesture – sort of the expected, American Share thing.  A couple of days later, I spoke with them to apologize, and rather than any explanation much, they just said, “mai pen rai” meaning nevermind (another great indicator of Thai values that foreigners often have trouble with).  Being me, I wanted them to explain, so I kept asking, and kept getting the same answer – maipenrai.  Finally, they simply said smiling, that Thais don’t do things that way.  That was it!

Looking back, that experience, which was most lacking in any explanation or seeming logic, was of great importance in teaching me something of differing values.  That experience more than any other, has helped me to stop and consider that there are things here I don’t know.  It has helped me to be more sensitive to things I may think of as polite or good manners which may actually be offensive to others.  It has helped me to be more alert to the feelings of those around me. Now all of these things are (for those of you who know me) things I’m not very good at yet.  So you can just imagine how bad off I’d be otherwise!  Yet with that same intrigue of the woman defying explanation, Thai values, culture, and ways of understanding the world have been passed on.  Not only to me, but to the whole society. Can you understand them by someone telling you about it? I don’t think so.

So when we think about traditional language lessons, what do we have? Explanations about values, culture and language designed to accommodate the values, culture and language of the learner.  So while the student may get some good hard words to repeat, he will have no real understanding of the keys.  And this is where I find many of my foreign friends and acquaintances who stay in Thailand – always and often struggling over the same issues.

How is this to be avoided?  Gain experiences in Thai.  Let those experiences change you.  As language students, we tend to get very focused on certain outcomes – back off from your agenda just a bit – you will reap a harvest in understanding that you never believed possible!  One great source of real experience is the AUA Thai Program, but it’s not the only place.  The important thing is that once you realize that values, and language too, are the result of experiences, then you simply set out to gain as much experience as possible!  What better way is there to live life?

Current brain research indicates that knowledge is increased only when the new information links in the brain to existing information.  I is apparent that this is a process that takes time.  How often have you been reading or experiencing something new, knowing that you weren’t really ‘getting it’ and then a few days later it was as if a light turned on?  In fact, this is a common experience.  Between the point in time you received the new information, and the point in time that your ‘light’ came on your brain was at work.  What was it doing?  What brains do – linking up things.  As those links formed, new understanding developed and you saw things in a new way.  The fact that the adult brain as well as the child’s brain do this forms the basis for language growth and development.

Our brains soak up things from every experience we have – many more things than we’re aware of.  As we rest, our brains work, linking up of information in various ways.  What our brains don’t link up, is lost.  From this comes renewal to the saying, “Use it or lose it.”  Applying this directly to a word or phrase however is a mistake.  It moves the verb “use” from a passive activity of the brain, into an active thing that we do.  The point of natural language development (ALG) is that our brains are better at it that you are – so stop trying!

Yet I’ve watched teachers present a set of new words to students. Within the same hour, they then run this little test – to see if they’ve got it. While review of material has value, as a test nothing could be more useless.  Why?  Simply put, our brains haven’t finished with the linking yet.  So the students who look like they’re doing the best and are able to recall everything, are actually the ones doing the most unnatural thing and manually taking over the natural work of their brain.  Hence, a whole system is developed, (called language education) that is based on testing of things that haven’t occurred yet, and the people who shine are the 5 or so percentile who have the mental capability of recalling this abstract stuff.

Dr. Art Ong Jumsai is the NASA scientist who developed the first successful landing mechanism for the Viking I and Viking II spacecraft to Mars.  He speaks about how he came to find the design.  After several days of being alone and meditation, the picture came to him and he knew what needed to be done.  Breakthroughs have always been talked about in similar terms – a minds that has received input, and then left to rest – links up the relevant information and new ideas are formed.

The creation of the landing mechanism was a form of improvisation.  The basic tools are there, but it’s only when our brains are free to ‘play’ with them can we really improvise things.

Applied to language, what I’m saying is this: The input for language is experience.  When we gain experiences in a given language, the natural process if for our brains to start linking up relevant and similar information – not only sounds, words, meanings, and grammar, but also context, culture, intonation, expressions, mood, etc., etc.  This is far too complex of a need for even the brightest to do manually or through adult analysis.  It also takes time.

So the logical conclusion is this: If you wish to be truly fluent, you must give your brain the experiential input needed and the time to sort it all out.

That cannot happen word by word, nor can it be tested hour by hour.

PERFECTION – To begin with, I reject the concept of perfect language.  Whenever I hear someone talk about correct or incorrect language use, I smile to myself.  As I see it, the only way to judge correctness is to consider the gap between intended meaning, and understood meaning.  Whenever the gap between intent and understanding is “0″, the language used was perfect, but is that ever the case?  I doubt it.  There are so many other aspects to communication that don’t come under the heading of ‘language’ and they all play a part.  The purpose of native-like fluency for us, is to take as many of the communication obstacles out of the way as possible.  To illustrate this, I remember a conversation between a friend of mine and myself.  We had both lived in Thailand for over 20 years when we shared the fact that both of us often spoke with our Thai spouses and employees using English rather than Thai.  The point we made with each other was that this actually lowered the chance of miscommunication – by putting the burden of understanding on the listener, as well as taking away the tendency for them to place blame on our lack of language skill whenever a misunderstanding occurred.  We both agreed that it wasn’t an issue of language fluency or skill on our part at all – it was something all together unrelated.

WHY 700 HOURS? – There is no such thing as listening until everything comes out right on the first time speaking.  We identify 700 to 800 hours for the native English speaker (less for some language/cultures) in acquiring Thai as the equivalent of the 2 year old child.  We are saying that at this point, you have the basis for fluency.

All over the world, in every language and country, the baby begins to form their own unique sentence at 22 months average.  This means that there’s really no such thing as a difficult or easy language.  It also means that there’s a certain volume of input that’s required before speaking begins.  Observing that nature is better faster, and more efficient that all of the adult language learning methods, Automatic Language Growth is all about finding ways to help the adult acquire language naturally.  We don’t believe that it’s good reasoning to say that just because you’re no longer a child, your brain can no longer learn in the same way.  And all of the studies that seem to show that the adult brain acquires language differently seem to draw their evidence from adults who have learned their second language in an adult way.

So do two year olds speak perfectly?  I’ve met very few two year olds whose speech I could understand.  I’ve also met few I ever thought had a problem with their language.  It’s a growth process.  So what is it that causes adults to expect that it will be perfect immediately?  Perhaps it’s a good thing to note that the child doesn’t even think about it.

I talk about the more technical aspects of this in my blog: Practice, Correction, and the Closed Feedback Loop but for now, let me outline the basic things that happen naturally when we don’t apply the adult ability to analyze everything.  (And to stress our point here, it is the abiity to analyze that cases the adult difficulties in language learning.  Whenever those abilities are not used, a natural process is enabled that is better, faster, and more efficient.)

4 STAGES IN FORMING THE BASIS FOR FLUENCY

Stage 1 – (learner knows no language) understanding comes from what’s seen and felt.  This period is characterized by guessing about everyday activities, and play.  [English learning Thai = 0 - 300 hours]

Stage 2 – (learner knows many words)  Simple words, questions and responsed such as yes, or now, are understood and may be used by some people.  Many of the phonemes of the langauge are not clear, nor is the grammar.  Many simple nouns and verbs are understood clearly, but there is a growing discomfort (for the adult learner) regarding the increasing number of words that are not clear.  Those words that are almost clear cause the most difficulty for the learner.  There is a feeling that one must do something in order to make them clear.  This is a mistake as the only natural way is for them to recur in experience.  The natural process will suffer if the process is short-circuited by adult methods of manual learning. [200-400 hours]

Stage 3 - (learner is grasping the grammar and more abstract words)  This is the stage that poses the greatest problem for the adult language learner.  Not only are the number of words that are almost clear increasing, we add the remaining phonemes, many of which are almost clear and the grammar – also nearly clear but not quite.  Speaking of simple words, and two or three word sentences is common.  The frustration levels at this point can be high.  For the best results, the learner must NOT analyze it all – if he cannot set aside the worries, then the benefits will be diminished greatly.  It’s important to realize two things here – 1) no child ever is concerned with these problems, and 2) The same process that has brought the student to this point, will continue to work and clarity will come in all aspects of the language through the recurrence of sounds, words, and grammar correctly used. [400-600 hours]

Stage 4 – Grammar and vocabulary have now reached a critical mass and unique sentences start to form in one’s mind without forethought.  The phonemes become fully clear during this time.  What’s important here is that the learner does not pre-think.  This is rather difficult but necessary.  Let the words that are there, be used, while those that are not, emerge on their own later.  Focus your attention on the meaning you want to communicate rather than the language you’re using.  The difficulty at this stage is caused primarily by the gap which exists between your thoughts and your limited ability to express them.  Your thoughts are adult – but your ability to express those thoughts is child-like.  This can be somewhat frustrating however it’s a fantastic thing when one learns to simplify their thoughts and get to the basic communication.  Learn to think simply. The ability to form a truly complex sentence is not yours at this time – use what you have but don’t force things. [600-1000 hours]

Many adults who understand our principles think that the thing that makes sense is to do a combination of listening with practice.  All I can say about that is that it is the analyzing (which is necessary for any form of practice) that gets in the way of the natural process.  And no one beats that process in any way – ever.  Add an element of practice to the acquisition process and the end result will suffer.  Period. 

I also speak with many non-Thais who’ve lived here a long time (many years), and they have a basic working knowledge of Thai.  These people are rarely satisfied with their level – and are looking for ways to improve.

The traditional view is that with motivation, patience, hard work, and practice, you can improve.  This is a lie that we’ve been taught, primarily through an educational system that is full of failure when it comes to language teaching.  This is not unlike the lie of the ‘American Dream’ – that fulfillment in life is found when you get a good education, which of course leads to a good career, a house, two cars, family, health, etc.,  In fact, it seems to me the realization that the ‘American Dream’ is a lie is what has brought many people to Thailand.  (For some interesting reading about the lies of the American Dream, and Education both read the book, “If You Want to be Rich and Happy, Don’t Go To School” by Robert Kiyosaki, the author of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”)

You don’t need to be a professional teacher or linguist to understand that language teaching is largely a failure.  All one needs do is look around.  Everywhere in the world, where families with young children move to new places, we see this scenario:  Mom and Dad enroll in a local language school, hire a maid or baby-sitter, and study.  These parents are dedicated to learning.  They’ve bought the lie – that motivation, patience, hard work, and practice will enable them to ‘achieve’ what they need to – and this certainly seems to be the case – for a while anyway.  Within just a few days, they’re able to speak and perform – having used their superior mental capabilities to ‘learn’ the new words and phrases.

Don’t misunderstand me here – motivation, patience, hard work, and practice (MHW), may ‘feel’ right.  It’s just that when you look around, the best language learners aren’t the ones who use MHW.  The best language learners are the young kids, who do something entirely different.  While Mom and Dad are paying lots of money and studying hard, what’s happening at home?  The babysitter goes out into the community, with the child in tow.  This child meets other kids her age.  Pretty soon there’s a small group of neighborhood kids roughly the same age, and they play.  In fact, the child’s entire life, could be characterized by one word – PLAY.  Largely quiet, (because most of the kids don’t understand her language, and she doesn’t know theirs, everyone does things together.  With gestures, body language, and all sorts of rich non-verbal communication, these kids play.  At first, no one thinks about all the ‘language’ that’s being learned.  No one’s considering the fact that this child will become fluent.  All the while Mom and Dad, working hard at ‘learning’ may end up speaking quite well… “for foreigners”.

Now the question I’ve been hoping to raise as I began centers around a recurring conversation.  When I say that Automatic Language Growth is about giving adults the opportunity to do what children do in learning a second language.  Invariably, someone is sure to say, “The problem is we’re not children!”  And every time I hear this, I think to myself, “What is it that I’m missing?”

While I’m no linguist, Dr. Brown was (see “From the Outside In” by J. Marvin Brown).  He strove to be ‘perfect’ as a language learner and came close.  Language was easy for him.  But still, children and uneducated adults kept doing better and with a whole let less work.

So me, the non-linguist came along.  I wanted to learn Thai well.  Perfect?  Never even thought I could.  I knew that I didn’t want to speak in such a way that would strain the listeners and I knew based on previous experience, that I’d have problems in a traditional program.  One year of language study (not really study at all) in the AUA Thai Program and I’ve been sold ever since.

In the days when I was a student, the idea of a LAD (language acquisition device) was still popular.  So was the idea that the adult brain was somehow ‘fixed’ and this was why we couldn’t learn the same as a child.  Thankfully, modern brain research is breaking down the myths and demonstrating, in spite of all our assumptions, that the adult brain continues to be molded by things that happen (experience) to us.  This is good for those who want to learn a language in the same, effortless way that a child does it.

Here’s what made sense to me when I was a student, and still does.  Perhaps you can help me see what I’m missing.  Of course I wasn’t a child when I learned Thai, and while ALG has been used with children effectively, most of my work has been with adult learners.

• It’s better to understand what’s said to me than to be able to speak but not understand the responses.
• Thai’s had already studied English many more years than I was able to study Thai, so their broken English listening ability, was going to be better than adding my broken Thai speaking into the conversation.
• My intellectual development was not at the level of a young child (possibly debated by some people). Still it made sense that my language development in Thai needed to catch up with my adulthood – which was naturally going to take some time.  So my language development would probably need to pass through many of the same stages.
• I needed to be aware of what was going on inside, and look for ways for that natural process to be replicated.
• The excuses that people used, (from then until now) seemed to be off the point entirely such as, “We have to speak Thai, because Thais don’t use English very much!”  While in fact, most of my ex-pat friends  have lived here for quite a long time and speak very little Thai.
• Children don’t do anything like the adult form of practice.  They soak up experiences without any apparent focus on the language.
• I could re-learn how to not attach my new experiences in Thai, to language from another place.

I hope you can begin to see the dilemma that I have.  In answer to the goal of Automatic Language Growth to provide people with the means to effectively acquire a new language naturally like a child does, saying that we’re no longer children doesn’t work at all.  Of course we’re not and that’s the point!  Does the fact that we’re adults mean that we’re somehow damned to be poor at language?  I don’t think so and in any case such logic is faulty.  When compared to what children do naturally, the results gained from adult language learning methodology everywhere is poor at best.  So what is it that makes it impossible for adults to become native in a second language?  The fact that in education we’ve laregely never even tried to replicate what the child does may show the degree of assumptions that we’re working from.

As a friend pointed out to me recently, all over Thailand there are foreigners from countries that don’t use Thai, who’ve come here to live, and those who pick up Thai in a child-like way, and do very well, are those who are poor and often uneducated.  They don’t know that they can’t learn Thai, and they seem to naturally do what the child does.  Look, listen, and play.  Perhaps if they’d gone to school more they’d have learned that they couldn’t do that.

So if you’ve followed with me to this point, perhaps you’re asking, “What then does ALG offer?  What’s the AUA Thai Program all about?”  In fact, we offer the opportunity to gain understandable experiences in Thai, with native Thai speakers.  This is the basis for language in the life of a child, and adults too – when the natural process is allowed to work.

Perfect language?  I’m settling for as good as it can be and when it comes to methodology, based on results, children and uneducated adults seem to have everyone beat.  Even then, I still want you to write in here and tell me why adults can’t do what the child does.