艾習角™对《Polyglot》的笔记(1)

第160页

Te thoughts distilled in the course of my linguis-
tic excursions are organized into the little compendi-
um below. Heaven forbid that we should call them  Ten 
Commandments—let us perhaps call them Ten Requests.

I. 
Spend time tinkering with the language every day—if 
there is no more time available, then at least to the extent of 
a 10-minute monologue. Morning hours are especially valu-
able in this respect: the early bird catches the word!

II. 
If your enthusiasm for studying fags too quickly, don’t 
force the issue but don’t stop altogether either. Move to 
some other form of studying, e.g., instead of reading, listen 
to the radio; instead of assignment writing, poke about in 
the dictionary, etc. 

III.
Never learn isolated units of speech, but rather learn 
words and grammatical elements in context. 
IV.
Write phrases in the margins of your text and use them 
as “prefabricated elements” in your conversations. 

V.
Even a tired brain fnds rest and relaxation in quick, 
impromptu translations of billboard advertisements fash-
ing by, of numbers over doorways, of snippets of overheard 
conversations, etc., just for its own amusement. 

VI. 
Memorize only that which has been corrected by a 
teacher. Do not keep reading texts you have written that 
have not been proofread and corrected so as to keep mis-
takes from taking root in your mind. If you study on your 
own, each segment to be memorized should be kept to a size 
that precludes the possibility of errors. 

VII. 
Always memorize idiomatic expressions in the frst per-
son singular. For example, “I am only pulling your leg.” Or 
else: Il m’a posé un lapin—He stood me up. 

VIII.
A foreign language is a castle. It is advisable to besiege 
it from all directions: newspapers, radio, movies that are not 
dubbed, technical or scientifc papers, textbooks, and the 
visitor at your neighbor’s. 

IX.
Do not let the fear of making mistakes keep you from 
speaking, but do ask your conversation partner to correct 
you. Most importantly, don’t get peeved if he or she actually 
obliges you—a remote possibility, anyway. 

X. 
Be frmly convinced that you are a linguistic genius. If 
the facts demonstrate otherwise, heap blame on the pesky 
language you aim to master, on the dictionaries, or on this 
book, not on yourself.

*     *     *

As seven of the biblical Ten Commandments are in the 
negative, let me now list what not to do if you aim to achieve 
an acceptable level of linguistic mastery within an accept-
able time frame. 

1.
Do not postpone embarking on learning a new language—
or restarting such a study—until the time of a prospective 
trip abroad. Rather, try to gain access to native speakers of 
your target language who are on a visit to your country and 
who do not speak your language. Tey could be relatives or 
friends. If you accompany them and show them around, 
they will help you solidify your knowledge of their language 
out of gratitude; they will enrich your vocabulary and over-
look the mistakes you make. 

2.
Do not expect  the same behavior from your compatri-
ots. Do not practice on them because they will be prone to 
giving prime time to your errors—or at the very least, they 
will be inclined to employ meaningful facial gestures—to 
demonstrate how much better they are at it. 

3.
Do not believe that instruction by a teacher of a course, 
however intense and in-depth that might be, gives you an 
excuse not to delve into the language on your own. For 
this reason you should, from the outset, get into browsing 
through illustrated magazines and into listening to radio 
programs and/or prerecorded cassettes. 

4.
In your browsing,  do not get obsessed with words you 
don’t know or structures you don’t understand. Build com-
prehension on what you already know. Do not automati-
cally reach for the dictionary if you encounter a word or two 
that you don’t understand. If the expression is important, it 
will reappear and explain itself; if it is not so important, it is 
no big loss to gloss over it. 

5.
Do not miss noting down your impressions in your own 
words, with familiar expressions. Write in simple sentenc-
es; words you can’t think of at the time can be replaced by 
words from your own language. 

6.
Do not be deterred from speaking by the fear of making 
mistakes. Te fow of speech creates a chain reaction: the 
context will lead you to the right track. 

7.
Do not forget  a large number of fller expressions and 
sentence-launching phrases. It is great when you can break 
the ice with a few formulas that are always on hand and can 
help you over the initial embarrassment of beginning a con-
versation, such as “My French is kind of shaky” or “It’s been 
a while since I spoke Russian,” etc. 

8.
Do not memorize  any linguistic element (expression) 
outside of its context, partly because a word may have sever-
al diferent meanings: e.g., the English word comforter may 
refer to someone who is consoling another, or it can mean 
a knitted shawl, a quilt or eiderdown, or yet again a baby’s 
pacifer. In addition, it is good, right of the bat, to get used 
to the practice of leaving the vortex of meanings around the 
word in your own language alone and reaching out to its kin 
word in the new language or to the context you have most 
frequently encountered it in. 

9.
Do not leave newly learned structures or expressions 
hanging in the air. Fix them in your memory by ftting them 
into diferent, new settings: into your sphere of interest, into 
the reality of your own life. 

10.
Do not be shy of learning poems or songs by heart. Good 
diction plays a more signifcant role in speech performance 
than the mere articulation of individual sounds. Verses and 
melodies impose certain constraints. Tey set what sounds 
must be long and which ones must be short. Te rhythm 
inherent in them guides speakers and helps them avoid the 
intonation traps of their native language.