Learn something meaningful to learn it well. Want to learn a language? Try translating parts of writings that are very meaningful to you personally, that you would not mind having in your brain, in your long term memory. Why? Your brain has an easier time recalling things that are meaningful. The adage goes; ‘an old man never forgets where his wallet is’ tells us that if its important to you, you will remember it. Memory is intimately connected to the limbic area of the brain, emotions and meaning. No proselytism here, choose something that is meaningful to you. Read/translate something that is not too hard and that you are really interested in. Such as a part of the Bible. The language is straight forward especially in the New Testament, if you are using a modern translation. Or any book that is meaningful to you that you would not mind committing to memory. You are sure to pick up a lot of vocabulary in context and it will have meaning. You will pick up words that you can meditate on and think about with pleasure and your brain will accept it easier because it’s something that speaks to you. Many polyglots have learned languages partially this way. Such as Cardinal Mezzifanti, who was perfectly fluent in 38 languages. By reading meaningful writings in your target language, you will have a simple but effective way to learn a language.
1 responses to Bible/spiritual writings and language learning
Learning languages thru the Bible
This is not a proselytizing comment either, but I know at least the New Testament more or less by heart, as well as the book of Psalms. I am now fairly fluent in Biblical Greek from reading the NT aloud in Greek and when I don’t know a word at first sight, my memory helps me most of the time. I am Greek Orthodox and our services are in Biblical Greek, and so that helps too. As for the Psalms, I pray them in Hebrew almost daily, either aloud or silently, and this has really helped me learn Biblical Hebrew as well. To keep up on French and Spanish I read bibles in those languages. My next hurdles are to learn Indonesian and, at the other end of the spectrum, Polish. I am 100% Polish by ethnicity and have a lifelong acquaintance with the language and so am familiar with the sound system, which presents no problem for me at all. I can read Polish but right now I need to speak it better and enlarge my working vocabulary. I am 60 going on 61 and am thinking of living in Poland after I retire at least part of each year. I am happy to have found your blogs, especially the posts about living in Poland. My family (the different parts of it) is from Warsaw, Bydgoszcz and Rzeszow, so pretty much from all over. My grandfather came to America in 1902. Now, I may be soon returning. Best regards, Roman Górny.
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