Language Learning & The Inverted Hockey Stick
Getting from B1 one to B2 is the hardest, longest part of
my language learning journey.
Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here and today I want to talk about the inverted
hockey stick and language learning.
So before we get into it, remember if you enjoy these videos, please subscribe,
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I do appreciate it.
So what is the inverted hockey stick and why am I talking about it?
Well, let me briefly introduce this idea.
It's, it's an image that I have used before.
And the idea is that if you know what a hockey stick looks like, normally
you've got a long shaft and a blade.
If you inverted or turn it upside down, you've not got this
blade that goes up like this.
And then a long shaft.
And when we learn a language, we begin by making, although it's very steep
and we're struggling very hard, but we actually do make fairly rapid progress.
We learned some words, we understand some words, we can use some words we think wow.
And then pretty soon though, we are no longer in this steep
climb where we're learning a lot or think we're learning a lot.
We now discover that it's a very long road before we achieve, you
know, what we want to achieve, which is fluency, understanding movies,
being able to converse with people.
It's an awfully long road and they, the progress is, is, is actually quite slow.
And that's one of the dilemmas in language learning is, is to keep
yourself motivated during that long, slow period that shaft of the hockey stick.
So why do I bring this up now?
Because the other day, my son, uh, because normally we don't go
to the office so much anymore.
And so the mail comes to my home, but some mail does go to the office and
he brings home this, uh, very neatly wrapped package from the US from an
R Rogers, uh, in Lansing, Michigan.
And there's actually a pretty steep postal charge there, $22.
And it's addressed to me at my office.
And I'm saying, gee, what is this?
I don't know an R Rogers and it's very neatly wrapped.
And so then, uh, inside it is this neat package here.
Uh, and then as I open it and you hear a noise, it's got a very neat
use of a Home Depot, a box, and lo and behold, I find a hockey stick.
Okay.
Now this hockey stick is for short people because actually in real life, the shaft
is much, much, much longer as the, a path to learning languages as longer.
But, and it has, uh, a letter here.
Hi, Steve, a fan of LingQ and your YouTube channel here.
I thought you could use a model inverted hockey stick with a few pointers
maybe as language level indicators to conveniently demonstrate...
and these are...
Are these different colored pointers?
This is unbelievable.
All the best in conveying, conveying and appreciation for language learning to your
channel subscribers and LingQ members, Russ a fan from Lansing, Michigan.
Okay.
Russ, thank you very, very much.
And you know, aside from the fact that it illustrates the hockey stick,
anyone has ever considered learning languages the community of language
learners is so mutually supportive.
I mean, Russ has, is extremely supportive and, and, um, you know,
helpful and, and encouraging and stuff.
But so many language their nerves are when I go to the polyglot
gatherings, everybody is so supportive.
No one criticizes anyone's level in the language and
everybody wants to help everyone.
There's this great helpfulness in this community of language learners.
So let's have a look at what we have here.
So this is, uh, the inverted hockey stick.
And, uh, so let's say that we have different colors.
So when you are really doing well, you know, you are basically green,
you know, the light is green.
I think that's what probably what Russ had in mind and maybe that's
C1, which is for all intents and purposes, you're flying in the language.
B2, which I consider to be my goal, in other words, and for those of
you who aren't familiar with the European framework, I mean, B2
means that you're comfortable.
You make a lot of mistakes.
C1 means you're really very good.
You make few or very few mistakes, C1.
C2 is like you're as fluent as a native basically.
So, so then, well, let's get, make that, see one yellow is when I
approach a traffic light, if it's yellow, I'll tend to stop, which
is what you're supposed to do.
A lot of people just go flying through it.
They speed up when they see a yellow light.
So let's say that when you're in the B area, uh, B1 B2, you shouldn't,
even though you're encountering difficulties, you should speed up.
Like the guys that run yellow lights the same.
Just go for it.
Run that yellow light.
Now, when you're here, now it, you know, as I'm doing this, I
was thinking to myself, maybe I should have made the shaft okay?
Maybe I should've put green colors there.
Uh, but I've started this way so I'm gonna, I'm going to stay with it.
So here with Russell's hockey stick, well, you start at the beginning of the
shaft it's as if your can't move at first because you, the language makes no sense.
It's just noise.
Uh, but very quickly you start to gain a bit of a sense of
the language, but it's still a struggle, but it's a steep struggle.
And because it's as if you're, if you're climbing a cliff and you're
kind of getting a toehold and you're, you're actually moving quite a
distance up, even though it's hard work, it's hard work on your legs.
I don't know why I would go for...
maybe I should change it, maybe I should.
Maybe I should uh, but, but I don't want you to stop.
Uh, when you're at C1.
Okay?
So let's say that it's red because there are barriers, but you're going
to break through the barriers and you're going to break through the
barriers as you climb that steep initial period, uh, in learning a language.
But then as you hit the shaft of the hockey stick, now you're in that middle
period, B1 B1 - B2, I guess this would be, but I should move this up here
because I think B2 and C1 is so close that I can't really tell the difference.
And C2 is almost an unattainable.
You know, if you get that, that's fine.
You really have to focus on that language in great depth to
achieve that B1 or at least B2 C1 are both good goals to achieve.
Maybe that's where, you know, you run, you run the...
trouble is the traffic light doesn't turn green, it turns red.
And so if you run, if you try to run that yellow light and it turns red and
there's a cop there you're in trouble.
So that's not very realistic.
So maybe I should have done it the other way.
Anyway, doesn't matter.
The principle is when you start in the language, it's all noise.
You work very hard.
I listen many, many times in this.
Uh, content, then I move on to this shaft of the hockey stick,
slow, slow, slow progress.
Actually, I should move this up here because I think that getting from getting
from a B1 to B2 is the hardest, longest part of my language learning journey.
Once I'm at B2 where I can understand stuff, I can understand movies
I don't care if I make mistakes.
I don't care if there's words that I don't know, because there's so many
things I can do in the language.
So I will, at some point, maybe I've moved to C1.
Maybe I'd have to take a test to prove that I'm at C1, but either
at B2 or C1, I'm comfortable.
And as I said, this other C2 is just out of the picture,
except for the real diehards.
The difficulty is here when we get to the top of the steep
climb high-frequency words were encountering over and over again.
We're acquiring these words.
We think we're making progress and we turn the corner.
And we're in this area here where it seems like we can't remember anything.
Uh, we're not very satisfied with our improvement anymore.
And that's where you gotta put your foot on the gas pedal, run that yellow
light and take yourself up to B2.
And once you had B2, you can progress as much as you want.
It depends on how much opportunity you have to speak the language,
if you live in the country, a whole bunch of things like that.
So thank you very much, Russ, from Lansing, Michigan, uh, I don't know
how you intended your, uh, inverted hockey stick to be used, but I very
much appreciate you sending this to me.
And so I wanted to share it with my viewers and also to thank you.
And I will be sending Russ a note and I will also leave you with, uh,
previous videos that I've done on this issue of the hockey stick, the inverted
hockey stick and how we get through the doldrums, that long period, when
we think we're not making any progress.
Thank you for listening.
Bye for now.
