Forgetting Words Means I'm Learning Them Wenn ich Wörter vergesse, heißt das, dass ich sie lerne Olvidar palabras significa que las estoy aprendiendo 言葉を忘れるということは、その言葉を学んでいるということだ Esquecer palavras significa que as estou a aprender Kelimeleri Unutmak Onları Öğrendiğim Anlamına Gelir 忘记单词意味着我正在学习它们

hi there Steve Kaufman here and today I

want to talk about something that

happens all the time in language 言語で常に起こります

learning and that is forgetting and I 学び、それは忘れていると私は

want to talk about it in the context of の文脈でそれについて話したい

going back to a language that we have

left for a period of time so if you have

been following my videos from South

America you know that I'm just there for

a month and of course I didn't do any

Arabic I spoke Spanish アラビア語私はスペイン語を話しました

mostly and Portuguese while in Brazil

spoke a lot with taxi drivers and I was

reading books I bought books on the

history of Argentina the history of

Brazil the history of Peru

I bought other books so I was constantly

involved in Spanish and Portuguese so

mellenburg

I'm not back in Vancouver yet I'm in

Palm Springs because as you know we my パームスプリングスあなたが知っているように私たち

wife and I winter are spent part of the 妻と私は冬の一部を過ごしています

winter here so first day back and so I

went there's a little gym here where we

live so I went there and you know had a

little bit of a workout and of course I

was listening to Arabic haven't listened

to Arabic now for a month so as I'm

listening to my mini stories which I

have on a playlist in my little iPod avoir sur une liste de lecture dans mon petit iPod

of course now as I listen to these

stories that I had listened to before

I'm finding that there are words that I

have forgotten and but it's very

interesting what happens when you leave

a language for a while so I listen there

are words that I have forgotten but then

there are also words and phrases and

structures that I notice more clearly

than ever so that the break from the

Arabic and the exposure to the Spanish

and Portuguese seems to have made me a

little more maybe the Arabic now seems

fresh to me but I hear certain things

more clearly I know do certain

structures more clearly and yet there

are words that I forgot

of course the structure of the many

stories is sites that the structures and

the vocabulary in one forum or not or

another repeats so if I don't get it the

first time with the context and having erst mal mit dem zusammenhang und haben

heard it before and hearing in a schon mal gehört und in a gehört

different tense or a different person I andere Zeitform oder eine andere Person I

kind of pick up on it but still for a

lot of it I have to go back now again

and read it and maybe look up the word

again

but as I'm doing it I am quite confident

in the fact that all the things that I

have now forgot forgotten when I go back

and relearn them I will end up knowing

them better than I ever did so the work

that I did in my first pass through in

Arabic is kind of like you know

preparing the ground and so then I can

leave it for a while and when I now go

back it's as if the ground that I

fertilized is now ready for for you know

the the plans to kind of rise even even

further I know that from experience

and I know that there's research that

shows that when we learn and forget and

relearn we end up the way our brain

works we have a better grasp on those

things so I'm not discouraged by the

fact that having left Arabic for a month

I go back and listen and there are

things that I have forgotten I've done

it before I've left languages for six

months and I go back and of course I've

forgotten things but if I then stay with

it then I end up learning it better

because after all when I first started

on Arabic I couldn't read anything I

couldn't read the letters I didn't

understand anything none of it made any

sense I didn't have any sense of the

structure and now when I go in after a

month's absence you know quickly I'm

reminded of a lot of the words of a lot

of the structure I notice it better and

I know that even those things that I

have forgotten and still can't remember

after listening to the stories when I go

back in and read it again

then it'll once again be it'll be

relearned and it'll be in there stronger

than ever and then I will go into new

material and of course into the new

material I will again be in fact

revisiting certain words revisiting

certain structures and so I'll be

plowing forward so it's just to say that

some people say well what do you do you

know I leave a language if I leave it

will I forget it and people are so

concerned about taking a break from

their language studies and I believe

that if your language learning is based

on massive input massive reading and

listening and if you're motivated by an

interest in the language and interest in

things culture surrounding the language

you needn't worry about leaving it for a

month or two or three when you go back

in there very quickly you'll be back to

where you were and stronger than ever

and so that's kind of been it's just

kind of thought to cross my mind

as I was in the gym listening to my

Arabic many stories there you have it

bye for now

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