I do not type when I learn languages. I use a tablet which helps me with writing. "The hands are the intelligence of the mind" - Montessori.
How do you know if you are sensitive towards learning a language? How would you know if you are not cheating time by faking your own interest? “I love this guy but he is a foreigner. So I should learn his language to get to know him better?” It does not work that way. This post shall help you see something from a different light.
* The person who is passing through a period of sensitivity can be compared to the shopping frenzy of the bargain hunter in a warehouse sale. As the doors open, the bargain hunter rushes in, scours through every isle to find the best discounts on the bargain shelves; as she stands in queue at the cashier’s, she glances apprehensively at what other have in their hands, scrutinizing and at the same time safeguarding her finds triumphantly. An avid bargain hunter often also returns and scours through repetitiously, studying every possible combination of item which optimizes her purchasing power.
* It is not an addiction, it is a period of full focus and concentration which kindle and stimulate the mind to absorb every single images and sounds through the senses. It is also not passion, because passion can die off. Sensitive periods will astonish you when it happens and emerges; we can call it sparks of our own genius.
* For example, are you repeating foreign words after each native word you read? Are you craving for more foreign food with different tastes? Are you watching lots of foreign movies and listening to foreign music? Are you learning and teaching to new learners or speaking to other people about your new language interest?
The senses are gateways to the intelligence. There is nothing in the intelligence that did not pass first through the senses. – Aristotle
* Whenever, I see a spark of sensitiveness towards language, I will not hesitate to follow it and produce a new style that keeps me interested on learning. You will notice, I have started writing to write my foreign words at the end of each post. This is my regular activity. I post and I write. You have just to grab the opportunity.
* I do not type when I learn languages. I use a tablet which helps me with writing Mandarin on the computer. I also use the usual traditional pen and paper method. Every effort should be made to enrich the development of sensibilities, because once this sensitive period passes, it cannot come back to the same primitive intensity.You can find yourself saying, “What was it I was saying just now? Now I have forgotten.”
* Take notice of your personal sensitive inclinations towards learning. It is neither addiction nor passion, it is passing period which when given full observation from a scientific mind, you will rope in the right tools and methods to augment its development and growth.
