Carabao - The Man
Some people suggest that the best way to learn a language is by listening, similar to the way a child learns a language: listening first, then mimicking and speaking, then reading, and then writing. There are many within the language-learning community who think listening above all is the best method. There are even a few who proffer that when taking on a new language you should do nothing but listen for upwards of 300 hours first, and then start to think about speaking, reading, and writing.
Me? I didn’t start that way, but many of the people I currently study with did and their speaking skills are much better than mine. Our teacher always tells us to “sing a song, sing a song.” I can relate to that notion since I’m a musician, and yet I find myself listening a lot less than analyzing and memorizing.
When I read an article called Learn Any Language By Treating it as Music in which the profiled polyglot — Susanna Zaraysky — suggests that we should put down the word and tone charts and lists and just listen the same way we listen to music, my interest piqued. Can I make more progress by doing less book work and more active listening?
