Instead of treating language as the fluid and beautiful thing that it is, certain people want to confine language to a strict set of spelling and grammar rules.  Then to get everyone to conform to their rules, they create a stigma around people who don't spell or conjugate the way they do, labeling them as "uneducated" or even "unintelligent."  

This is why people get super embarrassed whenever they realize that they accidentally wrote "there" instead of "they're," or answered the phone "this is her" instead of "this is she."  


Seriously, who cares?  

The point gets across either way, so don't ever think for a second that you're better than someone because you know the difference.  

I find spelling and grammar nazis irritating enough, but what's most insidious about our society's obsession with rules is its negative effects on our ability to learn second languages as adults.  Since all "educated" adults have been socialized to value "familiarity with rules" over "ability to communicate," second language education focus has always been on stupid, and ultimately arbitrary things, like the difference between "they're" and "their".    

If you obsess over such insignificant things, you inhibit yourself from "feeling the flow" and learning to communicate fluently.  

That's why there's nothing more refreshing to a Flow-Junkie like me than languages with no rules, like Montreal Joual...


 
 
My personal approach to language learning is really quite simple.
  1. First, I familiarize myself with the sound and articulation of each of the component sounds (phonemes) of the language.
  2. Then, I use Rhythmic Phonetic Training teach myself the lyrics of rap songs to develop my mastery of the Flow of that language and hone my mimicry skills.
  3. Next, I immerse myself in the place that speaks the language and learn through mimicry.  

In future videos, I will show you exactly this last step of mimicry actually goes down in practice.  I will also discuss how I went about the first step of familiarizing myself with the component sounds of French.

For now, we'll focus on step 2 - teaching myself how to rap songs without understanding the lyrics.  In this video, I teach myself the song "Soul Pleurer" ("Soul Cry") by the Old School French Rap group from Montreal - Dubmatique.

 
 
I'm putting this video up mainly for two reasons:
  • To show that one can indeed sing complex rap lyrics in an adulthood-acquired second language.
  • To show how memorizing song and rap lyrics is infinitely more fun than memorizing flash cards and conjugation charts.
Aside from being more fun than these more "traditional" (my euphemism for "ineffective") ways of studying language, these activities are superior for many other reason, including but not limited to...

 

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