Boiling Water
Um…I guess I’m going to keep this short. I went on a really long walk today, through forests and leafy neighborhoods and narrow streets. Anyway, near the very end of the walk, it occurred to me that learning a language is like boiling water.
When the water has boiled, you have reached fluency. Thereafter, you can keep the water at boiling point with less input (of thermal energy) than it took to get it there in the first place. Where a lot of people right now fail with language-learning is, they try to boil water…but then they keep turning off the fire, and when they do turn it on, it’s only for a short time (they’re being three-day monks). So they wonder why their water isn’t boiling, after all, they turn on the stove for 3 seconds once a day(!!!?!?!??!). And then they think: “maaan, water is so hard to boil!!!”
Yes, let’s blame the task instead of realizing that the process is faulty. Doing things that way is not the way to boil water. In fact, doing things that way, the water will likely evaporate before it boils — the language itself will change or the learner will die before ever having learned it.
Turn on that fire, and turn it on high, and keep it on high. The way to boil water is in a single, continuous stream of intense heat. Forget your worries about whether or not the water is going to boil or whether your pot is the right colour — leave that to the laws of physics — just focus on keeping the fire lit.
I guess a picture of boiling water would have been more apropos…
Read on:
Stephen said,
October 18, 2007 @ 2:28 pm
This is a great metaphor as it instantly captures my previous failures at learning languages. Thanks for your inspiring words, they’re a big help, and keep up the intensity!
James said,
October 18, 2007 @ 2:54 pm
damn.. this makes me even more depressed about cheaping out on my chinese study to cram for midterms today
ジェームス said,
October 18, 2007 @ 9:50 pm
沸いてるよ
Wan Zafran said,
October 19, 2007 @ 2:36 am
This is the part where I mention the concept of thermal equilibrium. Since your Japanese ‘temperature’ is higher than mine, I would most definitely appreciate a bit of ‘heat transfer’ as such. (Haha.)
khatzumoto said,
October 19, 2007 @ 8:27 am
LoL
quendidil said,
October 19, 2007 @ 10:31 pm
Khatzumoto, it’s me again, sorry in advance if I’m bugging you again
but, could you tell me of how you managed your time in school?
Do you find Steve Pavlina’s “Do It Now” article similar to your own experience? (you
seem to have read him)
Thanks
What A Forest Monk Can Teach You About Language Learning | babelhut.com said,
October 20, 2007 @ 1:05 am
[...] Khatzumoto over at All Japanese All The Time wrote a great article comparing language learning to boiling water. Khatzumoto’s metaphor reminded me a lot of one used by my favorite Thai forest monk Ajahn [...]
Lionelltd said,
October 21, 2007 @ 1:53 pm
Great stuff. Thanks for the inspiration.
ruisu said,
October 21, 2007 @ 8:48 pm
It’s so true…I think a lot of great advice can be learned from those who were on the bad side of a situation. Coming from that side :p, I can assure you that you really do have to tend to the fire. Picture yourself on a desert island, with no matches…if the fire goes out, you’ll have to spend all day rubber sticks together to get it going again. Or you can be vigilant and tend to it.
I say this as someone who often winds up rubbing sticks all day. Trust me, you don’t want be that person!
Hakushon Daimao said,
October 23, 2007 @ 11:50 am
I just wanted to leave a comment and say how inspiring I’ve found your site to be. After almost 5 years in Japan I am still in the intermediate stage and that’s been getting me down. I’ve started using your Khatzumemo everyday to help me remember how to *write* kanji not just read them. Plus, putting in all new vocab I come across. I’m at day 5 now and I’m detirmined to keep going. I’m sure that by my 5th anniversary next year I’ll be at a much better place with my Japanese.
Thank you （＾－＾）
Lane said,
May 19, 2008 @ 12:56 pm
I think stellar bodies would be a better comparison. Or think Katamary Damacy if you like. Add mass. You eventually create a star and fusion begins (understanding?). But it becomes a self-sustaining process… uh… I didn’t really think this through so bear with me. If your star is massive enough… then you’ll fuse to iron or lead or something, blow off your lighter elements and implode into a black hole. This is where I was trying to start my analogy because as you add matter, your Schwarzschild Radius (domain of your knowledge?) grows. But, as information leaks out in the form of Hawking Radiation, your black hole is literally evaporating. The SRS will help you sort of ‘recapture’ that Hawking Radiation as it were… To the extent that letting your language black hole atrophy for too long will cause it to literally evaporate and disappear. On the other hand, continuously adding mass will expand your domain indefinitely.
Hmm… How about it?
Lane said,
May 19, 2008 @ 1:01 pm
Okay. I forgot to mention… The reason stellar bodies might be a better comparison is that Wan mentioned that khatzumoto’s “water” was boiling at a higher temperature. At STP and with regular water, that’s not possible. You can, however, have variously massive black holes with respectively varying Schwarzschild Radii or domains of knowledge and experience…
Just thought I’d not forget to mention my point… ; )
By the way, great site. I’m working on Heisig as we speak.
jpavlakovich said,
May 20, 2008 @ 11:08 am
Careful, he never said his water was actually “boiling”
All Japanese All The Time Dot Com: How to learn Japanese. On your own, having fun and to fluency. » Other People’s Perceptiveness (OPP): What It Takes To Be Great said,
October 5, 2008 @ 1:11 pm
[...] links that comes up every once in a while, and just so resonates with the kind of things you read here, that it simply has to be brought to everyone’s attention. The deal is, CNN Money/Fortune [...]
All Japanese All The Time Dot Com: How to learn Japanese. On your own, having fun and to fluency. » Little and Often said,
March 11, 2009 @ 5:03 am
[...] we want to be learning. That’s fine. The key is to get back on the horse as soon as possible. Don’t let the water go cold, get the fire back burning hot and bright again the moment the wind dies down. We may not be able [...]
Elvagejo said,
August 1, 2009 @ 5:51 am
Heating water takes less energy than a phase change ( boiling ).
A beter analogy ( sorry Lane, you went a little too far ) is pushing a car. Hard at first, but once it’s moving you don’t have to push very hard at all (ignore the having to run along side it). Stop long enough and friction drives it to a halt and you start all over again.
You are free to use this for AJATT the book, movie, musical etc.
RainbowPinku said,
August 21, 2009 @ 4:46 pm
Great website, I love to read your posts. I had Japanese private teacher for over 2 years, did selfstudy in Japanese for 1.5 years and then had to stop taking lessons when I moved abroad. (could not afford it) Now I want to continue my studies, and really I forgot a lot since the 1 year break, even tho I watch Japanese TV shows or anime daily, or listen to J-pop I try to stop taking beraks, and finding excuses. Everyone has at least 10-20 minutes a day before you go to sleep the read thrugh your kanji’s or to learn a few new ones. I have a fulltime job and a part time job (7 days a week) so I can not study 18-24 hours a day like you do.
I will still try, I started labeling all items in my room with their Japanese names, and I bought myself the laminated Kanjiposter advertised on your site, I will read your site daily yo get fresh motivation, and to feed the fire I need for boiling my water.
All Japanese All The Time Dot Com: How to learn Japanese. On your own, having fun and to fluency. » Comfort Zone, Growth Zone, Panic Zone said,
October 24, 2009 @ 11:20 pm
[...] reboiling and three-day monking. They do eventually put in enough time, but it’s dissipated over far [...]
All Japanese All The Time Dot Com: How to learn Japanese. On your own, having fun and to fluency. » Surely One Could Learn Multiple Languages At Once? said,
December 20, 2009 @ 7:04 pm
[...] timescale, because it’s going to take as long as it’s freaking going to take, and if you stop, you lose. And once you’ve built your beautiful linguistic house, you don’t just let out a [...]