Processing Power

Saving yourself precious bandwidth

Welcome, aspiring polyglot! For as much as I loathe corporate speak, bandwidth is very real. You can only process so much and, unfortunately, when learning a new language that amount is significantly reduced. The ability to discern which words matter in a phrase or sentence and which do not is powerful. It does, however, need to be trained to ensure nothing of value is being discarded.

Small words

While important, there are many words that simply should be auto-processed so that you can focus on the words that actually move the sentence and ideas forward in a meaningful way. Articles, ways of saying “the”, “a”, and “an”, are probably the greatest example of this. Yes, you need to use them, but trying to figure out whether someone said “el” or “la” is largely pointless.

You know the noun needs an article, so who cares what that article is. Tell me what the noun is. That is what actually matters. The ability to autoprocess articles opens up bandwidth that can and should be used to facilitate comprehension of the rest of the conversation. Not only that, but as you begin to process these things auditorily it facilitates the processing of the same when speaking.

Far too many people spend far too much time overthinking about whether a certain word is masculine or feminine. Too much time wondering, and worrying, whether or not they are choosing the correct article. This stress is central to a negative feedback loop that can cause major issues in the processing of more complex words, concepts, and grammar structures.

That is to say, many people spend too much of their time majoring in the minor. For more on how you can avoid that fate, check out this article:

Beyond the articles, the ands and the ors also take up too much mental space when they really don’t have to steal your bandwidth. The majority of the time, when you know what is being said the ands and the ors will be self evident irrespective of whether or not you cognize them in real time. By focusing on the nouns being presented and the verbs they are presented alongside you eliminate the need to ask someone to repeat themselves the majority of the time.

My students hear this all the time, but the best thing you can do when learning a new language is focus on the 90%. Is there a word in your target language that will be correct 90% of the time when used? Then use it. Use the fact that you know it can only be incorrect 10% of the time to find that 10% and then make the corrections in a targeted, deliberate way rather than an abstract way.

Content words

Here is what you should actually focus on: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The advantage here is that many of these words are connected. For example, the verb to play comes with the noun a player and the adjective playful; and this is true in many other languages as well. By focusing your energy here you set yourself up for the greatest chance at understanding new words you encounter.

Something everyone realizes sooner or later is that you do not actually need to understand every single word and its translation in order to carry on a successful conversation with a native speaker. As counterintuitive as that may sound, it is a fact and one that is observable in your own native language as well. Don’t believe me? Define the words “look” and “see” to yourself right now.

What matters is not that you can define and translate every word that is said but rather that you can grasp the core meaning of what your interlocutor is trying to express. This is true of your speech, too, though it is far more important when listening since, well, most of the time you will be listening as you learn. Once you begin to speak, the same article principle remains.

Generating sentences

Gendered words are important and the sign of someone who has truly embodied their new language is the ability to get these right 90%+ of the time. However, they are some of the only words that you can speed past while maintaining the integrity of your sentences. Even if you get it wrong, most people won’t remember so long as you continue speaking through the mistake.

In most languages you can even get away with shortening the articles to just the first letter. Instead of “le” or “la” in French, pronounce just the “l” before moving on to the noun or, better yet, stick to plurals which are always “les”. Focus on your nouns and your verbs, everything else will come with time and practice. Learn the patterns of your target language to accelerate the process.

Conclusion

You have a finite amount of bandwidth with which to approach your daily conversations. This is reduced by any mental load you carry for other things like work and family. Therefore it is imperative that you make the most of what remains by prioritizing the most important parts of a conversation and letting the rest fall to the side.

At first it will feel like you are losing out on entire portions of the conversation, but you will quickly realize that you are able to understand more and process faster than you thought possible. It is a skill and like any skill it does require training. That said, the amount of time requisite to master the skill of bandwidth management is far less than the amount of time required to learn a new language.

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