Learning a language "automatically" & the (fruitless) quest for the best tonkotsu ramen in Berlin
Where does the idea come from that the way you learn a language should be automatic as opposed to other skills? I ponder this while mourning a particularly disappointing bowl of ramen.
PREFACE: Hey! I’m aware that I haven’t written a new post in a year if not more. 😅 Why did I stop writing? A few reasons, but largely this: I wasn’t convinced I was writing anything interesting and the fact that I was writing about personal quests and experiences made me feel like a self-important prick. In other words, I had imposter syndrome. But I figure if you’re still subscribed to me, reading my thoughts didn’t nauseate you as much as it did me, so I’d like to formally apologize for my abrupt absence and start again. This time around, I attempt to control my ADHD and write about just one or two topics per post. Hope you stick around 🙂
I should just be able to “absorb” a foreign language, right? 🧽
The other day I was speaking to one of my long-term English students in Japan about attempting to learn another language. I said I found it strange that all of these words are part of the marketing of most language learning software and programs out there:
“immersive”
“automatic”
“natural”
“effortless”
Why do so many learners expect that they should learn a language in this way and not like, say, how they’d learn a skill like web coding, some sport, or even a game like chess?
First thought — they don’t see knowing multiple languages as a skill in the first place.
If you think something should just “come” to you, you wouldn’t approach or learn it in a way that inherently takes effort, right? It should be like second nature.
Quickly, to note about this expectation for learning another language – the learner is either:
A native English speaker, generally monolingual, wanting to learn any other language
A non-native but fluent English speaker (bilingual) wanting to learn a language aside from English
The second group has a curious trait. I’ll come back to it shortly.
Much in the way that someone believes because they can already speak a language fluently, that other languages can be acquired in the same way. They, having learned their first language as a child, don’t have any recollection of putting effort into their language ability. They just always “had it.” It developed in and through their environment, without a dictionary or grammar guide. Naturally!
Well, I was reading a book called The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker, and it says some very interesting things about how children gain fluency. Essentially, babies’ brains are wired for linguistic input. It is actively seeking and absorbing patterns of pronunciation and grammar it hears. This is an evolutionary trait humans developed, and in this way, learning our first language is as natural and essential to our humanness as is our brain growing and us using our limbs.
But here’s the thing — your brain stops actively seeking and absorbing patterns of the first language at the age of 6, because at this point, it is fluent. It has done the thing. Even at the age of 4, a child “uses mature grammar at near-adult levels”.
In other words, the brain now recognizes its mother tongue, say English, knows how it sounds, knows the major patterns of grammar and essential vocabulary, and can spit them out perfectly so that it may live and operate on its own. There is no need now for the brain to focus so much of its energy on language anymore (although it does continue to make continuous gains, namely in vocabulary).
“Once the details of the local language have been acquired from the surrounding adults, any further ability to learn (aside from vocabulary) is superfluous. It is like borrowing a floppy disk drive to load a new computer with the software you will need … once you are done, the machines can be returned.”
This is not to say it isn’t possible for a child to learn later or for anyone else to become fluent in another language. I am merely stating that native fluency, in the same “automatic” way that common belief assumes is the expected way to learn even as an adult, is capped at a very young age.
Once you pass that threshold, fitting another language into your already survival-ready brain takes skill. Acquiring it, understanding it, and using it well is going to take the same effort learning how to play chess would – there are rules to learn, there are patterns to get familiar with just as there are tricks and snappy ways to move, but all in all, the more you play it, the better you get.
One more quote from this book that helps put it into context why:
The question is no longer “Why does a language ability disappear?” but “When is the learning ability needed?”
Now, this brings me to the second curiosity I noted before about the abundance of fluent or very good second-language English speakers in the world, among even those who could care less to “study” in the conventional sense. What makes English the exception to this skill-rule of attaining competence?
My observations from traveling and living abroad for so long now have shown me:
The countries with the best and highest concentration of non-native English speakers have either a history of colonization by monolingual English-speaking nations like the US or UK,
OR use English as a de-facto language for travel, financial, or simply utility communication with their neighbors as opposed to learning all of them (see: Europe, where a Frenchman would sooner learn English to travel to Germany than German, and the same for the German, who may also go to Italy, or Greece, and not wish to learn all of them just to order a coffee)
English is everywhere, and used often as decoration or as complement to the native language (see: a restaurant in Germany using a sign saying “OPEN” or “CLOSED”)
High-quality English language content is accessible and thanks to Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Netflix, and all the other major production studios of the world in the US, UK, and Australia, not to mention the music industry, you can and will hear or see English content no matter where you are in the world
English grammar, aside from its countless idioms, is comparatively simpler than Romance, Germanic, Nordic, and Asian languages
English uses a small set of a mere 26 simple characters for writing, which is the standard of the internet if not all technology in the world
Students learning English abroad in monolingual countries such as the US, UK, or Australia, are less likely to be able to use their native language as a fallback, and are much more likely to be disadvantaged without fluency
Many countries offer English as part of their primary education
In sum, these are some of the reasons you will find many excellent English speakers around the world, and fewer the other way around for a particular language (such as French, German, Chinese).
I would also guess that these learners did a degree of “study”, whether that be translating using some dictionary or remembering the basics from their school days, and with heavy exposure over a long period of time (given the ubiquity of English all over the world).
Ok, so what am I trying to say here? I’m saying that if you are trying to learn a second language, and if you haven’t been exposed a lot over a long period of time to that language in your primary language environment, or are over the age of 5, you are going to have to approach it like you would any other new skill or thing you’d like to get good at.
Which is actually a more optimistic conclusion than it being an “automatic” or “natural” process, where learners who find that they aren’t “absorbing” their target language like fluent children become discouraged and think poorly about themselves, because it says instead:
“Hey! You can learn any language you want to. You don’t need bilingual parents or to live abroad! You don’t need to be a child! You didn’t ‘miss the boat’! If you put in some time and effort, just like your gym routine, you will get it.”
Now that sounds pretty good to me! :)
Fun final distraction: my hunt for decent ramen in Berlin 🍜
Before closing out this long overdue post, I wanted to share with you my recent quest to find the best tonkotsu ramen in Berlin. And that it is waaaay harder than it should be.
First thing, you might be wondering, what is tonkotsu ramen and how is it different from, uh, ramen?
Well… I’ll keep it short.
Ramen is originally a Chinese dish. The Japanese took it and did their own experiments with the broth, noodle, and toppings.
So depending on the restaurant you go to, if you’re getting Chinese ramen, you’re getting a broth of what I think is shoyu or soy sauce, and it’s a golden brown color, or you’re getting Japanese ramen, which may be shoyu (soy sauce), shio (salt-based), miso (soy paste, usually a whitish cream color), or tonkotsu (fatty pork-based broth).
I do not care for any other ramen except for tonkotsu because to me, all other ramens are flavorless and weak. Other broths are too watery, thin; my American love of stews and thick chili soups and all that jazz inclines me towards the tonkotsu broth that is thick, fatty, and flavorful.
The caveat to this love of tonkotsu is that it is not easy to find abroad (probably because it is so hard to make deliciously), so seeing that I live in a major capital of the world, Berlin, and can’t just zip over to Japan anytime I like for the real stuff, I started on my own quest of finding all the ramen-only restaurants in the city and rating their tonkotsu offering.
Now, having lived in Japan for many years, I am a particularly critical judge and I take no prisoners.
Real tonkotsu is like this:
Rich golden yellow/brown broth you can’t see through
Visible pockets of fat in the broth
Simple toppings such as green onion, nori (seaweed), a soft-boiled egg, and of course, chashu pork (thin-cut marinated slices)
I have a list of 13 locations on my RAMEN TASTING map of Berlin, and have tried three so far:
IPPAI NO RAMEN Berlin (⭐️⭐️/4 - No gyoza side dish offering, noodles were weird and probably not cooked properly, but the broth was good)
Limori Ramen (Vegan) (⭐️⭐️/4 - For vegan, the broth was pretty dope and the noodles tasty. But they used “beef” patties that were disgusting and wtf is anything “beef” doing in my tonkotsu anyway??")
and today’s venture, Mizu Ramen (⭐️/4 - I’d give this a 0 but that goes for the absolutely inedible – the ramen was topped with oddities such as sliced carrots, uncooked spinach, fish cakes, and wakame!??!!)
A final note on Mizu Ramen: What the actual f—! For 15 euro I almost cried. The interior was so cute and the menu promising, but that ramen just made me sad.
I took this one for the team – Don’t go there, guys. Save your money.
I’ll let you know when I find a legit spot. Or, do you know any? 😬