the do-nothing-but-listen method

[BananaBandit]

I've recently read much of the first half of J. Marvin Brown"s "From the Outside In: The Secret to Automatic Language Growth"

 

It seems he contends the best way to learn a language (at least the non-written component) is to plunge yourself into the foreign environment and then basically just shut up and listen for 1-2 years. For the most part, don't even bother to speak or think about what you might want to say. Just listen. 

 

If I might share an excerpt:   "Don't speak. Don't ask. Don't look up words. Don't take notes...Don't analyze...Don't think."

 

Is the above quote an attempt at humor that goes a bit over my head?

 

Has anyone here actually tried this method? 

...In my experience, I can't learn squat unless I write stuff down, preferably in Thai letters. My reading & writing ability, such as it is, has improved hugely in the last several months. My speaking & hearing is still pretty lame. 

[carlyai]

It is called The Natural Approach and is/ was taught at AUA language centres. Dr Brown was still the director there when I learnt Thai. 

The problem is that not many people can just practice the natural approach for the years required. I practiced the natural and structured approaches together and also did the reading and writing course. 

From my point of view, the natural approach is great, just listening, but I needed other approaches as well. 

 

[tgw]

yes, it's possible to learn a language to a basic level that way.

 

I picked up Russian that way, and I would pickup much more Thai if I was in an environment where Thai is spoken, but I rarely am, I guess that's the main problem for most of us here.

[Pottinger]

30 minutes ago, carlyai said:

It is called The Natural Approach and is/ was taught at AUA language centres. Dr Brown was still the director there when I learnt Thai. 

The problem is that not many people can just practice the natural approach for the years required. I practiced the natural and structured approaches together and also did the reading and writing course. 

From my point of view, the natural approach is great, just listening, but I needed other approaches as well. 

 

I also did Dr Brown's Natural Approach courses, including reading and writing, for about five months full time, at the old AUA on Rajadamri, back in the 1980s. I found it marvellous, but I had fellow students who could not get past what Dr Brown talks of in his book - the constant analysis, comparison and associated chatter that goes on in the adult brain, which interferes with learning language as a child does - purely, without judgement. 

   I guess it's a case of different strokes for different folks - as I say, I found it fascinating and liberating as compared to the rote learning method by which I learned, and never became fluent in, French at school.

   Incidentally, I don't recall Dr Brown advocating such a lengthy period of 'just shut up and listen' as the OP suggests. Certainly, in the time I was there, we were encouraged to just sit and listen for the first few weeks, not years, and to allow speech to arrive 'naturally', as we felt comprehension improve and comment or question arise.

Edited September 11, 2020 by Pottinger

[carlyai]

10 minutes ago, Pottinger said:

I also did Dr Brown's Natural Approach courses, including reading and writing, for about five months full time, at the old AUA on Rajadamri, back in the 1980s. I found it marvellous, but I had fellow students who could not get past what Dr Brown talks of in his book - the constant analysis, comparison and associated chatter that goes on in the adult brain, which interferes with learning language as a child does - purely, without judgement. 

   I guess it's a case of different strokes for different folks - as I say, I found it fascinating and liberating as compared to the rote learning method by which I learned, and never became fluent in, French at school.

   Incidentally, I don't recall Dr Brown advocating such a lengthy period of 'just shut up and listen' as the OP suggests. Certainly, in the time I was there, we were encouraged to just sit and listen for the first few weeks, not years, and to allow speech to arrive 'naturally', as we felt comprehension improve and comment or question arise.

You're old too ???? One of the field trips we went on with Dr Brown, his wife, teachers and students, was a 4 day/ night (memory not sure of period) raft trip floating around a waterway near Kanchanaburi. We were only supposed to communicate in Thai. Watched Thai movies, ate and drank and played Thai games. So we were encouraged to listen and speak.