A method to my madness

When we say, "There's a method to my madness" we mean that although what I'm doing may look chaotic or nonsensical, there is really a methodology there.

For some reason this expression came to me at about 4am this morning, and with it an image from Gary Larson's wonderful cartoon series, The Far Side.

Maybe this is on my mind because language learning and teaching, if done really well, is, in my opinion, a messy process. I mean that really using a language to communicate is quite different from learning to do equations, or simply memorizing data. In part, this is because there are a lot of options in communication. Although it certainly makes sense to learn the structures of the language, and have some responses ready for common situations, when you really want to express yourself in speaking or in writing, the options are many! And your possible objectives are also numerous. You might want to give clear instructions, or talk about some complicated feelings, or persuade someone to adopt your opinion, etc. And the more you learn, the more options you'll have! Things will get messier!

So what is the method to my madness? To try to engage people in conversations that will be interesting. To give some tools to communicate, and then to let go and see where the conversation takes us. To give something to read that will capture the attention and allow the mind to learn in a pleasurable way. To try to convice you that the best way to start speaking is to start speaking.

Many people seem to believe that fluency in a language is a place that you arrive to, like an airport. It's easy to feel this way when we hear other people speaking, and they speak really well. But in my experience, when you arrive, you realize that your trip has just started. In fact, it usually seems like you have more to learn than you did before!

Here's a translated quotation from the poet Antonio Machado that relates to this learning process: Wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking.