What it means to be a natural
Spoiler: I am not.
When it comes to learning languages, several people have told me I am a natural. I disagree.
It is true that I always got A’s in English (or Vietnamese) classes, without appearing that I have put work into it. It is also true that I did put work into it. And I think the inclination to put work into something without complaining much is the thing that makes one “a natural.”
Take that kid who always drew beautifully in your fifth grade class. Did they just pick up a pencil and whip out a superman, or a butterfly, or an imaginary landscape that looked like they just carbon copied it out of a comic book? Did it look like they were just born with it, the ability to draw? Didn’t that make you feel incredibly jealous, “Why not me?”
My question for you is, when did you see that kid drawing?
My educated guess is that your answer would be “All the time!” You saw them drawing in math class, in biology class, in chemistry class, whenever they had spare time, or when they were bored. They drew on pieces of paper scraps, on back covers of books, on desks and other furniture. They drew because they found it easy and fun. That was what they chose to do with their time whenever they had it.
And that, my friend, is a lot of practice.
So yes, maybe they were born with a natural desire to draw, but I want to argue that that desire does not make them a talent without any work. The desire helps (a lot) with motivation to practice — it helps make the process of practicing feel less like work — but it is the practice that makes them good at it. Us non-artist folks don’t practice drawing all the time. We don’t find it a pleasant hobby that we will do to relax or to pass the time in boring biochemistry lectures. We’d rather doze off or play on our phone.
Imagine this: for a year, every time you have 15 minutes to spare, you will practice a thing. You will practice this thing on the bus. You will practice this thing while you wait for dinner to cook. You will practice when you get up in the morning and don’t want to get out of bed just yet. You will practice anywhere, anytime. After a year, you may or may not become the next international phenomenon in that thing, but you would not be as bad as you were a year ago, before you started practicing. You would have learn some tips and tricks to do it. You would have become faster and more efficient at it. Remember learning to read and to write? We were clumsy and slow at first, but with practice, we got better, and now we could do it without thinking about it.
I should mention: reading and writing are somewhat mandatory skills. Our parents usually forced us into a desk and made us practice whether we wanted to or not. Drawing or learning a language are not mandatory, and we are on our own to practice. Some people have an unfair advantage of being able to motivate themselves. They call these skills “hobbies” instead of obligations.
Back to my language skills: As of now, I am decent at only one foreign language — English. It is the result of years of practice. My grade school teachers were very insistent in teaching me English, whether I wanted to learn it or not. I didn’t just listen to a tape and imitate without accent instantly (my brother can do that, so maybe he is a natural.) It was a lot of work, and a big part of it wasn’t even my choice.
By the time I got to college, I had a decent stock of vocabulary and grammar, so I could read, write, and make myself understood. But my speaking and listening sucked, and my writing was not anywhere near natural expression — it was very textbook-like, “Hello Peter, I am Mary. How are you today?” It was then that I decided that I would do something about it. My pronunciation was the first thing to be fixed. I picked a book and faithfully followed it. I did all the homework and practiced all the time, just like the drawing kid. I mumbled to myself on the way walking to the bus stop, while waiting for the bus, and on the bus. It took a year with occasional awkward moments, and finally I could hear the difference. By the time I got to the US, I was told I sounded like I had been here for a few years.
At first, speaking English correctly felt unnatural (see what a natural has to say about this, eh?) I could not pronounce all syllables evenly. I must put stress correctly or the words would become something else. I had to sound like I was singing, raising and dropping my voice with the sentence. I had to resist the urge to pronounce certain words in my instinctive ways (“island”, “gorgeous”). But once I got over these mental blocks, the sound of English became fun and interesting. It is very different from Vietnamese. It touches muscles that my own language doesn’t. There are tweaks and tricks with which I can play and have some fun. It feels accomplished to have command of another language.
So I am not at all a natural at learning language, but since I’ve done it, I can try to answer questions. Comment below and I’ll get back to you if I know what to say.
I apologize for the jumble of writing above. I’m not in the best of mental shape right now. My grandmother, whom I love dearly, is very sick. I thought of not writing or doing anything while worrying about her, but decided to keep going. She was the woman who, when I asked for marriage advice the night before my wedding, answered: “Get a job. Be independent.”
