kangmi: learning korean

I feel better now that I’ve confessed.

Korean church is always such a great opportunity for unexpected meetings. I expected to see a friend of mine (은경) who had e-mailed me this week to say that she’s in town to attend her son’s graduation later this month. But I hadn’t expected to see Lloyd. Lloyd and I have been e-mailing one another about setting up a once a month conversation group, but we hadn’t actually met. It was a pleasure to finally connect with him (and Angela, another Koreaphile I met last year, from whom I learned that my blogging reputation preceded me).

A few weeks ago, I saw someone I thought I knew walking in my neighborhood, and I’ve been kicking myself ever since for not stopping to talk to him, as no one could tell me why he was here and how long he was planning to stay. He was at church, too, so we were able to chat for a few minutes.

I also saw somone who’s interested in working with me on a Korea-related project. At least, we talk about it every time we run into each other. This time something may actually come of it.

Each time I attend Korean church I can see that I do know a little more Korean than I did the last time I visited. I got the gist of the children’s story, understood most of one of the songs, and had an idea about the sermon (I turned down the audio device that would have let me hear a translation). The calm earnestness of the new young pastor was a contrast to the authoritative bluster of his (now retired) predecessor.

I thought of Daehee when the offering was collected with such little fanfare.

We didn’t find a tutor, but I did meet Annie. She was interested, but she’s also seven months pregnant.

The use-dependent neuroplasticity that [the researchers] found occurred only when the monkeys were attentive to frequency changes, as they would see in their next experiment. This time, they applied the flutter vibration to monkeys’ fingers but used sound to distract the animals. To make the distraction effective, the scientists rewarded the monkeys with a food pellet whenever they correctly responded to a tone. The monkeys attending to the tones thus served as “passive controls” for the monkeys attending to skin vibrations: they felt the same flutters but were paying attention to sounds rather than tactile stimuli. The distracted monkeys had no meaningful brain changes. As it turns out, it’s not the good vibrations: it’s the attention that counts. If the monkeys’ attention was focused elsewhere while they received the same tactile stimulation that had otherwise produced massive cortical remapping, no such reorganization occurred. (pages 211-212)

He later reiterates:

Our brains allocate space to body parts that are used in activities that we perform most often—the thumb of a video-game addict, the index finger of a Braille reader. But although experience molds the brain, it molds only the attending brain. “Passive, unattended, or little-attended exercises are of limited value for driving” neuroplasticity, Merzenich and Jenkins concluded. “Plastic changes in brain representations are generated only when behaviors are specifically attended.” And therein lies the key. Physical changes in the brain depend for their creation on a mental state in the mind—the state called attention. Paying attention matters. It matters not only for the size of the brain’s representation of this or that part of the body’s surface, of this or that muscle. It matters for the dynamic structure of the very circuits of the brain and for the brain’s ability to remake itself. (page 224)

Just in case we readers missed it:

Let me repeat: when stimuli identical to those that induce plastic changes in an attending brain are instead delivered to a nonattending brain, there is no induction of cortical plasticity. Attention, in other words, must be paid. (page 338)

So what does this mean for my language learning? The most obvious change will be to drop audio listening while I’m at work. While it gives me the sense that I’m enhancing my learning, in reality it’s not doing anything for me. I will also be more likely to devote larger chunks of time just for Korean study. I’ve already been headed in that direction, and this gives me the push I need.

Outside of the implications for language study (which the author touches on less than I would have liked), the book is a fascinating look at how brain research is changing treatment methods for dyslexics, stroke victims, tinnitus sufferers, and others.