Screw grammar

Sorry, no Spanish Word of the Day today, I’m feeling way too sick. I do have a nice article on grammar, though. I had it lying around for over 6 months, finished and everything, but only thought about publishing it after reading this article over at AllJapaneseAllTheTime.com. Enjoy it and don’t be afraid to comment!

Yup, the title is right. I say: screw it! Don’t consult your grammar references anymore, don’t go to grammar class (if possible, and of course if you follow a Spanish course – either in college or in your free time), throw away your grammar books (okay, maybe don’t do this as they may come in handy later on). Grammar is dead, it’s there but it’s not to you to worry about it. Grammar is for linguists, not for the language learner. “So I can never analyze grammar anymore?”. Well, you can, but only as soon as you really know Spanish. And I mean, only as soon as you’re really good at it; also called fluency. The only next opportunity that you’re going to consult your grammar book(s) again is when you’re fluent or at least near-fluent. The only rule from now on is that you must forget the rules. Just. Don’t. Worry!

When I was away for the holidays it suddenly struck me: Look at me! I came so far without worrying about grammar! From the beginning I said to myself: “Screw the rules. I hated them when I was in high school, I still hate them now I’m in college”. And I simply rock after less than two years when I have to speak to a native. Everything just flows out. Sure, now and then I make a mistake. But guess what, I make mistakes when I think too much about sounding correct. Somehow my brain shuts down and tries to say: “Stop worrying man! You can do it, screw the rules! You don’t have to make mistakes but when you start worrying I can’t process the stuff you’re trying to say.”

I have a confession to make: I suck when it comes to grammar exams. Of the 6 grammar exams (or parts of exams) I had last year, I failed 3. “Why?” I ask myself every time. I can talk, I know a sh*tload of vocab and colloquial expressions (because of which I always pass my vocabulary, reading and writing exams with little or no preparation), but still I can’t pass those stupid grammar exams. “Why?”. It’s simple; I can’t be bothered when it comes to rules, I can’t think in such a styled way. Heck, I can’t even explain Dutch grammar and I rule when I (have to) talk Dutch; my Dutch is even better than that of the average Dutchman (I’m not even being arrogant here, it’s just because I’ve read a sh*tload of books when I was younger – in Dutch and not even meant for kids). So if I can rock when it comes to Dutch – without bothering about rules – why can’t I rock when it comes to Spanish? There’s no difference, except that Spanish isn’t my native tongue and that I need more input to become fully, native-like, fluent.

Now, I know what you want to say: “But hey, if I don’t study grammar right away I’m lost! I won’t be able to put things together!” or another one, which I love: “I’ve been studying Spanish and it’s grammar for years now and it helped me immensely” – wow, years. You should be fluent now (and I mean it. If you take Spanish serious and want to be fluent, about 2 to 3 years should be enough to be more or less fluent. It’s all about the amount of input…). But I say; bullocks. Don’t even add grammar notes to your SRS items, it’s more likely that it’ll hold you back. Sure, it’ll take you longer to be able to express yourself, but because you wait with output and put the emphasis on input, you’ll be able to express yourself correctly without the pain of worrying about being correct – it goes automatically.

There has been done a lot of research to how our brain works with language, and it seems that it has the ability to figure out things on itself. Have you had this thing where you tried to remember something but couldn’t come up with it, but some minutes later (in the meanwhile you weren’t actively thinking about it or trying to remember it) you knew it again? This is because our brain works further while we’re doing other stuff, it works on its own. If you get a massive amount of Spanish which your brain needs to process, it’ll figure things out after a while. On its own. Suddenly you realize that when you want to say: “I love you” you don’t say “Quiero tú” (or whatever looks like that) in Spanish, but “Te quiero”. Of course, this is an extremely simple example, but it works for more complex things as well.

So, forget the rules. I know, I know, I’ve said: “Studying grammar can help”, and I still mean it. But only when you feel you’re more or less fluent, when you know how the Spanish language works, but maybe not why it works that way. Only then it’s time to dust off those grammar books and reference charts. Only then it’s time to continue to kick ass and becoming better than a native (because most natives can’t explain grammar and only know how stuff works). Even better: throw those old grammar books away and get books in Spanish about Spanish when you’re fluent. Another confession: I was forced to cram grammar all year long last year. What did it teach me? Not the rules, but only that you can’t apply loose rules to loose words or even sentences and be fluent. At some point I thought that for difficult functions studying grammar would help, but the truth is that I only got it down because of my environment (with order words: massive input). So continue building your environment, put Spanish in everything, and it’ll all be good. Maybe it won’t go fast in the beginning, but after a while you’ll notice the difference. Just hang in there.