Kenneth Hale

Kenneth Locke Hale, a master of languages, died on October 8th, aged 67Nov 1st 2001 | From the print edition

SOMETIMES Kenneth Hale was asked how long it would take him to learn a new language.

He thought ten or 15 minutes would be enough to pick up the essentials if he were listening

to a native speaker. After that he could probably converse; obviously not fluently, but enough

to make himself understood. To those whose education, however admirable in other

respects, had provided only rudimentary language skills, Mr Hale seemed a marvel.

And so he was. He had a gift. But he was also an academic, a teacher of linguistics at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was aware that many otherwise clever

people are dunces at learning a second language. He sought to find laws and structures that

could be applied to all languages. As well as studying the common languages, French,

Spanish and so on, the search took him into many linguistic byways, to the languages of

native Americans and Australian aborigines and the Celtic fringes of Europe. As many of

these languages had no written grammar or vocabulary, and indeed were spoken by few

people, Mr Hale picked them up orally. His tip for anyone who pressed him for advice on

learning a language was to talk to a native speaker. Start with parts of the body, he said,

then common objects. After learning the nouns, you can start to make sentences and get

attuned to the sounds. Still, there was much more to language than that. Noam Chomsky,

like Mr Hale a teacher of linguistics at MIT, wrote:

Language is really weird. Although speaking a language is for normal humans an effortless

task, there is nothing else in the natural world that even approaches its complexity...

Although children receive no instruction in learning their native language, they are able to

fully master it in less than five years. This is all the more confusing as language is much

more computationally complex than, say, simple arithmetic, which often takes years to

master. It is often hypothesised that language is an innate human faculty, with its own

specialised system in our brain.

Some students of linguistics believe that such a system, if it exists, is normally shut down in

the brain at the age of 12. But for Mr Hale it was around this age that his interest in language

was just starting.

In cowboy boots

Kenneth Hale's childhood was on a ranch in Arizona and he started his education in a one-

roomed school in the desert. Many years later, lecturing at MIT, he still felt most comfortable

in cowboy boots. On his belt was a buckle he had won at a rodeo by riding bulls, and he had

the slightly bowed legs of a horseman. His students were impressed that he could light a

match with his thumbnail.

Mr Hale had discovered his talent for language when playing with Indian friends who taught

him Hopi and Navajo. Learning languages became an obsession. Wherever he travelled he

picked up a new tongue. In Spain he learnt Basque; in Ireland he spoke Gaelic so

convincingly that an immigration officer asked if he knew English. He apologised to the Dutch

for taking a whole week to master their somewhat complex language. He picked up the

rudiments of Japanese after watching a Japanese film with subtitles. He sought to rescue

languages that were dying out. One Indian language at its last gasp was spoken by the

Wopanaak, the tribe that greeted the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620. It is now spoken again by

several thousand people around Cape Cod. A Wopanaak who studied under Mr Hale is

preparing a dictionary of her language. “Ken was a voice for the voiceless,” said Noam

Chomsky.

Mr Hale could converse in about 50 languages, perhaps a world record, although he was too

modest to claim one. But some tongues, such as Australia's Lardil, died with its last seven

speakers. Mr Hale was the last person on earth to speak some languages. Hundreds are

disappearing, he said. “They became extinct, and I had no one to speak them with.”

How much did Kenneth Hale contribute to an understanding of the apparently innate human

capacity for speech? He made a number of what he called “neat” discoveries about the

structure of language, and had an instinctive sense of what all languages had in common.

After his retirement from MIT in 1999, he said he would “really get down to work”, an

ambition he was unable to achieve. And linguistics itself is a fairly recent discipline. He is

likely to be remembered by “The Green Book of Language Revitalisation”, which he helped

to edit and which was published shortly before he died. It was warmly welcomed, especially

by those who may be a touch aggrieved by the spread of English, which is blamed for

brutally sweeping other languages aside.

A scholarly argument surfaces from time to time about the desirability of keeping alive

languages that, in medical parlance, are brain dead. Occasionally the argument turns

nationalistic. For example, is what Mr Hale called the “revitalisation” of Welsh merely a

nuisance in Britain where, obviously, English is the working language? Kenneth Hale had an

indignant answer to that question. “When you lose a language,” he told a reporter, “you lose

a culture, intellectual wealth, a work of art. It's like dropping a bomb on a museum, the

Louvre.”

10 TIPS AND TRICKS TO PICK UP ANY LANGUAGE

1. KNOW WHY YOU’RE DOING IT

This might sound obvious, but if you don’t have a good reason to learn a

language, you are less likely to stay motivated over the long-run. Wanting

to impress English-speakers with your French is not a very good

reason; wanting to get to know a French person  in his or her own

language is another matter entirely. No matter your reason, once you’ve

decided on a language, it’s crucial to commit:

“OK, I want to learn this and I’m therefore going to do as much as I can in

this language, with this language and for this language.”

2. DIVE IN

So you’ve made the pledge. How to proceed? Is there a proper way to go

about learning? Matthew recommends the 360° maximalist approach: no

matter which learning tools you use, it’s crucial to practice your new

language every single day:

“I tend to want to absorb as much as possible right from the start. So if I

learn something I really, really go for it and try to use it throughout the day.

As the week progresses I try to think in it, try to write in it, try to speak to

myself even in that language. For me it’s about actually putting what you’re

learning into practice – be that writing an email, speaking to yourself,

listening to music, listening to the radio. Surrounding yourself, submerging

yourself in the new language culture is extremely important.”

Remember, the best possible outcome of speaking a language is for

people to speak back to you. Being able to have a simple conversation is a

huge reward in itself. Reaching milestones like that early on will make it

easier to stay motivated and keep practicing:

“I always have at the back of my mind that it’s adapting your way of

thinking to the way of thinking in that language. Obviously there’s not only

one way a Spanish-speaker or a Hebrew-speaker or a Dutch-speaker

thinks, but it’s about using the language as your tool to build your own

language world.”

3. FIND A PARTNER

Matthew learned several languages together with his twin brother Michael

(they tackled their first foreign language, Greek, when they were only eight

years old!). Matthew and Michael, or the Super Polyglot Bros. as I’d like to

now refer to them, gained their superpowers from good-ol’, healthy sibling

rivalry:

“We were very motivated, and we still are. We push each other to really go

for it. So if he realizes that I’m doing more than he is he’ll get a bit jealous

and then try and outdo me (maybe because he’s my twin) – and the other

way round.”

Even if you can’t get a sibling to join you on your language adventure,

having any kind of partner will push both of you to always try just a little bit

harder and stay with it:

“I think it’s a really great way of actually going about it. You have someone

with whom you can speak, and that’s the idea behind learning a language.”

4. KEEP IT RELEVANT

If you make conversation a goal from the beginning, you are less likely to

get lost in textbooks. Talking to people will keep the learning process

relevant to you:

“You’re learning a language to be able to use it. You’re not going to speak

it to yourself. The creative side is really being able to put the language that

you’re learning into a more useful, general, everyday setting – be that

through writing songs, generally wanting to speak to people, or using it

when you go abroad. You don’t necessarily have to go abroad; you can go

to the Greek restaurant down the road and order in Greek.”

5. HAVE FUN WITH IT

Using your new language in any way is a creative act. The Super Polyglot

Bros. practiced their Greek by writing and recording songs. Think of some

fun ways to practice your new language: make a radio play with a friend,

draw a comic strip, write a poem, or simply talk to whomever you can. If

you can’t find a way to have fun with the new language, chances are you

aren’t following step four.

6. ACT LIKE A CHILD

This is not to say you should throw a tantrum or get food in your hair when

you go out to a restaurant, but try learning the way kids do. The idea that

children are inherently better learners than adults is proving to be a myth.

New research cannot find a direct link between age and the ability to

learn . The key to learning as quickly as a child may be to simply take on

certain childlike attitudes: for instance, lack of self-consciousness, a desire

to play in the language and willingness to make mistakes.

We learn by making mistakes. As kids, we are expected to make mistakes,

but as adults mistakes become taboo. Think how an adult is more likely to

say, “I can’t”, rather than, “I haven’t learned that yet” (I can’t swim, I can’t

drive, I can’t speak Spanish). To be seen failing (or merely struggling) is a

social taboo that doesn’t burden children. When it comes to learning a

language, admitting that you don’t know everything (and being okay with

that) is the key to growth and freedom. Let go of your grown-up inhibitions!

7. LEAVE YOUR COMFORT ZONE

Willingness to make mistakes means being ready to put yourself in

potentially embarrassing situations. This can be scary, but it’s the only way

to develop and improve. No matter how much you learn, you won’t ever

speak a language without putting yourself out there: talk to strangers in the

language, ask for directions, order food, try to tell a joke. The more often

you do this, the bigger your comfort zone becomes and the more at ease

you can be in new situations:

“At the beginning you’re going to encounter difficulties: maybe the

pronunciation, maybe the grammar, the syntax, or you don’t really get the

sayings. But I think the most important thing is to always develop this feel.

Every native speaker has a feel for his or her own language, and that’s

basically what makes a native-speaker – whether you can make the

language your own.”

8. LISTEN

You must learn to look before you can draw. In the same way, you must

learn to listen before you can speak. Every language sounds strange the

first time you hear it, but the more you expose yourself to it the more

familiar it becomes, and the easier it is to speak it properly:

“We’re able to pronounce anything, it’s just we’re not used to doing it. For

example the rolled r doesn’t exist in my form of English. When I

was learning Spanish there were words with the hard r in them like perro

and reunión. For me, the best way to go about mastering that is actually to

hear it constantly, to listen to it and to kind of visualize or imagine how that

is supposed to be pronounced, because for every sound there is a specific

part of the mouth or throat that we use in order to achieve that sound.”

9. WATCH PEOPLE TALK

Different languages make different demands on your tongue, lips and

throat. Pronunciation is just as much physical as it is mental:

“One way – it might sound a bit strange – is to really look at someone while

they’re saying words that use that sound, and then to try to imitate that

sound as much as possible. Believe me, it might be difficult at the

beginning, but you will. It’s something that is actually quite easily done; you

just need to practice it.”

If you can’t watch and imitate a native-speaker in person, watching foreign-

language films and TV is a good substitute.

10. TALK TO YOURSELF

When you have no one else to speak to, there’s nothing wrong with talking

to yourself:

“It might sound really weird, but actually speaking to yourself in a language

is a great way to practice if you’re not able to use it all the time.”

This can keep new words and phrases fresh in your mind and build up

your confidence for the next time you speak with someone.

(Bonus tip) RELAX!

You are not going to annoy people by speaking their language poorly. If

you preface any interaction with, “I’m learning and I’d like to practice…”

most people will be patient, encouraging and happy to oblige. Even though

there are approximately a billion non-native English-speakers around the

world, most of them would rather speak their own language if given a

choice. Taking the initiative to step into someone else’s language world

can also put them at ease and promote good feelings all around:

“Sure, you can travel abroad speaking your own language, but you’ll get so

much more out of it being able to actually feel at ease in the place you are

– being able to communicate, to understand, to interact in every situation

you could possibly imagine.”

BUT WHAT’S THE POINT?

We’ve gone into HOW to start learning a language, but are you still on the

fence about WHY to learn? Matthew has one last point to make:

“I think each language has a certain way of seeing the world. If you speak

one language then you have a different way of analyzing and interpreting

the world than the speaker of another language does. Even if they’re really

closely-related languages such as Spanish and Portuguese, which are to a

certain extent mutually intelligible, they are at the same time two different

worlds – two different mindsets.

“Therefore, having learned other languages and been surrounded by other

languages, I couldn’t possibly choose only one language because it would

mean really renouncing the possibility to be able to see the world in a

different way. Not in one way, but in many different ways. So the

monolingual lifestyle, for me, is the saddest, the loneliest, the most boring

way of seeing the world. There are so many advantages of learning a

language; I really can’t think of any reason not to.”