We are going to learn that there is special area of the brain that processes language in most of the adults. Sometimes the area shift there .It's specifically an area called the Perisylvian area of the left hemisphere cortex. Now you don't have to remember that. No big deal, but the main point is, is that that area is not just like one area that verbally processes languages, there are parts of Perisylvian area.
One important part in the area called Broca's area that controls grammar the other area is Wernicke's area that associates meanings to actual objects or to actual sounds. Now here's the trick when you think about language or when you are talking to a buddy and kind of -- you are not thinking about doing it and it's an unconscious kind of an activity that you are working through. So what happens is when you take a look at how you actually want to learn a language, you want to directly access Wernicke's area and bypass Broca's area.
Now if you don't do this you're going to end up speaking gringo geez. So think about that a baby doesn't start creating sentences for crying out loud. A baby just starts associating a sound with an object like for instance, let's take the Portuguese word maçã, maçã. Okay, now what I want you to do is just think about word. You know when you sing a song you can get that sound kind of rolling around your head. I want you to do the same thing right think kind of this desert song song maçã, maçã. Okay, you know what that sound as you just heard it, but you don't know what it means.
Now what I am going to do is I am going to show you what it means. When I show you the object the sound maçã means in Portuguese. I want you to keep thinking maçã. Now think -- now what you do in your mind repeat yourself maçã maçã, maçã, maçã, maçã, maçã, maçã. This is a maçã in Portuguese right. Now what a gringo will do normally when speaking with any normal person that actually is learning foreign language is that first thing a gringo will do is think apple. And then maçã.
Now here's the problem. There is actually two things that means apple in your mind. One is this thing right here, the other thing is series of letters a-p-p-l-e . The series of letters forms a word on a written page. That means apple. Now the symbol a-p-p-l-e on a page is very different then this particular object right here. So what I am teaching to do is to directly access Wernicke's area. Now Broca's area deals more with the a-p-p-l-e and taking words and then associating them and grouping them into senses.
Now when you are going to learn Portuguese you need a large vocabulary. I had a friend in Mexico. She could do anything in Spanish, because she had something like 10,000 words in vocabulary. But she didn't know any of the tenses no past tense, no future tense, no nothing tense. So what happens was because she had a such a large vocabulary she can completely function in the country.
So what want you to do is I want you to focus on getting a very large vocabulary and then if you want to, you can learn stuff of the grammar which is a lot of fun too, because we have some interesting grammatical things in Portuguese that are really very cool. But you don't have to completely know just need to know the vocabulary. Maçã.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services