What Does It Take to Be Fluent in Dutch?
When you learn a new language or any piece of information, you go through four stages.
- Unconscious incompetence
- Conscious incompetence
- Conscious competence
- Unconscious competence
In stage 1, you don't even know about the existence of that piece of information.
You're probably stage 1 in the Njerep language. Why? Because you haven't heard about it yet.
By reading about the Njerep language, you moved to stage 2, conscious incompetence. You know that it exists, but you can't speak it.
Moving to Stage 3
Most Learn Practice users are in stage 2. They know that there's a language called Dutch. They also know that they aren't fluent in it. The next logical step for them is to get to stage 3.
In stage 3, you know a piece of information, but you have to make conscious effort to use it.
Suppose that you learned the rules for Dutch articles. When I ask you the article of decennium, you remember that it's a Latin word ending in -um. Therefore, its article must be "het".
Learning those rules and using them to find the correct answers is a step further than knowing nothing about the subject.
That puts you in stage 3. Yet, you still have to get one stage higher to reach the fluency in Dutch.
Fluency Happens in Stage 4
In stage 4, you don't even think about rules. The correct answers flow out of you effortlessly.
Why? Because you drilled the subject so much that the answer flashes in your mind when you hear the question.
How Does Learn Practice Help You Move Up in Stages?
When you receive a question for the first time and you can't answer it, you move from stage 1 to stage 2. You become aware that you don't know that piece of information.
You move from stage 2 to stage 3 by reviewing those incorrect answers at the end of the quizzes and in your profile.
Once you answer a question correctly, pay attention to how long it took to find the correct answer.
If the answer didn't flash in your mind as soon as you read the question, then you're in stage 3. That means you still have to repeat that question multiple times until you get to stage 4.
Learn Practice can help you move from stage 2 to stage 3, and eventually to stage 4, but there's a catch. You have to use it for at least 15 minutes a day for 365 days as recommended in this post.
Burak Bilgin,
Founder of Learn Practice
Published on Friday, August 23, 2019.