Occassional thoughts about orienteering
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| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
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Monday, September 05, 2005 Rusty languageReading an O' map feels a bit like using a foreign language.When you first learn, you translate. You see a black dot on a brown cirlce and think, "the black dot means a boulder and the brown circle must be a small hill." I think some people never get beyond translation. When you become fluent in O' map reading. The same black dot and brown circle have a meaning. There isn't a translation, you just read the map. I was thinking about the langauge-map reading analogy today after speaking some Swedish for the first time in a long time. My Swedish was rusty, very rusty. I had to ask Sanna to slow down (and she's used to speaking to a 2-year-old). I'd say something and as soon as it was out of my mouth I'd realize it was wrong. I'd hear something and have to think (in English), "what did that mean?" I'm sure if it wouldn't take too long before my Swedish got better. But, it sure is frustrating to stumble along. Back to map reading....I wonder how long it takes to recover fluency if you haven't been running in the forest reading the map? I've experimented a bit with doing a fair amount of map study (i.e. sitting in a chair looking at O' maps) and it makes a noticeable difference. But, I'm not sure how it compares to actually running around and reading a map. Does the map study get me 50 percent fluent or 20 percent or 80 percent or what? Back to Swedish....I read Swedish almost every day. I look at Swedish web pages (orienteering and newspapers, usually). It must help to keep some vocabulary and sense of the grammar. But, reading doesn't match listening and speaking. posted by Michael | 7:28 PM 
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