Learning from mistakes
There is a popular idea that making mistakes is a good way to learn. After all, mistakes get corrected, right? If we want to know how to spell someone's name, we might begin spelling it with the expectation the person would correct us when we got a letter wrong. If someone spells Alhambra and omits the h, is it a typo or a mistake? Do we learn from our mistakes? If we are on a learning site and see that someone who has written Alambra is corrected, do we remember the correct spelling?. If we do, that is an example of learning from the mistakes of others. What mistakes have you learned from, whether your own or others'? Please, not spelling mistakes, but something more important.
15 Answers
You bring up an excellent point. Mistakes are an excellent learning tool, provided we learn from them, of course.
One of my biggest mistakes in thinking, early on, was that Spanish sentences could and should be translated word for word from the English. I have since learned that each language has its own way of thinking, so to speak.
Another huge mistake I made was to prepare for my first trip to work in Latin America by studying Spanish C.D.'s which were created for people interested in learning how to speak in the country of Spain. So I had to relearn a lot of vocabulary once I was on the ground.
I think it is extremely important to embrace the mistakes as something positive, or at least something you can laugh over later. I have seen many people who are afraid to start conversations with Spanish speaking people because they are afraid of making a mistake. It is a given that you will make mistakes for quite awhile. However, Spanish speaking people in particular are very gracious and helpful. I have found that I have remembered more from being corrected in person than I have from taking quizzes in a grammar book and checking for the corrections.
I thought I made a mistake once, but turns out that I was wrong....
Never say " yes sir " to a drill sergeant.
Any of you have learned how to play a musical instrument know all about "learning from mistakes" and the creative potential therein.
Wrong note mistakes, yes, but technique mistakes, no. When learning a musical instrument, there are no positive aspects to learning incorrect technique. There is a story about a great classical guitarist who learned perfect technique while practicing only a few hours per day. The secret was he was never allowed to even touch the guitar without a teacher present to immediately correct any mistake he made, even small mistakes like having unnecessary muscle tension in his left foot. Just imagine how much faster you would learn if you had a "pocket lazarus" that would immediately correct any mistake you made, no matter how small.
Hey, I used años, without the tilde in my greetings card this year, so painful mistakes are never forgotten. Oh did I get a hard time about it. Lol!
I made a big mistake yesterday, I went to a new hair stylist! Did I learn from it? Probably not in this case.
I shot myself in the foot once...
I once accidentally said ¿cuando esta yendo mi hermana...? for "when is my sister going..." (to bed, for example) instead of ¿cuando irá mi hermana...? At least I will never forget the difference between present progressive and future tense now!!!
We all learn, all life long... And Thank You.
I have been able to correct some pronunciation mistakes on the skype chats.
Conjugation, dunce corner...Ian...
As English is soooo random
On the forum some typical Spanish mistakes:
while instead of whereas
A lot more....
I once worked all afternoon with a turnip green leaf caught between my front teeth. I know everyone noticed it, but one close associate finally told me about it late in the day.
I have made incorrect statements in conversations, meetings, classes, etc. in English and Spanish. I appreciate the people who feel close enough to me to correct my grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I am embarrassed at times, but it helps me learn.
For months, I used "ponganse de pies" at church when asking the congregation to stand. I had not idea of the implications of the statement (in English "get on your feet") until a close member from Mexico explained the statement to me and offered a gentler instruction.
One of my biggest fears in posting on this forum is posting inaccurate information. I appreciate correction rather than misleading other members, but I often see (what appears to be) inaccurate information go uncorrected. It's probably just me, because I retired from a job where inaccuracy was not tolerated and accurate precision was required.
Thanks, Sabor, for this thread. I always appreciate your posts.
When I was little, around 7 years old, my older sister by 4 years, was using a hatchet to chop wood. She missed and sliced into her foot. I was there and remember the blood and her crying. I don't remember much else but I learned to never use a hatchet to chop wood, but an axe. And to always, always, watch the end of the axe head strike the wood. About 10 years ago, I was in a home with a fireplace and used the same techniques using a chain saw and to saw all the wood from fallen trees and bigger limbs. Now, I try to stay focused on the end goal of being able to speak and write Spanish. (¡Oh, sí, el pie de mi hermana está bien!)
I think "learning from mistakes" is another way of pointing out that we learn from experience. The empirical methodology is still around for a good reason.
We come up with a theory. We put an experiment together. It proves our hypothesis is wrong. We go back to square one. That's a logical application of "learning from mistakes"
I like Karl Poppers idea of falsifiability. link text
Still it all begins with simple blunders like the first time you cut yourself and realise "That is not the best way to use a sharp knife" I imagine everone remembers their first electric shock. That was "learning from mistakes"
Oh yes, "Never Volunteer"
Any of you have learned how to play a musical instrument know all about "learning from mistakes" and the creative potential therein.
It's not that making mistakes is a good way to learn, it is that fear of making mistakes is crippling, and the delay from having to go back and correct ingrained errors is still much faster than never making any mistakes, or striving in vain to never make any mistakes.
Don´t mistake my earlier banterous response for flippancy.
Many moons ago in a physics class, we were tasked with noting the period of oscillation of a simple pendulum (measuring the time it takes for a weight on a string to swing back and forth). We had to measure the time of one, two, three, up to 100s of swings. I reasoned that the time for 100 swings would be 100 times the time for 1 swing (as the decay would be minimal) and so timed the first few swings, 'did the math' and proceeded to chill out.
What I didn't account for was accuracy, clearly the error involved in the timing of one swing is proportionally much greater than that of 100. My results were poor but I learned a valuable lesson, far more than I'm sure did my contemporaries in towing the proverbial line.
I learned the importance of trying to account for all factors when looking for a solution to a problem and also in thinking through the consequences of any decided action.
