‘Acute’ and ‘chronic’ language learning?

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Buondì.

Thanks to ‘MedicinePlus, Trusted Health Information For You – An official website of the United States government’ for this search result that popped up when I was browsing for an explanation of ‘Acute vs. chronic conditions’:

Acute conditions are severe and sudden in onset. This could describe anything from a broken bone to an asthma attack. A chronic condition, by contrast is a long-developing syndrome, such as osteoporosis or asthma. Note that osteoporosis, a chronic condition, may cause a broken bone, an acute condition. An acute asthma attack occurs in the midst of the chronic disease of asthma. Acute conditions, such as a first asthma attack, may lead to a chronic syndrome if untreated.

Got it. Personally I have a ‘chronic’ blood problem which – unnoticed and untreated – probably caused a heart attack and two strokes, all three of which would be ‘acute’ events, so resulting in exciting ambulance rides.

Chiarissimo! But that wasn’t the reason I was searching. Actually I was consulting Doctor Google (my family doctor hates it when I do that, because Dr. Google is often right) regarding the effects of chronic lack of sleep.

This because Bug – the small but active house guest who shares our bed – tosses and turns for what feels like most of the night. Sometimes he sleeps ON my wife while kicking at me, sometimes it’s the other way around, and on rare but blessed occasions he comes to rest peacefully between us, little angel that he is.

I can usually tell how bad my night was by how much or little of the twenty-minute daily broadcast of news in Swedish that I manage to understand (I try to listen each day, if I can.)

Sometimes I follow at least some of the stories with little effort, almost as if it were English (never all of them, and never every word of the ones I can easily follow), while on other days I might as well be listening to Danish or Norwegian, which are recognisable but not understandable without luck and effort.

The difference in comprehension performance, I’ve worked out after a year of disturbed nights, comes down to topic/context, but more importantly, Bug.

Anyway, it occurs that ‘actute’ and ‘chronic’ could also be handy for talking about language-learning.

‘Acute’, for instance, reminds me of what it feels like at the very beginning, when you’re full of enthusiasm for learning, but can’t say or understand anything, and are plagued by unfamiliar grammar and impossible to remember vocabulary.

‘Acute’, like the ambulance ride, can be exciting and fun, as well as stressful and dangerous. And, one way or another, it doesn’t last long…

‘Chronic’ sounds useful to categorise learner behavior, too. Besides being chronically sleep-deprived, like me, some of the students at our Italian school are chronically lazy or chronically unwilling to follow good advice (just a few, most are great!)

However, “a chronic condition … is a long-developing syndrome”? What’s a ‘syndrome’? Oxford Languages has this:

– a group of symptoms which consistently occur together, or a condition characterized by a set of associated symptoms.

– a characteristic combination of opinions, emotions, or behaviour.

Looking on the positive side of the analogy, then, so when our ‘acute’ beginner-phase of language learning is over, what we’re looking to become is an effective, competent learner for the medium/long term, right?

Beyond the ‘beginner who doesn’t know his arse from his elbow’ days, weeks or months, what we’re looking to put together is a ‘syndrome’ of ‘symptoms’, so opinions, emotions and behaviours, that result in an accumulated knowledge of and ability in the target language.

Wow, perhaps you’re a ‘chronic language learner’, in the sense that you have a bunch of good learning habits and attitudes?

Put like that, it doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

Now I just need to get a good night’s sleep!

Alla prossima settimana.

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