Exploring bottom-up and top-down processing
And how they relate to learning languages
Introduction
I am almost always in a good mood. Actually, more than that. I am energized, sharp, and elated. I love being alive! I've rarely meet anyone who is so plugged into life. This is not a way to brag, but rather a statement of fact.
With that said, I also have another peculiar personality trait that I've never fully understood: I feel lethargic and exhausted by activities that most people love. For instance, I went to the park once for a few hours with some friends. I came home and was wiped out. I watched Netflix and slept for a couple hours. I am an extravert who is energized by people, so why would hanging at the park make me so tired?
Daydreaming
In part, I was tired because I am intentional with my time. I try hard to only do what energizes me. The park outing wasn't something I really wanted to do, so I was actually fatigued by hiding how bored I was.
But the thing I realized today is how much I daydream. On most days, I spend at least an hour or two imagining a bright future for myself and making a plan to bring it to fruition. I often think up a future that's so exciting that I am literally shaking from head to toe and sweating through my clothes. I do realize that this may not be all that relatable, but it is my truth and has been since I was a young child.
Anytime I don’t daydream like this, I get lethargic and tired, to the point of feeling physically ill. Furthermore, if an activity doesn’t fit into my daydreams, doing it feels like a chore (such as the aforementioned park outing).
Ways of processing information
I wonder if it has to do with bottom-up vs top-dow processing. I recently learned about these terms. Bottom-up means you gather lots of details to build a big picture. I literally "build" my future, one minuscule idea at a time in my mind. As each piece gets put into place, I get more excited. Top-down is the opposite. It's more big-picture thinking; you don't get bogged down with small details.
An over-simplification of these two processing styles is:
Bottom-up: you notice every detail and build the big picture
Top-down: you notice a some details and extrapolate the big picture
The language connection
Most people tend to lean more into top-down processing.
And that’s where things get interesting.
See, languages are almost exclusively taught with a “bottom up” approach. You focus on details (e.g., learning grammar rules, memorizing words, etc) to build the big picture. But most people don’t process information that way. In fact, bottom-up processing is correlated with being on the spectrum and neurodivergence.
It got me wondering if that’s one reason why, for most people, learning a language feels so difficult. They’re attending classes and using resources that teach languages in a way that their brains are not wired for.
How I learn languages
In most areas of life, I process things bottom-up. I’m a little unusual that way. But for some reason, when learning languages I process top-down. I’m a big-picture thinker. I only switch to my default bottom-up processing from time to time as needed.
In a classroom environment, the end result is that I am typically the best in my class and am a go-to person when people need help…even though my actual marks are well below average. In the real world, I have been able able to reach a high degree of proficiency time and time again in multiple languages.
I might be wrong
Everything I wrote about top-down and bottom-up processing in relation to learning languages may be way off. It was just something I was speculating on last night and I cannot get it out of my head.
I wanted to share it with you - I’d love to hear what you think! Shoot me an email or leave a comment below.
Thanks for reading!
Azren
Calgary Language Nerds owner
https://azrenthelanguagenerd.com
Bottom up when I was younger. But now after many decades, I’m becoming a top down learner. The older brain learns and retains things differently.