So the chef that is the unconscious mind in language acquisition does it all. When he makes the soup, bubbles form as it heats up and forms into tasty language. Those bubbles pop right into our conscious minds and we hear a constant flow of sounds in the new language that is kind of like what happens in a dream. This happens during sleep and during the day, but the process really gets cranked up during sleep.
During the day, little parts of words, or entire words, or entire chunks of words, both little and big pieces of language, are noticed by us, but we’re not sure about what we are hearing. It’s like we are getting parts of a song from down the street but the wind then takes it, but we got to hear a bit of it and it makes us want to hear more because it is so beautiful.
This is called the Din. It is Dr. Krashen’s term for what happens when the chef in our unconscious mind who makes the soup gets plenty of non-stop input. Our use of English in our classrooms prevents the soup from being made because it prevents us from doing our jobs as delivery boys of language.
The Din is not a formal hypothesis, but Krashen mentions it as part of the Input hypothesis in describing how input, when absorbed by the unconscious mind as part of the soup, sometimes bubbles up into our conscious minds and we notice it.
The din is a constant bubbling of soup sound. Just sound. Regresamos. Cansado. Puerta. Hijo. Feliz. Blanco. Just a flood of beautiful words. Once I was in my backyard cleaning up after my dog (she regularly leaves little presents there for me). It was after talking all day to a friend of mine from Mexico. Suddenly, with my focus firmly on picking up my dog’s business, I satrted hearing a dreamlike Spanish symphony of words. Mainly one word emerged at a time, but a few chunks did as well. I enjoyed it as one enjoys the period of going to from 20 to 8 cycles per second of brain waves when we go from actively being awake to going into sleep.
In experiencing the din like that, I get a taste of the good soup. The din that day prevented me from thinking the usual insane drivel I think about when cleaning up after my dog, as I got flooded with Spanish. I got to listen to a concert of new words that sounded really cool. I was learning a new language without even being in a classroom! I wasn’t having to even try!
We are delivery people who drive delivery trucks. We aren’t chefs. We just provide the ingredients of language. The chef makes the soup in this kitchen and we shouldn’t be allowed in.
Don’t disturb the chef. Bring the veggies, provide the CI to the chef, get back in the truck and let him do his work.