Learning a Language
“To have another language is to possess a second soul.” –Charlemagne
The European Emperor Charlemagne said that at a time when the opportunity to learn a foreign language—or to learn to read or write one’s own—was rare. These days, it’s reported that 53% of Europeans can speak a foreign language. Unfortunately, only 18% of Americans speak a language other than English. We recently asked Red Roomers to blog about their own experiences learning a foreign language.
We wanted to know who immigrated to a country where they had to learn the language fast in order to make it; who were the students in the back of French class who dreaded being called on, and whose ease at learning languages had them dreaming of living abroad. A few posts stood out:
- Talking with the women of a remote Greek mountain village, the language author Naseem Rakha seems to learn is the slow, hard-working but idyllic life far from "civilization." See if you can resist "Learning Greek from the Ladies."
- American author Harrison Solow did her doctoral work at the University of Wales. "Dysgu Cymraeg: Learning Welsh," a passage from her dissertation about learning Welsh, shows movingly that learning a language is more about connecting with another culture than speaking with textbook perfection.
- There were several wonderful tales of learning languages from parents who immigrated to English-speaking countries. In "Mama's Accent," member S. Buttaci tells a family saga in which Sicilian is almost like another character.
These bloggers will receive books by Red Room authors:
Eve Kushner's Crazy for Kanji: A Student's Guide to the Wonderful World of Japanese Characters provides the context sorely missing from most classes and books about kanji, one of the Japanese language's writing systems. Jam-packed with exhibits, the book supplies background information, explores fun themes, and challenges readers with games.
Count Me In!: A Parade of Mexican Folk Art Numbers in English and Spanish by Cynthia Weill uses the figurative ceramics of Mexican ceramists Guillermina, Josefina, Irene and Concepcion Aguilar to teach children their numbers. Figures representing an annual parade in the State of Oaxaca march across the pages.
In English and Mandarin Chinese, Belle Yang's bilingual board books Summertime Rainbow and A Nest in Springtime celebrate the natural world with simple concepts and beautiful, bold illustrations.
You can see all of the entries for this blog challenge here. I hope you'll read them all and let the bloggers know in the comments what you liked about their stories. All of Red Room's past blog topics are here. Thanks as always for blogging!
–Huntington W. Sharp, Senior Editor, Red Room
About Red
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Connections
Learning a New Language, Daring Escape in Mexico
Daring Escape in Mexico
As I stepped out of the La Libertad people’s market in Guadalajara, Mexico, one sunny afternoon, I waved down a ratty VW taxi for my return to the hotel. Rather proud of my daring trips to the murder capital of the world and my self-taught Spanish, I launched my practiced cabbie dialogue. Once through my bit, we were silent. Then the taxi driver glanced back at me and asked me something about molestation.
“Molestation? Okay, this is where I buy the farm,” I’m thinking. “I pushed the envelope one trip too far. I should have listened to everyone’s warnings, and because I didn’t I am about to be sexually tortured and killed.”
I sputter a pleading response loaded with por favors. The driver looked oddly at his babbling passenger and pointed to his window. Oh. The word molestar means to bother or to worry. He’d asked me if I’d mind if he rolled his window down. “Oh, yes, of course, no problem,” I said. After all, why not be generous now that I wasn’t going to be raped and murdered?
MysteryShrink.com
Learning another language
At the Avatar International courses in Orlando, or other regional venues, I keep learning languages by just asking how to say "Thank you" in another person's 'other' language. If I get a sense that someone I meet where I work, might know another language, I just ask. Usually people are flattered to be asked, and delighted to teach.
When living in Taiwan between Aug.1971 to June 1973, I learned to speak Mandarin Chinese - word by word, day by day - just encountering the challenge to create a life for my family there. Since then, I live in the U.S. now and have great fun surprising Chinese people by my attempts to keep speaking it. Most of the time one can just listen and learn than despite all our cultural differences, people are very much alike.
If you can please just learn to one grateful phrase, one greeting - this can go a very long way to learning the beauty and richness of another way of thinking and being in the world.
P.S. I can only speak the Chinese I know, by being Chinese in my body, posture, expression.
Immigrated to the U.S. from Greece
When I was four years old, my family and I traveled in a ship to America. I remember holding my mother's hand and walking into the cabin, with the uniformed staff assisting us. My eyes were wide with wonder at the time. My older sister and I had to share the bunk bed. It was quite an adventure.
My first day in kindergarden, was also my first time of seperation from my mother. I did not know the language and only spoke Greek at the time. I remember standing in a line with other children, and then my mother kissed me good-bye. When I realized she was leaving, I let out a wail, crying so hard, I could not see. Then the child next to me began sobbing, and soon all the children were crying. What a way to start kindergarden! Those first few days, the teacher would speak and I did not understand what she was saying. I would watch the students doing activities, and then the teacher would guide me gently and help me understand what it was that I needed to do.
In grade school, because my sister and I were "different" from the other children and often spoke Greek to each other, we were often chased home. I learned English very quickly and by fourth grade, had mastered it enough to win the spelling bee! The following year, I was placed in advanced classes and even taught some students English!
When I was older, I would help students coming from Greece and interpreting for them to aid their transition into the school system.
As an adult, I translated for patients coming into the clinic from Greece. I never forgot my main language, and appreciated that both my parents spoke Greek at home. I do the same for my son.
My Linguistic Journeys
I've always loved and excelled at learning foreign languages. I started out by devouring a Berlitz Spanish phrasebook when I was eight. After getting Spanish and German under my belt through high school and college, I joined the U.S. Foreign Service where I was trained in French, Laotian, Thai, Cambodian and Vietnamese -- in all of which I had attained professional fluency as borne out in the State Dept's rigorous testing. On the side, I picked up a smattering of Hungarian, Russian, Dutch and several other languages. I can at least seek directions for the men's room and order a meal in a host of languages. I moved over 11 times in 23 years from country-to-country in my diplomatic career. I've found myself in situations in which I had to be an interpreter between German and Lao speakers and make formal speeches in Cambodian and French. And my Italian is serviceable. I married a Dutch girl. Our kids were born in S. Africa, where their first language was Afrikaans (I read them fairy tales and kids rhymes in that language). They were then raised by nannies in Vietnam where their first ditties were in Vietnamese. Of course, their mother addresses them in her native Dutch. My proficiencies in these languages are rusting away since we settled in the U.S. But I still enjoy learning languages.
Learning a Language
Learning a language means opening a door to a new world and experimenting with new ways of saying something you thought you already knew how to say. This becomes apparent when we try to translate from one language to another. What works in one language seems awkward in another and retranslating the translation back into the source language usually results in something slightly different from the original. Every individual has a unique set of vocabulary and a range of experiences associated with the words and the tone of voice can privilege one shade of meaning over another. Misunderstandings are bound to occur more frequently than within the safety zone of a mother tongue. Someone Japanese once told me a funny joke about a foreigner learning Japanese who tries to thank someone and ends up saying, "Crocodile." The joke is that he learned the word 'arigatoh' using a mnemonic method of associating a word with an image, in this case, that of an alligator. This reminds me that what is infuriating about learning a language is the inability to be fully yourself when speaking a foreign language since it is difficult to represent yourself authentically in a different language you have yet to master but what's rewarding about it is that you get to grow up all over again in a new language.
Learning from a few phrases and listening
Marika O'Baire Kark's testimony is encouraging.
Having learned to use only a very small amount of four out of the five languages that I've spent any time studying, her method encourages me to continue with my current, primarily informal study of Mandarin. My Chinese speaking neighbors, and colleagues in the cross-town garden project, present just the opportunities she describes.
The two languages of which I've learned the least are "dead" languages, only one of which is available to be heard and practiced today, and then only in ritual situations (or high level ecclesiastical conferences to which I have no access).
Participating in the blog challenge
Thanks for these comments, Red Roomers!
I want to remind everyone that we love comments as much as any blogger, but only by blogging will you make your entry count for this blog challenge. Instructions for blogging on Red Room are on our Help page here.
Huntington Sharp, Red Room
Winners?
So who won the contest?! How can we find out?
The selected bloggers
Eve, the winners—Naseem Rakha, Harrison Solow, and Sal Buttaci—are shown in the post above, with links to their winning entries. I hope you'll take a look at each of them.
Huntington Sharp, Red Room
Oops!
Thanks so much for pointing that out! Sorry that I didn't think to reread the original blog post before asking my question! I can't wait to read them. I've been fascinated by Welsh for a long time, so I'm particularly excited to see what that one is about.