Five years ago I began -really- learning French. Since then, languages have become a passion of mine. Many times when people find out that I have been learning French and other languages, they ask me why I chose to do it. Sometimes it is “Why did you choose do something so difficult?” and other times it is; “Why French and not Spanish or some other “useful” language?”
These questions have a variety of correct answers which vary in complexity from shrugging and saying “I felt like trying something new.” To “I think its important to learn languages to preserve and understand the cultures which speak the language.” This last idea is especially important in my choice to study Irish Gaelic and Old English.
However the full story of my decision to learn French and other languages starts back when I was in High School, and even further to when I was a boy.
I attended Wasilla High School from 1998-2002, and during that time Spanish, French, Russian, and Japanese were offered for study. In truth, all of these choices appealed to me but my Junior year I decided to study French. I only lasted one quarter before I withdrew to preserve my barely adequate GPA…. (I was a poor student, and looking back I think I chose French because it was not as difficult as Russian or Japanese, but also not Spanish, which everyone took.)
I think I knew that the way languages were taught was not the best for me, and this fact was reiterated as I took Spanish and then Russian at the University Of Alaska and had to withdraw in each case. Language classes in the United States, in my view, are rushed to the point of being a disservice to the students, and they don’t teach the language in an intuitive and functional way.
I remember being two weeks into Russian and still not able to form a useable sentence, and being frustrated. That being said; fully functional language learning approaches, such as travel phrase books, didn’t work for me too well either.
My first successful experience learning some of another language was when I was a missionary for the Mormon Church in Idaho. Another Missionary from Brazil taught me a spattering of Portuguese that showed me that not only was I capable of learning a second language, I was actually pretty good at it. Unfortunately there was simply not enough time for him and I to practice and my Portuguese vocabulary now consists of being polite and asking if a person likes the food.
Fast forward to 2014, and I decided to begin learning French as my then fiancé and I planned our wedding in Ireland. We decided to spend four days in Venice with three days in Paris on the way. When we decided to visit Paris, I became immensely excited and also very nervous. The reputation of Parisians with regard to noisy American tourists who are ignorant of any language and culture but their own was a real motivator for me, and I did not want to be that American tourist who does not speak any French.
It was at this point that I discovered Duolingo.
Duolingo is amazing. Duolingo gave me a solid foundation to build upon. By the time I arrived in Paris I could easily read the signs and successfully ask where the toilets were and spread good manners around like butter on a croissant. Any conversation above that and I was completely lost, but a few months of Duolingo gave me enough French to get by. When we returned to the US I decided to keep going with my studies. At this point I thought about my experiences learning Portuguese from a native speaker and decided I would try and find a language exchange partner. I found the website www.conversationexchange.com.
I was very lucky and found an amazing language partner pretty quickly; a language partner who has become a close friend and travel partner. Her tutelage has been invaluable for me in my studies.
It took me two years to finish the French module on Duolingo, and I also need to say that their immersion tool where you help translate articles from one language to another was a huge asset to me when it came to reading comprehension.
Now, I have expanded my language learning to include Irish Gaelic, Bokmål Norwegian, and Old English. The skills and concepts I learned in studying French have made my other studies much more enjoyable, and the strategies I formed to cope with the difficulties of learning my second language have helped when things get rough in my other target languages.
So, Why tell you all this?
Several reasons.
I love learning languages, and I want to help you love it too.
Look let’s be honest. Learning another language is daunting, it's a huge task, futile when you start.
Learning a second language is a lot of work; and English being the way it is does not help. We don’t have to think about word gender or as complex a system of verb conjugation as are in other languages.
But even though it is a very hard thing to do, you can do it! I did it, and I am so glad I did. Learning French has opened many experiences to me that I never would have had. It is one of my proudest achievements.
But why?! Why should I learn a second language?!
Because Science!
Research has shown numerous correlations between bilingualism and increased cognitive performance.
Research shows that students who study languages score higher on the SAT and ACT.
Research shows that language learning correlates with increased problem solving, critical thinking, attention span, memory, and cultural sensitivity.
Research shows that language learning slows the effects of age related cognitive decline.
For more information please go to the following websites where they go into more detail about these studies.
https://www.actfl.org/advocacy/what-the-research-shows
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3583091/
Over the course of this Blog I hope to help and motivate you as you journey with me through the adventure of learning languages.
We’ll talk about how to learn, why to learn, and how to stay motivated.
We’ll talk about different aspects of languages that are strange, cool, or difficult to learn.
We’ll talk about the history of language, and decode some of the linguistic jargon that threw me off when I began studying.
We’ll learn and talk together.
Join me.