I am envious of those individuals who are ‘wired’ for languages. To them, once you know how to learn a second language, the third, fourth, and fifth are not much more difficult. The capacity of their brain to hold all that information ‘just’ related to language amazes me. One of my sons is like that. German, French, Italian, Spanish…if you know one you can learn them all. Two days in Amsterdam and he was speaking Dutch at the restaurant. The day before, I had bought him a Dutch English dictionary. This is not to be confused with an English Dutch dictionary. The one we found in the local bookstore required him to look up the word in Dutch to see its English equivalent. I guess there was a reason he went on to major in Linguistics.
Other students have trouble mastering their first language. In these cases, you have to wonder why they are required to try to learn a second one when they can’t get the hang of the first one. But requirements are requirements and they do what they can to get through the class.
There is no doubt that our society is becoming more international. Many college students are majoring in international studies for politics, relations, communications or affairs. Studying abroad is still a very popular practice. It was one of the best experiences of my younger days when I studied in London for a semester. I was not faced with a language barrier however. After experiencing living in another country, it is possible that students might choose to live and/or work in a country where they will have to speak a second language. I like the fact that the younger generation of Americans seems to be realizing that we are not the center of the universe.
Likewise, there are more and more people coming to the U.S. whose first language is not English. Immersion is the best way to learn or improve the skills of a second language. In my sixth grade classroom, I have had students whose first language is not English. To make it more difficult, quite often they don’t begin the school year from the start along with everyone else. Modifications may need to be made to their coursework. They may also need support from an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher. But because they are immersed, their progress is rapid.
In high school, I studied Spanish for three years. Then in my senior year, my school added Italian to its offerings. Of course, being Italian, I happily switched, but I found the two romance languages similar and therefore confusing. When I went off to college, to my dismay Italian was not offered, so it was back to Spanish for me. It wasn’t until about 5 years ago that I decided to finally learn and master the Italian language. My primary motivation was to be able to talk to my relatives in Italy without having a language barrier. A secondary motivation was being able to maneuver around the country on my own when traveling, which we have been doing quite a bit of in the last 8 years.
I started with Italian CDs. I would play them in the car all the time. And I mean all the time. Whenever my son borrowed my car while he was in high school, he annoyingly ejected the CD every time he got into my car. When we went on long road trips, I was happy because I would get in a good long session with the tapes, but we had to compromise to keep peace in the car. Tapes were great for learning basic vocabulary and phrases while practicing pronunciation too. From there I tried my town’s adult education classes, but I found I wasn’t getting much out of a two hour class with a dozen students who had varying amounts of knowledge and a teacher who didn’t know how to differentiate. I finally began to study with a private tutor and I have been progressing quite well. She is such a great teacher; she works me hard, and if I do say so myself, I work hard at it too. I always do my weekly homework, and speak Italian around the house, even if no one understands me. I swear my cat loves being spoken to in Italian and the dog is starting to catch on.
Here are a few tips while speaking to someone whose first language is not yours:
1) Speak slowly – this doesn’t mean loudly – they are not deaf, they just need time to translate AND process all the words you are saying.
2) Try to be conscious of all the idioms you are using and minimize using them. When translated, they are taken literally. If you tell someone you are killing two birds with one stone, you can bet that what they get out of your sentence is not what you meant.
3) Choose your vocabulary carefully, using simple words. Chances are they know the basics, but not the SAT word list.
For those of you contemplating learning a second language, I would encourage it tremendously. It is quite rewarding when you get to the point of being able to have a conversation. It is also fun when you can read a story and actually understand it. It is even more complimentary when you speak to an Italian and your pronunciation is so good that they ramble back to you quickly like you are fluent. Although I do agree that learning additional languages is easier when you are younger, you are never too old to learn. You just need to put in the time and effort and have the determination to succeed.
Imparare una nuova lingua è divertente e appagante. Provalo!
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