Even though I am an Anglophone, my English isn’t the best. I hate grammar and didn’t pay attention to it in school and I tend to ramble on in sentences when I write… all while using poor grammar and sometimes even making up words. It also doesn’t help that I have learning disabilities to complicate things. Yet, I am able to communicate. I am able to hear and use English words I don’t recall ever learning before yet know the meaning. And others understand what I am saying… Or at least they pretend!
Lately I have grown an interest in language. Where did the English come from and how did it evolve? Why are there so many different languages and what sets them apart? Why are some dying and others thriving? Why are there those minor differences in American, Canadian and UK English and why does Microsoft make it so difficult to keep it on the (proper) Canadian English dictionary instead of constantly converting back to US English?
I watch a lot of documentaries, primarily science-related, though I have found a few on language and have been slowly picking through them. However, one that sticks in my mind is a documentary series I watched years ago called “The day the Universe Changed.” While this documentary would be categorized as one about history, what I still recall from watching it years ago is how it explored the evolution of communication. I remember how the host, Jim Burke, explored the evolution of communication from how humans used to memorize everything because there was no written word to the invention of the printing press allowing humans the freedom to forget. There was other history stuff in there I’m sure, but this is what stuck in my mind.
I found it fascinating that even before the invention of the printing press, people knew more than one language. I find it disheartening that nowadays, while we have software, audio cassettes, DVDs, the internet, travel phrase guides and so on to help us learn, it seems that many people still only speak one language. Know something other than English? Why would they? Everyone speaks English! Or at least that is the typical scoff I hear when I contemplate out loud that I wish I knew more than English.
So why don’t I know other languages? Why am I limiting myself to just English, when there are billions of other people in the world that speak other languages? What’s stopping me?
Nothing but myself.
In Canada, we are “taught” French from primary school all the way up to high school. Much of that education focused on grammar – a topic I didn’t care for even in my native language, – but even after 10 or so years of learning, I couldn’t even order french fries at a French McDonalds. I was a failure.
10 years of learning and I knew nothing. I thought I was incapable of learning another language. Since then, I had haphazardly attempted to reboot my learning, but still thinking it was impossible for me to learn, I was set up to fail and I failed every time. But that was to about to change.
Recently I completed a Computer course at my university. Even though it was primarily a Mickey Mouse course, one of the assignments was to write a program in JavaScript.
Not knowing anything about JavaScript, I found the lessons provided by the instructor to be overly-complicated, rendering them useless to a newbie. So instead, I took on the challenge to teach it to myself. I went though the process of learning the logic of this language, what the different things meant, breaking things down and building them back up and so on. Then I improved my understanding by helping my classmates do their assignments (not doing their assignments for them, but by providing explanations and helping them work through to the answer themselves.)
With a little work, it all just made sense. It was fun and I felt accomplished.
I couldn’t help but wonder why my classmates had so much difficulty with something we were all introduced to at the same time yet made sense to me. It wasn’t because they were incapable, rather it was because they were depending on the structure of the class and not taking the time to actually learn it in a way that made sense to them.
Then a light bulb went off in my head.
Perhaps learning another (human) language wasn’t as hard as I assumed for all these years. If I could learn a computer language to the point that I was teaching others, I could learn another language well enough to communicate fluently if I just take the right approach.
So a few weeks ago, with my new mindset in place, I decided to take on learning French for reals.
So far, while I am definitely still a beginner, I can confidently say that I am light years ahead in my understanding of French than I was on that sad, embarrassing day when I couldn’t order Fries at McDonald’s. During this process I also hope to gain a better understanding of English, too. How? Well, just as learning JavaScript gave me a better understanding of html, I feel learning another language will give me a new perspective on a language I’ve spoken my whole life. Time will be the test for that.
Since I started a few weeks ago, you many be wondering why am I just now starting to blog about it instead of when I started like most people who blog about learning a new language. It wasn’t until after reading this post on the blog “52 Languages, 52 Weeks” that I felt motivated to do such a thing. But now that I have started, I plan on continuing by sharing my experiences, what resources I found helpful (and not so helpful) and other things that I learn about languages along the way.
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