I'm an avid language learner and have tried my hand (or should I say tongue) at languages as different as Welsh and Russian over the years, but there is one language that I've persevered with the longest...
For years, and I literally mean decades, I've been struggling to improve my French, to less than little avail. Despite all my efforts, I still sound more like Inspector Clouseau than anyone else (Kevin Kline beats me hands down). Some would argue that this is due to the type to efforts I make, but believe me, I've tried everything; drinking French wines, watching French films, even sitting next to French people, in the hope that their linguistic skills will naturally rub off on me. But no, no such joy, I remain linguistically challenged, to say the least. After all this research into language learning methods, I've come to a sad conclusion: it is not yet possible to learn French by osmosis.
It's slowly dawning on me though, that there is perhaps another, hidden reason for my lack of improvement. Ever notice how romantic, how interesting, some languages that you don't know very well, can sound on occasion? I used to find Spanish such an attractive language, and I still do to some extent, but everything's just a hell of a lot less romantic when you understand that what the person is actually saying adds up to "I really need to change my socks", or "would you mind giving me a hand with the washing-up?".
From now on, I'm going to make it my mission to learn French as slowly as possible, with the minimum amount of effort and the maximum amount of fun, taking regular breaks for other languages, so that the romance never dies and things remain forever interesting. Surely that's a good way to learn a language...
No comments:
Post a Comment