During the early 1980s, I had a job as a cook in a local Chinese restaurant. Working there gave me more exposure to people from other countries and cultures, mostly from East Asian countries like China, Korea, Vietnam, and Thailand. Already being interested in foreign languages, this gave me an opening to practicing some of them with my co-workers. Not that I had anything resembling a knack for learning foreign languages; I was just interested in them and this was an opportunity to pick up a little speaking (and listening) experience at my own pace. Over time, I was able to converse back and forth on a primitive level in Chinese and Vietnamese, and even built up a small active vocabulary in Thai. A lot of my knowledge (especially with Thai) has receded with disuse and time, but I still cherish the memories of me stumbling around trying to converse with others in their native tongues.
Now I work and live in a different setting, although I still live in Gainesville. But I still come across people on a regular basis who are from other parts of the world. I know folks from the Philippines, China, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Puerto Rico (I know it's in the U.S.), Bulgaria, Nigeria, and Korea. In this cosmopolitan university town (especially in Starbucks), I am continually encountering others who are speaking in foreign languages. I never used to hear Russian being spoken, but nowadays it seems to be everywhere. And the women currently sitting behind me are conversing with each other in Chinese!
I’m beginning to get the inclination again to start little conversations with others in their original languages. Sometimes it’s those little sayings people get used to exchanging with each other that can make friendships seems more special and significant. I have all of the resources I need to do this, so why not?
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I, too, have had a strong inclination to learn foreign languages, but takes so much hard work, self-discipline;I always seem to get sidetracked. Would love to learn French, or at least learn how to pronounce it correctly. Studied Gaelic, but it was an impossibly difficult, almost dead language, so gave up. Was close to being fluent in Spanish, but lost it due to disuse. You're inspiring me to try again! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for me to keep up with consistent foreign language study because I'm trying to do too many things at once and am stretching myself out too thinly. So I'm trying to alleviate some of the pressure I put on myself and instead make games out of some of my heretofore "serious" endeavors (like learning foreign languages).
ReplyDeleteFor example,you've seen those old hidden-picture puzzles in Highlights magazine. Well, with a foreign language, I try to see how much "hidden" meaning I can pick up from listening to it or reading it. Without getting too hung up on the fact that I'm missing most of what I'm hearing or seeing.
Once you learn how French pronunciation corresponds to the written word, you may find, as you train your ear by listening to French a lot, that it may well be the easiest language around for a native English speaker to build up a massive vocabulary in a foreign tongue.