Learn a Language?

Learn a foreign language

I don’t speak anything but English despite taking foreign language courses in high school, college and Peace Corps training. Two years of Latin; two years of Russian and an intensive summer of Spanish still leave me speechless when abroad. Now that my wife and I have embraced a serious travel agenda, this is shameful. We want to experience the lifestyle in other countries by participating naturally. We want to communicate with native speakers and become comfortable and natural in a second language – or even a third,  We don’t want to be mere observers but participants in the life of the places we visit.  We may not become masters but we do want a basic level of language ability for day-to-day activities.

Our trip to Venice proved that we can cope with international travel.  Airports are set up for multiple languages.  Getting there is not a problem.  It is when you reach a foreign country and want something more than a superficial experience of the culture and lifestyle that understanding and speaking a foreign language with native speakers is essential.

We were living in apartment in Venice, seeing the street life and normal activities of Venetians but still only observers because we couldn’t speak Italian.  We depended on finding English speakers.

I could make out what to order from a menu but unless the Italians were English speakers, I did not converse.  We had a great time but even though we were living in an apartment in Venice away from the tourist bustle we were only observers and not participants.  On our trip to Buenos Aires, we want to step that up and converse in Spanish.  We don’t want our inability to converse in a foreign language to limit our experience in Buenos  Aries.

This is a personal challenge.

It is my problem to overcome.  This will be difficult for me because of my ego.  I avoid anything where I think I might possibly look foolish.  It is a terrible handicap and I have to change.  I hate doing things where I may make a mistake and therefore I always avoid attempting to speak a foreign language. This is one of those barriers that I must break through. I am less concerned about reading Spanish. I can read a bit. Speaking is my biggest challenge – particularly engaging in a conversation. I never manage to reach a level of comfort that lets the words flow and I get too engaged in thinking about what I want to say to be able to  listen to a conversation. I freeze.

Taking Action to learn a foreign language.

We decided to study Spanish. I did some research about learning languages and found that the rote methods aren’t very effective in developing fluency. I am living proof of that. I never became conversational in any foreign language before.  I hope that modern training will change that.  Both Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur use a more natural learning method which develops better language abilities. I looked at both and finally selected Pimsleur. My general impression was that it would be more effective but Pimsleur seems more modular and thus less expensive to get started. People seem to think highly of both Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone.

I ordered the first level Spanish course from Pimsleur and it arrived yesterday. It installs on a computer (as many as four different computers) and can be updated to include more advanced training should I wish. The first course is thirty sessions of 30 minute listening and speaking with additional exercises for each. The program recommends one lesson each day. I just completed day two.

So far I am encouraged.

What impresses me is the emphasis on pronunciation. Native speakers engage in a conversation and the student repeats and imitates what they say. I have heard people say that Pimsleur students speak with a very good accent. My two-day experience confirms this. I notice that by imitating the speakers (without the complication of the printed word) I imitate the sounds they make instead of using my English letter sounds. For example ‘b’ seems to work out somewhere between an English ‘b’ and ‘v’; all the ‘r’s have a slight roll and ‘d’s incorporate a ‘th’. It probably doesn’t matter what I think the sounds are so long as I say the words with the correct Spanish accent. The point is that I think I am doing a pretty good job imitating the pronunciation of the native speakers. It doesn’t sound like English and I stop thinking about the English sounds when I see words in Spanish.

Second by using two simple conversations, I can be reasonably spontaneous in conversing with the limited vocabulary from these two lessons although I still stumble with the verb endings. The real test will be down the road when we get to Buenos Aires. For now I am pleased with the course. I will be reporting my impressions and progress as the course proceeds. My wife and I have discussed using Spanish around the house to help us become more comfortable in Spanish. We will see how that works out over time.

What is your experience with foreign languages?

I would love to hear comments with experience in learning languages using any methods, Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone or something else. I particularly would like advice about putting myself out and engaging without worrying about making a mistake.