Learning Another Language - Step One: Communication

Just had a call from my husband who works at a Latino school asking ME about how to say something in Spanish! Now, I don't consider that I really know much Spanish, but I suppose I am up to about an intermediate level and I have been able to use it in my daily life - reading signs, talking to my neighbors and so on. I even have been able to communicate with Spanish-speaking in laws who don't know any English, so I MUST know some!

When I was in high school, I was extremely lucky to have a German teacher who had been trained in the Army's Monterey Language School and at Middlebury - both high-rated programs. He may not have been the best German speaker that I have studied with, but he certainly was the best language TEACHER, I ever had. After three years of high school German, I was complimented on my German on a trip to Austria - and was astounded to find out I spoke it better than my American godmother who LIVED there! My teacher, Mr. Keer, not only taught me German - but HOW to learn another language - lessons I have used to learn several other languages to varying degrees.

Now that our world is becoming smaller and smaller, the language skills I acquired appear less and less "decorative" and more practical all the time! But I find that most of you remain intimidated by the whole process, even if you did study a language in high school or college yourself. Don't be!

The first level of language acquisition is COMMUNICATION. Now, you don't have to say it perfectly. If you are in a situation where the other person doesn't know how to communicate in YOUR language and you have something important to communicate, trust me, any rough version that gets the point across will serve! Even phrases from a phrase book are better than nothing in a pinch - although I don't really recommend them. If you intend to use a language, besides a phrase book, invest in a pocket dictionary to have around. I have some little Spanish glossaries I can fit in my purse, too.

But please remember to be respectful of the native speaker. It's the best psychological stance to take. I have gotten a lot of mileage by asking "Is it correct" in Spanish, when I was out there using vocabulary I wasn't sure of. Once you have learned the phrase "How do you say that in....(language)?" You can make considerable headway by just pointing - and more often than not, the native speaker will provide you with the word. It is, of course, good to acquire a basic knowledge of verbs, adjectives, adverbs and so on. A basic grammar will teach you that. Then you can just plug in your vocabulary, however roughly.

Learn how to say, "I don't understand," "Sorry," "Please", "No," "Yes" and all the words necessary for basic communication. You are essentially talking BABY TALK, as that will be the level you are communicating on at first. The mistake that a lot of adults make learning languages is to try to communicate on the same complicated level that they use in their native language - and they are completely incapable of that! The lesson my German teacher taught me was to boil down what I wanted to say into a form that I could express on my level of the foreign language. So you probably will be saying - "Oh, that's nice!" rather than, "What an exquisite and stylish rendition of that form.!" Prettty/ugly....hot/cold....up/down...those are basic concepts for communicating. Remember it's baby talk AND THAT'S OK! There is time enough, if you want, to acquire the language in a more sophisticated way. Right now, at the beginning, it's enough to be brave enough to USE it to communicate AT ALL.

Be prepared to be very funny, too! Even if you are a diligent student, you are bound to make some real boners that will crack everybody up. Don't be too proud to be the butt of a joke, if it helps your language learning! I can remember some colossal gaffes I have made in my time...Be prepared to be humble, deferring to the native speaker, asking for help, being profuse in your gratitude in any help they may give...and you will get much further...

Another trick - For many European languages which are commonly used, there are a lot of words in common (They are called cognates.) Romance languages like French, Spanish and Italian come originally from camp Latin spoken by the soldiers in the outposts of the Roman Empire, and so - if you know the kind of vocabulary you study for the SAT's and so on, you will ALREADY know LOTS of words you can use. For example: in Spanish necessary is necesario. Practically the same word, right? And there are countless others. Since my Spanish is relatively weak, in a pinch I reach for the cognates of high-flown English words - like conversar for talking - or comision (there's an accent there on sion) for commission. Practically all the -ion words have equivalents in Spanish!!

Now sometimes you will be led astray - those are called "false cognates" - but you can pick that up in time, as your language gets better. But don't let those gaps in your knowledge keep you from making the effort just to COMMUNICATE. Germanic languages are also closely allied to English - on the Anglo-Saxon level - so you have cognates in German like Apfel for apple, and Haus for house...This even holds true in Russian! And many modern technological words are international like "computer" and so on...Take advantage of those similarities right from the start. You may sound a bit peculiar, but you are already a leg up from not being understood at all!

Now the reason I don't think you should lean TOO heavily on phrase books, is that if you just parrot a phrase, you won't know how to take it apart once you have learned it - to make other variations. It's better to learn how the "doers" are talked about - how the "actions" are expressed, and modified. Then you can depart into further linguistic territory.

There are SO MANY more tools out there for language acquisition then when I first started. Use them! I have found great, inexpensive software for learning my Spanish, and haven't even taken a class at all - as I did for my other languages. Of course, it does depend on your level of discipline, and I have to admit it's easier to have an instructor pound those verb forms into you - but think about it, how does a BABY learn? By sheer repetition, and correction. So if you just go over and over the material, some will stick eventually! Even without formal study, per se.

Another tip - when first trying to read another language, remember the baby analogy and try children's books in the other language. They will be written in a simple form and be a lot less frustrating. Look up the words you don't know and write them in the book. After writing them a few times - guess what, you will remember them. If you are traveling, read signs - they are also usually simple. (There is even a British series of language books that has you learn a language through SIGNS.)

Get as many streams of information coming in as possible. Don't just rely on one book, one grammar, one learning CD - or you will find that you have gaps in your knowledge. It seems best to cover the same elementary ground from several angles, especially if you are studying on your own, to make sure than you fill in the gaps of each book's way of teaching. And keep it up. You will make much quicker progress if you devote, say, 15 minutes to an hour each day on your new language. It will help you remember. I know my languages get rusty if I don't use them. Even my good ones. Think of the analogy of working out at the gym, you don't expect to press hundreds of pounds right away do you? No, of course not. It's a matter of gradually working up to it. The same with any language.

Hope this little essay will encourage you to either go out and learn another language - or work on the ones you have been exposed to. As the great German poet Goethe once said, "He who doesn't know another language, doesn't know his own." Because each language is its own window on the world. And the English window is hardly the only one around. Open another window, and see what happens! It will be fun, really.