Why Not Learn Another Language?

When I was a high school student, I wanted to become a nurse. We didn't have guidance counselors in the schools in those days, but someone told me that nurses had to be able to speak Latin. I didn't question it, and the very next term, I enrolled in our school's Latin class.

Well, I didn't become a nurse; I got into banking, instead, but I absolutely loved learning Latin.

Our family moved to a much smaller town the next year where Latin wasn't offered, but Spanish was so I gave that language a try also. I didn't enjoy it as much, but even today, I can still pick up a Spanish newspaper and get the gist of what I see in the articles there. Occasionally I overhear someone near me speaking in Spanish and pick up a few words of what they are talking about although the speed at which the conversation is traveling often leaves me far behind. Perhaps it's time for a refresher course at our local community college.

What I'm saying is that if I can learn to read and speak not one but two foreign languages, you can, too.

So, how do you get started?

1. Decide what particular language you want to concentrate on.

Ask yourself what the chances are of you ever being in a country that uses the language you are interested in learning are. Will you spend a considerable amount of time among people who speak the language, or will you use the new language just for reading?

Spanish, for people who live in the United States is an excellent choice since most of us have some contact with Latinos at school, at work, or in our neighborhoods. It is also considered one of the easier languages to learn. (I can tell you that it was a lot easier for me than Latin, but no more enjoyable.) French and German are two other popular possibilities, and if you have relatives living in some other non-English speaking area, you may have even more choices. Perhaps you are a Bible student and would enjoy studying scriptures in original languages.

2. Choose the method you want to use to learn the language of your choice.

There are a lot of ways to learn a new language. I have friends who are missionaries and they were sent to a foreign language school. After an intensive 6-week classroom course in Spanish, they were sent to a small town in Mexico where they worked with the pastor of the local church there. No one spoke anything but Spanish around them, and, although they had moments when they thought of giving up, they began to learn the language. Before the year ended, they were speaking Spanish like the natives, and, today, they say they think it was the best possible way to learn a language.

Our local community college has Spanish classes for those who are taking a language for credit, and also classes in conversational Spanish, where you kind of sit and talk together with the instructor, picking the language up gradually over a period of time. Even though it takes a bit longer, I would prefer this method over the previous one as I think of situations where I might really need to get a point across, or require the answer to a question such as, "Where is the restroom?" and I would be pretty upset if I couldn't make myself understood.

My mother, when she turned 65, suddenly decided to learn Spanish. She had no traveling plans, and, as far as I knew, she had no Latino acquaintances. But she was determined. She bought a beginning Spanish primer and began to learn words. She copied the vocabulary list on little cards and stuck several new words up in her kitchen window each day. As she washed dishes, she practiced her words. When I came to visit, she loved to have me quiz her on the words and even read me little stories in her Spanish book, as delighted as a child who is first learning to read.

Did she ever use her Spanish anywhere else? I don't think so, but it brought great enjoyment and a purpose into her life.

There are foreign language courses on CD's that can be purchased at a reasonable cost so that you can learn almost any language in existence right in your own home.

Rosetta Stone is one of the best know language learning courses. If you go to source 1 below, you can take their free demonstration to get an idea of how they approach teaching a language. My demonstration was for Swedish. They showed a series of pictures and then a sample word. You clicked on the picture that you though matched the word. At first I thought, "this is ridiculous--I'll never find the right picture," but after a few tries, I found that I knew the word that went with each picture by sight and as they mixed in more pictures, I learned those words, too. Even though they pronounced each word clearly, I had a bit of a problem with the speech part because Swedish pronunciation is much different from English, but with more practice, I think I could learn to speak it with no problem. (1)

Another online language learning course that I thought looked promising was LanguageSchool. (2) Their courses include the traditional basics like grammar, vocabulary lists, and practice exercises., and, best of all, they were free. Language School appealed to me more than Rosetta Stone, probably because their teaching method is closer to the one I learned by when I took Latin and Spanish in high school, but I must admit that the Rosetta Stone method, because of the way they use the words in their natural settings, really did impress me, too. It has already been several hours since I took their demonstration course and the words are still pretty fresh in my mind.

Anyway, above are the 5 main ways that people are choosing to learn a new language; total immersion, local language classes, learning from a textbook at home, studying from interactive discs or taking an online class. If you are really interested in learning a new language, choose one of them for yourself and start the ball rolling.

Studies have shown that older people who use their mental facilities frequently are less likely to succumb to senility as they age, so if you, like me, have found yourself classed in that group known as senior citizens, learning a language might be just what you need to keep you young.