Languages and Imagination

Language learning has gotten a bad rap through the years!   Unpleasant images spring up of long vocabulary lists and verb conjugations to be mastered before we were even allowed to order a coke in another language.

It was like a Jane Fonda exercise video telling us we had to "feel the burn" in order to acquire another language.

I survived traditional language instruction in school because I enjoyed learning languages, no matter how they were taught.   But as an adult, I have freedom to choose my own language learning path.

Nowadays language learning is much more sociable.  We are encouraged to use language for real communication with others.

But the reality of language study is that sometimes we don't have anyone to communicate with in the language we want to practice. It still often remains a solitary activity.  So I have been trying to fire up my imagination to liven up language study time.

I usually spend about an hour a day on Duolingo, practicing four languages.  Sometimes Duolingo asks for a translation into English and at other times a translation from English.  With each translation, I try to conjure up a scenario in which I would use the sentence.  Memory experts tell us we need to connect new information to an image that will help us recall it.  And that picture in our minds can be nonsensical, funny, outrageous, or pleasurable.

My idea for creating scenarios began, I believe, with my husband Wayne's Spanish study.  The sentence in question was "El gato no cabe en la puerta."   (The cat doesn't fit in the door.)  I imagined something like Alice in Wonderland's Cheshire cat, trying to come across the threshold with a big grin on its face.

In Duolingo  Portuguese, I am at a Level 14, so I find lots of interesting sentences for imagining. "Please, give me another chance" was the latest.     I am driving my red Lamborghini a bit too fast up the beautiful Douro River Valley of Portugal when a handsome young policeman pulls me over.  I bat my eyelashes at him and say, Por favor, me dê outra chance.  Well, a girl can dream.

My Level 12 Duolingo Spanish provides me with pithy comments like, "That is going to resolve itself."  I'm in the plaza at Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain, admiring the cathedral.

A bedraggled female pilgrim begins telling me her trials and tribulations on the Way of St. James. She has met her soul mate, but he has taken up with a hippy actress from California. I assure her with Eso se va a resolver solo,  not even believing it myself.  Ah, el amor!

As I try to use imagination with my other two languages, French (Level 6) and Irish (Level 5), I have to work a bit harder. I'm on a train in France, and it is dinner time.  I'm not much of a meat eater, but I would rather eat chicken than beef, so I ask a young teenager in the dining car (who perhaps won't make fun of my American accent), Tu manges du poulet? (Are you eating chicken?)  I won't even try to imagine his response.

Irish (Level 5) has been a true challenge. At this stage of learning, my Irish knowledge is mostly nouns.  I am in Dublin, Ireland, and a robbery occurs in the pub where I have dropped by for a pint and some lively music.

 

A handsome Irish policeman is taking notes on the incident.  "Who were the robbers, ma'm?" he asks politely.  Bean agus fear  (a woman and a man), I reply.  "Thanks, darlin'," he replies with a wide grin. 

So, as you can see, I have been having a really entertaining time learning other languages.  I hope you have as well!