The Elusive Goal of Knowing Other Languages

"I would love to speak _______ (fill in the blank with any one of the world's approximately 6500 languages)" is a phrase I hear often, not only from other people, but also in my own head.  Few of us would pass up the opportunity to know another language if it were offered on a silver platter. But the road to language acquisition is not, in most cases, an easy one. Blessed are those who have the opportunity to learn more than one language in childhood, for they will not suffer!  Most adults, however, do find it difficult to navigate the world of foreign language learning.

How can we make language acquisition a more realistic goal, one we can reach and feel good about? Here are three suggestions.

Get more specific about goals. What do you mean when you say you want to learn Russian, for example?  Most people will answer the question by naively stating, "Well, everything." In the real world, that's probably not going to happen.  More doable goals may sound something like these:   learning enough Irish Gaelic to read signs on dreamed of vacation to Ireland, maintaining Spanish speaking ability to navigate hotels and restaurants in Mérida, México, getting one's ear attuned enough to French to enjoy all that Canadian train travel has to offer, or improving grammar knowledge of Portuguese as an intellectual activity.  (You may have already guessed that these sample examples come from my personal experiences.) 

Match goals to learning activities.  Once you have a specific goal in mind, the next step is to wade through the plethora of books, workbooks, CD's,  formal courses, online courses, social sites, and commercial learning packages available.  And the advice here is caveat emptor. 

I would be very wary of claims like this one!

  
I speak from experience because I am probably the world's greatest sucker when it comes to foreign language materials, always hoping to discover THE ONE.  Recently I have enjoyed using Duolingo, an online language learning program which is completely free.

I have lots of praise for Duolingo because, first of all, it is fun and easy to use.  And more importantly, it is motivating.  I am currently on a 770 day streak of getting points on Duolingo every single day.  I find the program great for language maintenance, which keeps me from experiencing "language attrition." in languages I have studied previously.  But for learning a new language from scratch, I feel the need to supplement the program with other materials.

   

Be realistic about spending time and money.  Take a close look at time commitments and budget to decide how much of each you are willing to devote to language study. A short study session every day is preferable to a longer session less frequently.  I spend about 30 minutes every day on Duolingo, working in four languages.  It has become part of a daily life routine. However, I have been less successful finding a good fit for a supplementary program in Irish Gaelic.  The books I have found on Kindle were not inspiring because I didn't want to wade through a lot of pronunciation and grammar rules at the beginning.  I did sign up for a free trial of an online Irish program, which looks promising, but I haven't yet decided if I want to spend the time and money to enroll.  

The experience of learning another language can be a disappointing failure or a transporting life experience, or anything in between.  I am inspired to continue with language acquisition  by the words of Nelson Mandela:

Irish accents have captivated me

What a treat to watch a historical drama and hear another dialect of English as a bonus.

I'm thinking of the TV series "Peaky Blinders," now in its third season on Netflix from the BBC.

One of the main characters in the first two episodes is Major Chester Campbell who plays a detective from the Royal Irish Constabulary, sent from Belfast, Northern Ireland to subdue a criminal gang in Birmingham, England (the "Peaky Blinders").  Major Campbell is a character I grew to despise as the series progressed, and I did not mourn when he was sent to his just reward.  I must admit though I did love it every time he came on the scene because of his lyrical, captivating Irish accent, even when he said truly horrible things. 

Major Campbell is played by the actor Sam Neill.  I read that Mr. Neill enlisted the help of two Northern Irish actors, James Nesbitt and Liam Neeson to coach him in using an Ulster Irish accent; however, Mr. Neill had to tone down his accent because the series was going to be distributed for American audiences.  What a shame!  As long as closed captioning remains available, I would have been intrigued by a "full strength" Irish English accent.

See if you can pick out Major Campbell's accent in the following YouTube trailer.

Another connection I have to Irish English is an interest in Irish Gaelic, which I get a daily dose of on the language learning site Duolingo.  Irish English is also known as Hiberno-English, a set of dialects spoken in the different regions of Ireland. And some of the features of Hiberno-English can be traced to Irish Gaelic.

Irish Gaelic does not use separate words for "yes" and "no" when answering questions.  Rather, a Gaelic speaker answers with the verb of the question, using a negative form of the verb if needed. As a result, Hiberno-English speakers use the words "yes" and "no" less frequently than speakers of other English dialects. Examples would be  "Are you leaving soon?  I am." "Is your car fixed?  It isn't."

Another difference in Hiberno-English and Standard English is the use of the verbs "bring" and "take."  (I must admit to finding these words confusing.)  In Standard English, direction is the deciding factor of which verb to use.  Going from here to there?  Use "take."  Coming from there to here?  Use "bring."  In Hiberno-English, "take"  is only used to describe transfer of possession from one person to another.  "Bring" is used in all other circumstance, whether coming or going.

Have you ever wished English had a plural form for "you"?  Irish English has one, based on the influence of Gaelic, which has both a singular you, "tú" and a plural you, "sibh."  The form is "ye" or sometimes "yous" or "youse."  (We Texans are just as inventive as the Irish with our "y'all.")

Great history.  Great language lessons.  Great entertainment.  The series "Peaky Blinders" provides it all.