A while ago I came across an article written by a polyglot in which he went through all the languages he had studied and listed what he had learnt from each one. The concept was really interesting to me, and I loved the idea that you can still keep discovering new things even when it comes to learning your 4th, 5th and 6th language.
Unfortunately I can no longer find the original article, but it has inspired me to write something similar about my own experiences learning languages. It’s been fun to think back on the many hours memorising vocab and getting to grips with grammar in various languages!
Whilst my own linguistic repertoire is nowhere near as impressive as the author of the article, I have dabbled in various languages over the years, so I will talk about the most relevant ones and what they have taught me!
French
I first learnt French at infant school, though the only thing I can remember is once having some French students visit to help us learn. I studied it once again in year 7 and year 8, and the experience taught me that, even for keen linguists, not every language appeals. I just never seemed to get to the point where I enjoyed it, and found myself annoyed with all the letters that weren’t pronounced!
Spanish
The second language I was taught was Spanish, when I was in the final years of junior school. Once I was in year 8 it appeared on my timetable once more, and I chose to continue it to GCSE, A-level and then university. The past 10 years of learning Spanish have proven to me that there are still days when I struggle, and sometimes it feels like I’ll never be fluent. But on the flip side are the times when I have an entire conversation without even having to think about it, full of complicated grammar and even some colloquial sayings. It really is a satisfying feeling, and what I have to remind myself is that there are good days and bad days, but that doesn’t mean I’m bad at it!
German
I first studied German as part of a language competition that I did during year 6 and 7, organised by a company called Eurotalk. I continued it in year 7 and haven’t looked back since! German has taught me that having a mathematical mind can help with language learning; I learn well with rules and structure, so the logical German grammar made the learning process much easier for me. Whilst I appreciate that not everything in languages can be treated like a maths equation, for me learning the rules was the perfect introduction to a language that I still love today!
Thai
For the second stage of the Eurotalk competition I learnt Thai. It was the first language I’d studied that used a different alphabet to my native tongue, but I realised that it is perfectly possible to make good progress in a language even if you can’t read and write it. Unfortunately, I didn’t continue with my Thai after the competition and soon found out that you can forget a language surprisingly quickly when you no longer practise it. However, I can still ask “where are the suitcases?”.
Swahili
The third and final stage of the competition involved learning Swahili. From this I discovered that learning a language can also teach you a lot about the culture and history of the country where it is spoken. For example, telling the time in Swahili is different to most other languages: for them, 1am is the first hour after sunrise, which would be 7am to most of us. That means that when they look at a clock they have to subtract 6 from whatever time is showing to be able to express the time in their usual way. I love that something as simple as telling the time can provide such a fascinating insight into another country!
Chinese
I briefly went to lunch time classes in Chinese whilst I was at school, though didn’t carry it on to an advanced level. What I did learn, though, is that languages can differ to your own in more ways than you realise! Chinese is a tonal language, meaning that changing the pitch of a word can change its meaning, which is so very different to all the languages I’d learnt up until that point! Although I didn’t continue with Chinese, the small amount I learnt about it certainly gave me a new way of thinking about language.
Italian
The most recent language that I’ve had experience with has been Italian. I’d always thought that the next language I would learn would be Italian, and was lucky enough that my boyfriend, whom I met at university, has family from Italy so can speak a bit of the language himself! We went to Italy together to visit some of his family and friends and I loved listening to them converse in a new language. It’s amazing how much you can pick up just from listening to others! That trip certainly whet my appetite for Italian, and one year later I signed up for a week-long intensive course in beginner’s Italian. I loved having the opportunity to study it properly, and realised that the more languages you speak, the easier it is to learn new ones! From similar vocabulary (especially if the languages are related) to learning techniques, you are well equipped to start learning more! Italian has had to take a back seat at the moment, but I’m hoping that after graduation, when I will hopefully have a little more money and time, I can start it up again to add to my German and Spanish.
Languages can teach you more than you think: besides the obvious things like new words and new cultures, you discover what you are good at, what you enjoy, and the most effective ways of learning. But by far the most important thing I’ve learnt over the years is how much fun languages are, and how addictive… I’m already planning the next one I want to learn!
Life of a Language Graduate 