It’s easy to get discouraged about language
learning, especially when you still don’t speak the language after five years! During our fifth year, Turkish neighbors asked
my husband, “So you’ve been living here a long time now. How come you don’t speak any better than
this?” They didn’t mean to be unkind, but we were left speechless and
discouraged.
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| My Husband and Daughter |
It’s been a long road, and we've learned some things together about language learning:
Determination is Key
After five years Javier could hardly speak a
grammatical sentence, but he didn’t let it stop him. He has carried on daily language study for 11
years now. He still devotes one hour a
day to reading the newspaper and the Bible in Turkish and to reviewing grammar
and vocabulary. The pay-off is that he can now preach a short message in
Turkish, something relatively few foreigners can do.
A Humble Spirit Speaks Louder Than Words
My dear husband speaks imperfect Turkish, but Turks
love Him because he approaches them with a humble, gentle spirit. His
limitations with the language don’t stop him from demonstrating God’s love and
father heart in this country where many never had good fathers.
Friendship is a Door to Learning
Most of us would rather wait until we’re comfortable
with the language to reach out to people. You may feel intimidated by your lack
of language, but try making small gestures of friendship. Take the first step. Walk up to the person at the park and start
talking. Take a deep breath and just do
it. Take some cookies to a
neighbor. Invite someone over for tea or
coffee. While you make friends, you learn more language.
Here’s what a fellow blogger in Solomon Islands says about her experience:
“When
I began to learn Lavukaleve, I decided to focus on people and narrow domains of
garden, cooking, fishing, mostly things women do. Now, even though my language
is about even with a two-year-old's vocabulary, I have great friends. And
language learning is still difficult, but it's more fun because I'm with
friends!”
Children Are an Asset
Most of us mothers view children as a hindrance to
our language learning, but they can be a great asset. When my kids were small and
we were newly arrived, I could barely speak but I knocked on doors to meet
other mothers because I was anxious for my kids to have friends. I took them to
the park often, and it was natural to start chatting with other women. Soon I was part of a small community of
mothers which proved to be a living language school for me.
So that’s a little bit about our language learning
experience. What about you? How long
have you been in country? How are you doing with the language?
learning french - a year of formal study at an university that has a specific program for language acquisition was relatively easy. learning a mostly oral tribal language more informally and surrounded by ministry has been so very hard.
ReplyDeletei'm nowhere near where i wish i was. i finally understand, though, how you can read a language and have no clue what the actual words are saying.
Oh Richelle, my heart goes out to you! Two languages. That must be really hard. Do your tribal language speakers speak French also?
Deleteanyone who has been educated speaks some french. but that leaves a lot of women who only speak tribal languages.
DeleteI love this post! How encouraging!
ReplyDeleteWe've been in Russia for almost 7 years. It's a difficult language, especially when it comes to the grammar! I love languages and was a linguistics major, but I have found my life stage has made learning Russian a slower process since I can't focus as many hours on study and practice.
The thing that has accelerated my language learning the most is what you said about hanging out on the playground with other moms. I am very motivated to have friends to socialize with and want my kids to have friends to play with too, so the added personal motivation has really helped me to be bolder. I've learned more on the playground than I ever did in language school, and it's more fun, rewarding, and totally free! =) I've still got a long ways to go to be fluent, but I now feel comfortable talking to most people most of the time.
Wow, Ashley, I think that if you're feeling comfortable talking to most people most of the time after 7 years in Russian (with little children of your own to care for) then you are AMAZING! I kind of think feeling comfortable is the most important thing. I don't speak perfectly, but I feel comfortable in Turkish, too! :-) I think I've gotten used to circumnavigating what I don't know how to say!
DeleteAshley, I was a linguistics major, too! My focus was on language acquisition and Slavic linguistics. I think having that background made me have some unrealistic expectations on how easily/quickly I would learn Spanish when we moved here. Being in the life stage of babies and toddlers has made learning drastically different for me than it was as a college student!
DeleteAshley, that has been very much my experience, too. I never got to study Russian or linguistics formally, and I've been here a little longer than you, but otherwise, I could have written what you wrote. It was actually very encouraging to me when I finally read, after about five years in Russia, that Russian really is considered a hard language. Yeah, it took me five years to figure that out. :-) But it wasn't just that I'm thick-headed; Russian is objectively hard!
DeleteI really have no idea what level I'm at officially, but I am comfortably conversant, especially when the topic is a "mom thing." The way I've learned is really reflected in what I know. In fact, I'm actually more comfortable discussing parenting and child health and such in Russian than in English, because I've never gotten to spend time as a mom on an American playground.
We spent nearly 2 years studying Portuguese in Portugal, and now we are in South America and trying to learn Spanish. Of course, God would call us to Spanish speaking Latin America, and not Brazil! :) Thankfully, the 2 languages are VERY similar, so I feel like we have made quicker progress with the Spanish, since we have the Portuguese to help us out. I think part of it may also be that the third language is easier to learn than the second because when you study a 2nd language, part of what you are doing is not only learning to speak another language, but training your brain HOW to learn another language.
ReplyDeleteI think more than anything, my experiences with other languages have taught me that learning another language is a PROCESS and that there are different levels of fluency, the highest of which is years in the achieving. I had grand hopes of being perfectly fluent in Portuguese after 2 years of study, but the kind of fluency I envisioned actually takes YEARS of study and practice. Also, I hope that my experiences have given me more compassion for people who are learning English as a 2nd language. It isn't easy, and it really gets on my nerves now when I hear Americans (who have never bothered trying to learn another language) say things like "You're in America now -- speak English!" as if immigrants can learn to speak perfectly in a 2-week crash course.
yeah... i find that pretty frustrating and arrogant, too. :-)
DeleteThat is a really good point about immigrants in America!
DeleteI actually use Portuguese here in Turkey! Among our Latin team, I hear it often and can understand 80%, but not speak! They get our Spanish more easily.
I think it's true that the more you learn, the easier it gets.
And the more you learn, the more you realize there is to learn! :) We have been told that it is easier to go from speaking Portuguese to speaking Spanish than the other way around. And it does seem that Portuguese speakers have an easier time understanding Spanish than vice versa. Although, when I went to Brazil for a week last year, I had a really hard time understanding Brazilian Portuguese. It is different from European Portuguese in many ways.
DeleteWhile I started learning Spanish in 7th grade, all 4 years in High school and 2 semesters in college, I still needed a year of language school and now a tutor 2 times a week. I still sound like 2 year old most of the time. I know I have some problems with language acquisition, but I am trying. I long for the day when I don't tremble with fear when I have to say something :)
ReplyDeleteGood for you that you're continuing with a tutor. I was one of those people that got scared when I had to talk too!
DeleteThis was just the post I needed today! And it sounds like I really need to give myself a whole lot if grace. We've only been on this journey six months on-field, trying to learn on our own, but just scheduled an appointment to start working with a tutor next week. It will be nice when we reach the understandable toddler phase.
ReplyDelete