I’m not a linguist. Over the years, I have had a go at learning several languages: French, Spanish, Russian, German, Italian and Koine Greek (New Testament Greek). The results have been mixed at best.
My first trip to a foreign country was when I was in my early twenties. We were going to stay for a week in Frankfurt with a close friend of my wife. She was living with a German family and had arranged for us to stay with a couple she knew. We wanted to clarify some details, and this was in the age of landlines before the explosion of personal mobile phones and devices. So, I called the German family and waited for the phone to be answered. It was, and I launched into a sentence that I had been practicing over and over, “Ich mӧchte mit [name] sprechen, bitte”. (I would like to speak with [name], please). I particularly focussed on the pronunciation of ‘mӧchte’. English doesn’t have an umlaut, so I wanted to get this right.
But then I ran into a problem. Instead of going to going to get my friend, the voice at the other end spoke – in German – and I hadn’t got a clue what it said. Straight away I capitulated and reverted to typical English behaviour of expecting everyone to speak English. “What did you say?” I asked. The voice responded in perfect English, “I said, “I will go and get her””. And there we have my recurring problem with languages. Any slight progress in learning is always overwhelmed by what I still don’t know.
A few years later, In the mid-1990s, we did a 3-week family tour of western Europe and made it to the lakes of northern Italy. After erecting our tent, we made our way to the campsite café. After speaking English very slowly and very loudly with a lot of arm waving, we were given a table and some menus. We wanted to order three pizzas, which we were going to share between the 6 of us. I tried to explain this to the waiter who we gathered spoke Italian and German. I tried in my best German to explain that we wanted 3 pizzas cut in half. I felt very pleased and proud of myself for having coped so well with my mastery of the German language. After a brief wait our order arrived – 6 pizzas. The waiter had doubled the order instead of halving the pizzas.
There had clearly been a miscommunication and I think it was down to the language rather than applying the correct mathematical function. Both the waiter and I were working in a second language, but I think we can agree that I can’t lay any blame on the waiter.
On the same trip we travelled from Germany through the Black Forest into Switzerland. We arrived at a campsite in Interlaken. I parked the van and walked into the reception to check on the availability of places for an overnight stop. I was amazed to discover that the guy who talked to me was fluent in about 6-8 languages. I started to use my very poor German, but he detected straight away that German was not my first language. When he figured out that I was English, he said in perfect English, “OK, let’s start again – in English.” I have always been so impressed by people who switch from one language to another, but again I felt discouraged that my ability was so poor.
I thought I was destined never to be able to learn a foreign language. There was something in my genes that prevented me from learning. And it wasn’t until relatively recently that I’ve been able to challenge that assumption.
Retirement, covid lockdown and a free language app made me realise I was doing it all wrong and treating language learning like a maths problem. I was expecting a eureka moment when I would breakthrough and suddenly, I would be fluent. But language learning isn’t like that. Sure, there are rules of grammar which need to be learned. However, it turns out that small consistent steps are what it takes to learn a language. Gaining familiarity over time and building vocabulary. I understand that it takes a vocabulary of 10,000 words to reach fluency.
I had been too easily discouraged. Instead of celebrating my small steps of progress, and using that to propel me into further learning, I had focussed too much on my failures and allowed that to put me off.
For me it was the app that was the game changer. Using it every day for 3 years slowly built my confidence. There were days when I could have cheerfully thrown my mobile phone out of the window in frustration. But I kept coming back the next day and the next.
My strongest second language now is Spanish. According to a recent test, I have attained a CEFR level of B1 – intermediate. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) is an international standard for describing language ability. It consists of a 6-point scale from A1 – beginner to C2 – proficient. I got to this level primarily by completing the Duolingo tree on the app. I started in the September before the covid lockdown and finished it about a year ago. I was hoping to have made more progress toward fluency if I am honest. But there doesn’t seem to be a clear path from the intermediate plateau to the lofty peak of proficiency. The advice appears to be to just keep using the language daily. Follow the process and let the result take care of itself.
I have started to ascend the Duolingo French tree. It’s early days but I appear to be making faster progress. I’m up to a CEFR level of A2 – pre intermediate, so still a long way to go. My motivation here is that my two younger boys are both at early stages of French at school. I thought that if I worked at it at the same time, it would encourage them. Something appears to be working, as my older son came home from school very pleased to have earned an accolade for his French. I’m not totally au fait with the award system, but I believe an accolade sits somewhere above a merit and an e-praise point.
I still get moments of discouragement. I was talking to someone recently about hobbies and mentioned my interest in languages. I said I was studying French, at which point she launched into a French dialogue in a perfect French accent. I hadn’t a clue what she said, and I felt embarrassed. But I didn’t let that stop me from going home and doing my French exercises for that day. And then keep showing up.
It is slow, but its about familiarity, keeping going and trusting the process. My latest language is New Testament Greek. I am two-thirds of my way through an introduction to Greek grammar. But as I write I must admit that I have lost momentum and am struggling to complete the book. Much of what I have written above is reminding me to trust the process of taking small consistent steps. I have been able to read and translate short passages of the New Testament, which has brought these passages to life in a fresh way.
This short series of blogs is about things that I am passionate about and interest me. I am finding that as I write about these things, I am reminding myself of these subjects and why I find them fascinating. But beyond that my writing is rekindling the passion and the interest. So, where I have lost momentum, as with the Greek, I am challenging myself to pick this up again.
It is also making me think about the future. I am finding myself thinking about travel again, maybe another trip to Europe. The last time I travelled overseas was about 7 years ago – pre covid. It would be a fun way of putting the language learning to good practise. The paperwork will probably be a bit more involved, post Brexit, and border crossings may be a little more tedious and time consuming, but on a cold, wet, grey November morning it sounds quite appealing.
Now, where did I put my passport?
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