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contributed by WorldLanguage.com A frequent question that arrives in my e-mail is the question, "What language should my child learn?" The expectation on the part of the parent is that a practical and simple answer will solve their conundrum of Spanish, French, Japanese, German, or whatever. The fact is that learning a language is like getting married. It is a high-maintenance activity that has a strong love-hate component. Every day demands attention to learning new things and thinking in new ways. While most parents would abhor the idea of an arrange marriage, they cheerfully assign Spanish to Billy or Betty with cool detachment and the assumption that Spanish and Billy or Betty will learn to love each other. No wonder we have so little success in the US with language learning. Language learning requires some kind of enthusiasm. Algebra we can learn and forget and no one is the wiser. I have never heard anyone lament the loss of recall for the quadratic equation. However, I cannot count the number of times someone has told me that they learned French or German in school and now cannot speak a word of it -- and always with a note of disappointment. I have had the lucky advantage of learning languages immersion with later formal training. When living in foreign places, there wasn't a lot of choice when I needed to get something to eat or stop a spreading skin infection other than to pluck up my courage and make some poor shopkeeper into the target of my ineptitude. After sufficient trial and error, I managed to be understood and then actually became capable of communication. This is exactly how any child learns their native language. The exceptionally artificial environment of the standard classroom, which is wholly removed from any real connection to the culture or people where the target language is spoken, is about the worst place anyone can be to learn a language other than solitary confinement. Sadly, there's little choice and thousands of under-appreciated language teachers have to struggle to keep students interested in something far from relevant to their lives. What parents need to understand is the need for passion and relevancy. Something has to motivate Billy or Betty to put up with the huge effort required to get basic proficiency. What would do that? How about food? How about music? How about World War Two movies? How about animals? How about anything that the child has an interest in or likes that also has a component in the targeted language. If Billy or Betty can't stand Spanish-style food, what chance is there that they will love the Hispanic culture or be motivated to learn the Spanish language? But if Billy or Betty find Japanese videogames to be too cool for words, then there is a very likely chance that at least there will be something to build a greater appreciation on and Japanese will, I assure you, be part of their daily life. I've had kids write to me wanting to learn the Maori language of New Zealand because some elements in the wildly popular Bionicle games have Maori names. (Yeah, I can just see the face of the principal pressed to bring Maori into the public school systems!) I have had letters from young people hot to learn German because of an interest in the Second World War. It really does not matter much what the thread might be that binds a kid's interest to another language. What matters is the bigger picture of how the culture that goes with the language resonates with the kid's own interests and tastes, realistic or not. Rap music? How about French rap music? Guitar? How about getting an old cheap koto (yes… I know it's oo-koto in Japanese) from the Internet and letting her or him learn how Japanese music works? No matter what it is, find an affinity. And, I ask the parents, are you willing to take Billy or Betty to places where the language is actually spoken? And, given the number of websites that have international materials or contacts with organizations who can promote culture, how about getting things that bring the language experience home, like maps and atlases and movies and music or anything from daily life. When I lived in Japan, I had an older aunt visit from England who was really there for my cousin up in Tokyo, but he went on a business trip to India and I was asked to entertain her in Osaka. I took her to kimono shops and all over Himeji Castle and to Kyoto until she demanded that I cease my tour-guide activity. I relented and told her I was off to the hardware store and then the green grocer for a bit. She asked to come along and five hours later we made it back to my apartment. As a woman who was an aircraft mechanic in the Second World War and had a hobby farm, she could not get enough of how interesting the differences were in Japanese hardware stores with all their odd tools and grocery stores with all the strange veggies. She went on to learn passable Japanese at the age of 70 all because of a chance encounter with something she had an interest in. Mind you, I spent a fortune sending her Japanese saws, snap-lines, and woodworking tools. But my point is that anyone can develop a passion for learning if it's relevant to his or her interests. It does not matter what the language is. What matters is that the investment and time prove worthwhile and rewarding in a personal way. If it's not somehow relevant, be prepared to hear, "Yeah, I had four years of that and can't remember a single…" source: WorldLanguage.com |
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