Raise your hand if you were forced to take a language course in school – you know, the usual Spanish or French, and if you were in a better school district, Italian, Latin, German and even Chinese as my son just told me was offered. Now keep your hand raised if you remember a word of it – or can speak or write the language? Likely a good number of those raised hands went down. Even those of us who pursued language all the way through college and university, chasing French as if it were some dreamboat of a boyfriend or would land me one because I would woo him with my incredible language skills. In reality, I wooed only the professor, a woman, who nominated me for two awards for excellence in French on graduation.
I sheepishly walked on the stage, took my language awards and scurried off. In Britain, one had no choice but to study a language and since we went to France as often as someone from Long Island would visit Manhattan, it was the only language that made sense for me. IT meant that when we took the hovercraft to France, I could ask for the bread and the wine and the water in French and bring it back to my grandparents and my face would beam like the sun because I felt clever and worldly.
Still, language was hard, and though it came to me relatively easily, thank god, it was not glamorous the way some other awards and studies were. Why hadn’t I thought to go for Best Dressed or something sexier? I had been a cheerleading baton-twirler (yes, I know, wince wince). I had been the first in my track long-distance team; I had played first singles tennis and badminton. Awards for any of those surely would have had more sex appeal than my corny French and my even cornier translations of English Beat and Public Image songs from English into French for the school news paper (I wish I were kidding about this, and it mortifies me to tell you it is true.. alas).
Well, regardless; I won my awards for writing as well as excellence in language and several other minor awards, one for advanced placement calculus, and others that I don’t remember except that one girl whose name was Leslie Dick won one award for English that I was sure I was going to get but did not and I am certain that she could feel my laser-like eyes burning a hole in her back when she went to the stage to collect her (no my!) award.
Article comments
1 - Katharine Donelson
I love the living language series. I've kept up with the Italian I learned in college thanks to those fantastic tapes.
2 - sadi
yes, it's an excellent series. my french is by no means flawless - but the important thing is that i'm quite comfortable speaking it, writing it, reading etc. and so am very fluent in what i am able to do. so there are no language restictions should i want to move to france, which is likely at some point soon, i should think.
In any event, it's always better to not waste that valuable time in the car and use it for something that can help in other ways - three hours is a long time to just hang out and the CDs made it go a lot faster.
highly recommended this series - other series were not as good as this. Living Language is clearly the best in this writer's view.
3 - Aaman
j'etude le francais pour huit ans, mais parce que j'aussi etude l'allemand, les deux langues se 'confuse' dans ma tete. Maintenant,je deja etude l'allemand. (Pardon mon francáis)These sound like good books
4 - sadi
bon journee!
pardon, mais je ne sais pas cettle langue l'allemand. d'ou est cette langue
Les livres "Living Language" sont les meilleurs pour les etudiantes de francais ou aussi, des langues des les autres payes. c'est tres facile pour on ecoute dans la voiture quand je conduis as mon travaille (la route est plus de une heure - le totale est trois heures.).
Je comprends le probleme avec deux langues, parceque je parle aussi de Spanish, est encore, j'ai une probleme tres similar a vous - je parle "Franish' ou "Sprench" - !!
ah, bien. tout et bien que fini bien, si?
a tout a l'heure, et nous parlons un autre des ces jours...
pardon pour mon francais. Je suis practique est etudiee touts les jours mais des temps en temps, c'est difiicile a ecrire.
a bien tot -
sadi
5 - Aaman
l'allemand - c'est le le langue des 'Germans'
a bien tot
6 - Eric Olsen
thanks Sadi, very nice -foreign lagnuage is the absolute worst part of my education and I am embarrassed to admity I don't really speak any other language well. I only had to take two years (or Spanish) in high school and none in college - this is just a crime because I like many if not most, didn't take more if I didn't have to. We should have to.
7 - sadi
nothing wrong with not speaking the language ERic - i just had to because of the educational system i was raised with. it was never a choice. i hate snobbery over languages, but i'm glad that i have that skill for many reasons, mostly because when i travel, i like to able to communicate in the native tongue as they do when visiting us - it just seems right to make an effort. but i'm sure you make an effort - even if it's only a few words in a foreign tongue, it goes a long way and you know that... so never feel badly about that. and as i wrote, this wseries is amazing, though you likely don't have the time.
anyway... thx. for reading..
s.
8 - Aaman
The Indian school system requires the teaching of three languages to everyone - English is the primary language of education, Hindi mostly the secondary. The third is left open - most people study the local language of the state - about 14 major ones. I chose French and did it for 8 years - well into college. Makes one more creative, I feel.
9 - sadi
ah, yes, i work with many people from India who mostly speak Hindi, though a few spoke Telegoo (spelling?). Of course, everyone spoke English as well, which was amazing to me, because if i were in India, there's no way i could be speaking Hindo OR Telegoo and to me that says enough. I think it's just about respect. if one has the time and the inclinationm then as i said before, even picking up a few words here and there, like thank you and please really goes a long way in a foreign country. Whenever i travel, i pick up a few things. By now, i can say Good morning and God Bless in Arabic, French, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, and Greek - so anywhere i've been, pretty much. just a way of being polite when i travel...
thx. and thanks for telling me allemande - a new word for my language skills - didn't know that one.
cheers to all, and be well,
sadi
10 - Aaman
English is the universal language of the world today, despite other contenders.
When I was in China, I met this cool Italian. Over some drinking, we decided that there are three words of English that every human knows: "Yes", "OK" and "How Much?" So if you're in the Sahara, and see a man with a bottle of water, you pretty much know how the conversation is going to go.
11 - sadi
Aaman,
that's pretty great - i love that. made me laugh out loud. thanks for sharing - i'll have to remember that and pass it on. too funny...
speak to you soon...
cheers,
sadi
12 - Berenice Gasca
just wanted to make sure that the emails and every information related to the on line servives are free?
13 - SFC SKI
I for one am glad my school system made me take a foreign language, French. Even though I suffered through 2 years in junior high, a decade later in Paris it all came back to me, and while I was not likely to be mistaken for a native, I was fluent enough to be mistaken for a tour guide and ushered into the Moulin Rouge and given a complimentary bottle of champagne in appreciation for bringing my group there and paying $50 a head to see the show, I got in free.
If I'd only known then, I would have paid attention.
3 years of Spanish in high school, and like French I can read it and understand, even understand most lyrics in Spanish songs, but I really only speak it after being in the country for a bit.
Took German in night school while overseas, and that has really made living in Europe a lot more fun for me, even if one is not fluent, people are a lot more friendly if you make the attempt to speak their language.
I use Arabic as part of my work, and I really like this language, but all foreign languages are persihable skills, and without interaction with a native speaker, and reading or listening every day, it fades fast.
I am glad that places like India, and Germany to name but two countries, expose, if not outright force foreign languages on kids at an early age, they learn it much more easily at that age.
My wife and kids are bilingual because of it, and that will only help them in the future.
14 - sadi
hi and yes, the emails and the lessons that i receive in my inbox every day from About.com are totally free. You have to make sure you sign up at About, but yes, they send a new french lesson every day and you can check the answers on the site etc and the emails are always in french, so it's a great site and a great place to learn. check it out. i wouldn't recommend it if it were not free, or i would have noted the cost, but no, this one is totally free.
as for the Living Language CDs, those are NOT free; you have to buy those through Amazon, but they are totally reasonable and well worth the small cost for what you get - i learned so very much and you also get the books iwth them as well, including a pretty great french dictionary, so it's all a good deal. I've tried a lot of these and this is the best set i've come across.
yes, i spoke french before, but i really need to brush up and this helped a great deal.
for quick translations, go to Altavista's Babelfish and you can type in a block of text and then select which language you want it in - so you type in a whole letter in English and hten select English to French or English to Japanese or whatever and it gives you the whole text for free - likewise, you could put in a whole block of text in french and translate it into english. it's also a good way to learn and is free also.
just go to google and type in "Babelfish" and you'll find it. it's a great service and again, it's FREE FREE FREE!!
have fun out there...
a dieu...
s
15 - sadi
yes, Rob, you're right; languages were more forced upon us when we were kids than it seems they are today, especially in Europe. I had no choice but to learn two languages and three if you count English. I took French and Spanish and stuck with both, though i speak better FRench.
You are right: you have to keep practicing or it fades fast. One way to do that now is with the Internet there are chatrooms full of beginners or intermediate speakers who are native English and wish to converse in FRench or whatever and you can sign up free and go ahead and form a good group of people with whom to chat. And, if you're lucky, as i was, you might click with one person and hten you and s/he go off and can write back and forth in that language and really get good - it's a great thing.
I also have a couple of friends in France who don't speak any English, so i'm forced to write to them in French and when i visit, the only way to converse is likewise in French because literally, they speak NOT A WORD of english, so it's a requirement. As for the day to day stuff, i have a friend whom i instant message with and that's half english/half french, so you can practice that way. Plus i have my CDs in my little Mini and i'm telling you, driving around town saying "Seulement lui aurait pu le faire..." may sound ridiculous, but it's great practice and i find myself having trouble with English after a day of speaking French - i take this as a GOOD sign. I've even started dreaming in French... so there are ways...
if you need any links, let me know. i'm happy to look them up and help out though it sounds like you're doing great. Arabic - wow! you are brave. Thta would be very hard for me because graphically, it's so totally different that like any language like that, Chinese, Greek, etc etc, that doesnt' have a romance language alphabet, i find myself completley lost... just totally lost. it must be like being a child and having to start all over again with a language like that - you must be far smarter than i am, because i honestly don't think i could do it... really, so kudos to you!
Thanks for reading and for sharing your story too... i found it interesting and your taking on Arabic is something i really admire... so with that, i can say this, in shala ha habibi (is that right?) ...
be well,
sadi