I have recently come back from a lovely trip to France. My parents live there and we go over at least once a year to visit. As my children get older and are learning more French, I am becoming more aware of the language influences of my childhood and how they have shaped my view of speaking another language. I grew up believing that all adults spoke more than one language. This was modelled to me by my parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. We had family living in France and found ways to communicate with our French cousins, even when we spoke little French and they little English. I travelled and heard different languages spoken. It is undoubted that these experiences have shaped my view of the world and that I felt encouraged and secure in learning a language. It felt normal to me, and I saw the purpose, therefore, language learning felt just as important to me as learning maths and English in school, probably more so than learning science.
Does this mean that to successfully learn a language you must have had early exposure?
It helps, of course, but is not essential. I had friends at university, who were also studying languages, but had travelled little compared to me. They were successful because they wanted to learn. The thing that matters when learning anything, but especially another language, is mindset. If we want to learn a language, if we feel the need to learn a language, if there is a purpose to learning a language, if we are motivated to learn a language, then we will be successful.
My children love learning other languages. They both learnt French from age 7 in school, but were also exposed to it from very early on, as my parents live there. They too have been shaped by the adults around them and see their grandparents speak French fluently, their mother communicate successfully in French and even their father, who speaks little French (but very good German!), still uses what French he can when he can. [If ever we want a ham sandwich and a beer – he is our man!] They love trying out their French and when they do are always greeted with enthusiasm by the French. Although they cannot communicate a great deal yet. I know that the encouragement they receive at this stage is essential to their language learning mindset.
On this trip there were a few occasions when my ability to understand and speak French were helpful. The first time was in a supermarket. Usually, supermarkets in foreign countries are fairly easy to navigate as you can pick out your own groceries and put them in the trolley with no need to ask for them. However, I needed to weigh the fruit and veg to obtain the price label, before taking them to the checkout to be scanned. Firstly, just knowing this was the system was helpful and saved an awkward conversation at the till. there is a set of scales you can use with nice pictures of everything to guide you through the process … until I got to the lemons, for which there was a generic picture of various fruits, so it was necessary to understand the words. Now, I often assume anyone could navigate this sort of thing, but that is because I speak the language. Following a conversation with my daughter and my husband afterwards, it was clear that you needed to be able to understand these words in order to deal with this situation. Not a major issue, I grant you, but it makes life easier, after all who wants to spend more time than necessary in supermarket when on holiday?
Another such occasion was in a great restaurant we discovered for lunch one day. The lovely lady serving us spoke a few words of English, which she used after realising my husband and children spoke little French. However, when it came to explaining the way the lunch menu worked, she was stumped. Luckily, I am able to speak French well enough to understand and she looked very relieved to be able to overcome the language barrier so easily. She continued to speak to us all in French after that and was wonderful with my children and demonstrated a few different ways of saying “You’re welcome!”, giving them a fab mini-learning opportunity.
The final occasions were both when I was with my Dad. We had an issue with our trailer tent and my Dad and I went off to find a spare part. My Dad did most of the talking, but was asked a question that he didn’t know the answer to. I did and I understood and was able to respond in French. This saved the need for Dad to translate to me and translate back … as we all know, things often get lost in translation after all! The final time was when we stopped to chat to a neighbour who asked my Dad a question about their chickens and he couldn’t remember the answer. This was no language issue; he had simply forgotten! I knew though and responded to their question. It kept the conversation natural and flowing. It meant I was part of the conversation and being able to communicate with my parents’ friends and neighbours is lovely. Of course, as my dad is a fluent French speaker neither situation posed a major communication issue, however, my ability to understand and speak French made for smoother and friendlier transactions.
Now I’m not suggested that any of these situations posed major issues to the smooth running of my holiday, however, the fact remains, that when I travel, and speak the language of the country I am visiting, I really enjoy the experience! It enhances my trip to be able to communicate with the people around me. Every time I go, I learn a little bit more and that feeling of learning and increasing my knowledge – I can whole heartedly recommend it to anyone.
Interested in what you have read here?
Would you like to learn another language?
Drop me an e-mail and we can discuss what you would like to achieve from learning a language.
jmoses@languagesforall.org.uk
