THE FIVE MYTHS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING
by porchowski [Unsubscribe] [Edit Diary]
THE FIVE MYTHS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING
By DCNEWSPEG
I assume that most everyone who reads KOS shares at least one thing in common - we have all studied at least one other language while in school and probably disliked the experience as much as regret now not having learned another language fluently. Similarly, probably most KOS readers understand the danger to our national security caused by the fact that Americans do not speak other languages. And probably most KOS readers think we have to begin language learning early in a child's life as it is so difficult to learn one as an adult. Well, I am a typical American who hated language learning when I was in school in my native Southern California. But a few years after college, I was able to speak four languages fluently and easily; I even raised my children in three. I think there are five myths that most Americans believe about learning foreign languages that inhibit us as adults from learning them.
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The first is that we think it's too late. Most Americans have totally bought into the myth that children learn languages much easier than adults and the best time to learn another language is when you are young - preferably before the age of five. But think about it! Adults actually have many more tools than children to learn other languages. We can read and write. We know grammar. We even know we are studying another language. The only advantages pre-school children have in learning another language is that they have very little vocabulary to learn (less than 200 words usually) and most of them (tho not all) can mimic sounds well and can speak other words without an accent.
And that leads us to the second myth. Many Americans think in order to be considered fluent in another language you have to speak it without an accent. Well let me say two words that should dispel you of that myth: Henry Kissinger.
The third myth is that most people assume that bilinguals can read and write in both languages. But here's a fact for you to consider. There are more bilinguals in the world than monolinguals - when you count millions of people in rural tribes of Africa or India who have to speak two languages just to get through a day. It is said that the majority of bilinguals are illiterate. Reading and writing has nothing to do with "lengualism" - lengua, tongue, oral ability.
The fourth myth is that almost everyone thinks if you are fluent in another language you can translate in and out of it. But translation - particularly oral interpretation - is a brain dexterity skill. Some people can do it and many can not.
The fifth myth is the most insidious of all. Almost everyone assumes that multilingual people know their languages equally. That is almost impossible. Even the best multilinguals in the world - the simultaneous interpreters with whom I worked at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland - had to indicate which was their dominant language, when they applied for their jobs. That dominant tongue is the one they are schooled in before the age of puberty - and not necessarily the language they speak at home with their mothers and/or their fathers. It is even established in a different part of the brain than other languages they know.
So eschew the myths! If you want to learn another language now as an adult, go for it, knowing you can be fluent even if you have an accent! You may not be able to read it well! Nor translate in and out of it well! And you will never know it equal to your dominant tongue. But you can learn to speak fluently. Try it! It's crucial for our future international relations and as examples to our yout. And it's fun! Es divertido! C'est tres amusante! Es macht wirklich viel Spass!