Gingrich's petty swipe at Mitt Romney for speaking French got me thinking about the ridiculous suspicion Americans give to foreign tongues. Growing up in a very small, very homogeneous mid-western town was anything but exotic. I guess I was different from an early age. I dreamed in exotic. On those very rare occasions when I was exposed to someone speaking a foreign language, I would stare at them in utter fascination. It gave me a taste for the world beyond my small boarders that I've never gotten over. My first opportunity to actually study a language presented itself my freshman year of high school in 1976. Our tiny school offered French and Spanish. Being gay and elitist beyond my station, I chose French. I would master this beautiful language and perhaps go on to work as an Attaché in Paris, a city I would take by storm. The world would be my snail.
Have a croissant on me.
It didn't take but about a month for the reality to hit. I was to learn this complicated language in three forty minute classes per week using a method as dry as chalk? Thanks for setting me up for failure, system. I struggled through two years of this exercise in futility and can honestly say today that mon Française est merde and I'm not an Attaché.
Fast forward two decades later to 2003. I had been visiting Holland on a regular basis since 1987. Something about the attitude of the people, the human scale of the architecture, the culture, it all just clicked for me. Everyone finds their bliss somewhere. Mine was found in Nederland. I would have moved there long ago but for the fact that I love my husband more. So I remain a faithful tourist and try to visit as much as possible.
After one particularly wonderful trip to Amsterdam nine years ago I got back home and it hit me like a ton of bricks. My unfulfilled dream of learning a second language had been simmering on the back stove of my mind all these many years. I would learn Dutch. I'm going to spare you the techniques I've employed over the years to learn this fascinating language, partly because I don't want to bore you and partly because I don't want to sound like a shill for any particular method. If you are interested, I'll talk about it more in comments.
I've written all of this to make this one point. Learning a foreign language is an amazing journey on many different and surprising levels. You become more understanding of people who have made an effort to speak your language. You gain a broader understanding of the world. Perhaps most rewarding of all, you gain deep insight into your own mother tongue. The very fact that the Republicans today would use this knowledge against a person tells us a lot about these jingoistic authoritarians who find education intimidating and suspect. To hell with the Gingriches of this country.
If you have ever wanted to study a new language, go for it. You are in for an amazing journey of discovery that will change you as a person. For the better.