The Romance of Languages
What is it about summer and reading (and the inevitable combination: summer reading) that gets me thinking about languages and the learning thereof? I guess it makes me think of traveling, and the books I want to read before summer ends, or it could be that I simply have the time to let my mind wander and think back to a long time ago when my romance with languages first began. Once upon a time nearly twenty years ago today, I rang the next door neighbor’s doorbell, and thus encountered my best-friend-to-be Nora for the very first time. Although we spoke not a word in common (I babbled away in English and Dutch, she made strange noises in Serbo-Croatian and Hungarian), we allegedly fell into each other’s arms and have been best friends (practically sisters) ever since. And in perfect harmony (ha!) we lived happily ever after (or something stupid like that…)
Fairy tales and parent’s stories aside, this early encounter with overcoming language barriers arguably shaped many of my future academic curiosities. Our (what I imagine to be) somewhat amusing non-verbal communication did not last for very long, as Nora adapted to her new surroundings quickly and admirably. This particular bridge was primarily built by her effort, (as it did not take her long to become proficient in English and Dutch, while I remain to this day woefully ignorant of both Serbian and Hungarian), but I like to kid myself into thinking I helped her learn. By comparison to her four languages by the age of four, my bilingual upbringing barely seems noteworthy. For me however, even just these two languages, have brought me countless advantages and insights.
When I started attending high school, it did not take long to become fascinated by the different languages we were required to absorb. I found that it was easier for me to understand these new languages, since I had the vocabulary of two different languages to use as a reference point. When learning French, German and Latin, I could recognize and use both the English and the Dutch. This was especially useful in reading texts, since this probably made it easier for me to guess the meaning of words.
Along the way, I found that reading was in fact the best way for me to learn a language. Since I had been an avid reader from a young age, reading books never felt like hard work. It turned out to be hugely rewarding to discover that I could actually follow the storyline of a book, which in fact added to the enjoyment. Although it took me many months to finish El amor en los tiempos de cólera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez when I was at university, it didn’t matter because I enjoyed it and just kept going for better or worse, even when I sometimes lost track of what was going on. Although I tried to find books worth reading in their original language, I think it wouldn’t even have mattered that much what books I chose, since it was probably the mere fact that I was able to read them that I enjoyed most of all.
Then during my last semester at university (in preparation for an internship in Kenya) I started learning Kiswahili, the lingua franca of East Africa. For once, my bilingual upbringing did not help me in any way whatsoever. I had always thought that I was sort of good at learning languages, but this experience knocked me right off my proverbial high horse. This was different, both in vocabulary, grammar and general flow, than anything I had ever studied before; mainly due to the fact that its primary influences are Arabic and Bantu languages. I tried to embrace the new challenge, but did not even come close to learning it properly. Luckily by the end of my internship, I could at least understand much of what was being said, although I never did really get the hang of how this language flows and to speak accordingly. To say the very least, I now know that simba means ‘lion’, rafiki means ‘friend’ and safari means ‘journey’. Also, when Rafiki from the Lion king sings his ‘asante sana squash banana’ song to Simba (see the video below for a quick cultural refresher), the ‘asante sana’ part actually means ‘thank you’.
It didn’t help matters at all that what is spoken by the youth of Nairobi is an altogether different language called ‘sheng’, which is a combination of English, Kiswahili and a variety of ethnic languages. Since this is a non-official, non-written and constantly changing language, it was impossible to find books written in sheng. My one fool-proof way of learning! To make matters worse, I am sure that if I return to Nairobi, the language will have changed beyond recognition. However, there is also something really exciting about being able to see a language change in real time (as opposed to over hundreds of years), or finding out from where a certain sheng word originated.
I guess I would conclude that learning a new language can be hard work, but in my experience if it is something that you enjoy it can also be hugely rewarding and empowering! I don’t think anybody should ever be forced to learn a foreign language, but I am definitely grateful that I was exposed (and to a certain extent also forced) to study languages from an early age. Maybe I should after all these years finally bite the bullet and learn some proper Serbian! Who knows, it might turn out to be useful for something unexpected?
Fairy tales and parent’s stories aside, this early encounter with overcoming language barriers arguably shaped many of my future academic curiosities. Our (what I imagine to be) somewhat amusing non-verbal communication did not last for very long, as Nora adapted to her new surroundings quickly and admirably. This particular bridge was primarily built by her effort, (as it did not take her long to become proficient in English and Dutch, while I remain to this day woefully ignorant of both Serbian and Hungarian), but I like to kid myself into thinking I helped her learn. By comparison to her four languages by the age of four, my bilingual upbringing barely seems noteworthy. For me however, even just these two languages, have brought me countless advantages and insights.
When I started attending high school, it did not take long to become fascinated by the different languages we were required to absorb. I found that it was easier for me to understand these new languages, since I had the vocabulary of two different languages to use as a reference point. When learning French, German and Latin, I could recognize and use both the English and the Dutch. This was especially useful in reading texts, since this probably made it easier for me to guess the meaning of words.
Along the way, I found that reading was in fact the best way for me to learn a language. Since I had been an avid reader from a young age, reading books never felt like hard work. It turned out to be hugely rewarding to discover that I could actually follow the storyline of a book, which in fact added to the enjoyment. Although it took me many months to finish El amor en los tiempos de cólera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez when I was at university, it didn’t matter because I enjoyed it and just kept going for better or worse, even when I sometimes lost track of what was going on. Although I tried to find books worth reading in their original language, I think it wouldn’t even have mattered that much what books I chose, since it was probably the mere fact that I was able to read them that I enjoyed most of all.
Then during my last semester at university (in preparation for an internship in Kenya) I started learning Kiswahili, the lingua franca of East Africa. For once, my bilingual upbringing did not help me in any way whatsoever. I had always thought that I was sort of good at learning languages, but this experience knocked me right off my proverbial high horse. This was different, both in vocabulary, grammar and general flow, than anything I had ever studied before; mainly due to the fact that its primary influences are Arabic and Bantu languages. I tried to embrace the new challenge, but did not even come close to learning it properly. Luckily by the end of my internship, I could at least understand much of what was being said, although I never did really get the hang of how this language flows and to speak accordingly. To say the very least, I now know that simba means ‘lion’, rafiki means ‘friend’ and safari means ‘journey’. Also, when Rafiki from the Lion king sings his ‘asante sana squash banana’ song to Simba (see the video below for a quick cultural refresher), the ‘asante sana’ part actually means ‘thank you’.
It didn’t help matters at all that what is spoken by the youth of Nairobi is an altogether different language called ‘sheng’, which is a combination of English, Kiswahili and a variety of ethnic languages. Since this is a non-official, non-written and constantly changing language, it was impossible to find books written in sheng. My one fool-proof way of learning! To make matters worse, I am sure that if I return to Nairobi, the language will have changed beyond recognition. However, there is also something really exciting about being able to see a language change in real time (as opposed to over hundreds of years), or finding out from where a certain sheng word originated.
I guess I would conclude that learning a new language can be hard work, but in my experience if it is something that you enjoy it can also be hugely rewarding and empowering! I don’t think anybody should ever be forced to learn a foreign language, but I am definitely grateful that I was exposed (and to a certain extent also forced) to study languages from an early age. Maybe I should after all these years finally bite the bullet and learn some proper Serbian! Who knows, it might turn out to be useful for something unexpected?
