HOW LIKELY ARE YOU TO LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE?

I don’t think that it’s an exaggeration to say that most people would like to learn a new language. I believe that if you asked even the most ardent English-Only supporter in the USA, if not in the mist of a debate, what language they would like to wake up tomorrow and know fluently he/she would say, Oh French! It’s such a classy language; or maybe, Japanese. I have to go there on business trips from time to time and it would be nice to know what they’re saying without an interpreter; or perhaps even, Italian. I’m an opera aficcionado and would love to enjoy La Triata without looking at the subtitles.

Why don’t more people do it then? There are lots of reasons and they’re all disempowering so I won’t bother enumerating them here. My experience is that there is usually a compelling reason not to do something that you know will enrich your life.

A week or so ago I stumbled upon a great, online test that people can take to determine how likely they would be to learn a new language. Click here to take it. Try taking it twice, once for a language you’d love to learn and another that is interesting to you but not compellingly attractive. The test focuses on many of the reasons that a person learns, or fails to learn, a new language and then gives the test taker a score that indicates the likelihood.

What I find particularly effective about this test is that if a person wants to learn a language then what he/she needs to do is look at the questions he/she got a low score on and change that are of his/her life. For example, maybe you’re very motivated to learn Tagalog because that’s what your parents spoke at home. Let’s say that you find yourself motivated, there are Filipino people in your life that you could practice the language with but you can’t find any good materials or classes to take. Well, that’s where you need to focus.

The test simplifies things and lets a person know why he/she is not succeeding. A very natural reaction is to get depressed and not try. Achievement, in any area in life, requires us all to specify problems and then solve them while still maintaining the good points in our lives. Anyone can do it! Language learning is no different.

The Amazing Wendy Vo

This little girl is fantastic! I’ve never seen anything like it in anyone under the age of 50. Maybe I need to get out more. This playlist shows Wendy speaking all 11 of her languages and then ending by playing a song she composed on the piano!

RANKING YOUR LANGUAGE ABILITY

What does it mean to speak a language? In my experience, most people have pretty extreme views when they mention how many languages they speak. On the one extreme we have the people who are quantity oriented. They’ll tell you that they speak ten languages when in truth they can do little more than repeat about a dozen memorized phrases that allow them to greet people, talk about the weather and order a meal. This group often consists of bourgeoisie travelers who like to show off for their monolingual friends who don’t know the difference anyway.

On the other extreme you have the linguist Nazis who think that people shouldn’t say that they know a language unless they can speak it will no foreign accent or grammatical errors and can converse about any subject from string theory to social etiquette of the 19^th century. This group is commonly comprised of bilinguals, often academics, who are extremely competent in their two languages and will correct your speech, even if you are speaking in your own native language.

I like to think of language mastery as more of a process with various stages or levels of competency. The US government has its own evaluation (see here) and Chinese Pod’s John Pasden has a fun way of describing the process of learning Chinese (see here). I thought that it would be fun to make my own five-stage break down about language mastery.

0. The Monkey Gibberish Stage. It’s all Greek to me.

Yes, there is a stage zero. You’re in it when you see two people speaking what seems to be absolute nonsense to one another while nodding in agreement. You can’t begin to imagine how what they are saying could form part of a language that expresses the same ideas and feelings as English, or whatever your native language is. This is the default stage for people with little to no contact with the language or its corresponding culture. This is where most people are when it comes to languages like Malagasy, Pashtu, Finnish and even Mandarin Chinese.

It doesn’t take much to get to the next stage.

1. The Stage of Discovery. Como vai?

Everyone has been at this stage. You memorize a bunch of phrases, a new alphabet or at least new sounds for your same alphabet, and boring words like conjugation, particle, and glottal stop. You get discouraged because, even after many hours of work, you still think that you sound like Tarzan. Unfortunately, this is the most difficult stage, especially if the language is not related to your native language or another one that you might know. This stage is kind of like the first cut in football tryouts. You either become intrigued by the language and the people who speak it or you take the class because you have to because of work or school and then promptly forget everything.

2. The Stage of Enlightenment. Ich mag diese Sprache.

Maybe you spent some time abroad in a country that speaks this language. Maybe you had a boyfriend or girlfriend who speaks it. Maybe you had an enthusiastic teacher who inspired you. For whatever reason you pressed on and took the bull by the horns! You’ve studied all of the grammar principles and can use them pretty well. You can talk about a few subjects without thinking too hard and can usually get your point across when speaking about something that you’re not too familiar with or that is new to you.

It takes so much work to get to this stage and foreigners are often so nice and patient that many learners lose sight of their original goal, even people that I’ve met who have college degrees in a foreign language. It takes a lot of discipline to get to the next level since the learner has to spend many hours interacting with the target language and correcting him/herself.

3. The Stage of Fluency. Я понимаю.

This was where you wanted to be in the first place when you started along on this journey. Your pronunciation is rarely a problem and you make few grammatical errors when you speak. You can tell jokes, understand double meanings and most likely write better than a lot of native speakers. You probably aren’t afraid of making phone calls in this language anymore and can sit down and enjoy movies and TV shows with little or no extra concentration involved. Your mastery of the language is enviable and your world has become greatly enriched, even in ways that you weren’t expecting.

Getting to the next level is only for the truly diligent and mildly obsessed. It requires lots of dedication and often some formal coaching.

4. The Practically Native Stage. 我中国人。我不美国人!

You probably live in the country and have no intention of ever going back to where you came from. Your spouse is probably from there too. Your knowledge of the language is usually much better than the locals’ and certain people will go hours, sometimes years, before they find out that you’re not from there originally.

If I’m at a stage 1 in a language, I feel safe saying that I’ve studied it, but don’t really speak it or understand much. If I’m at stage 2 then I say that I speak and read it but that I’m definitely not fluent. Only at stage 3 do I feel okay saying that I’m fluent in the language. There ought to be a club with T-Shirts for those who begin learning a language in adulthood and reach level 4 (no, I don’t think that I’d be a member). What are your thoughts about mastering a language?