Today's title is not necessarily a yearning for someone (anyone) to read and respond to one of these postings, though that would be nice. No, today it is about learning languages and why I get frustrated when people don't.
At school I learnt French, German and Latin. At Polytechnic I learnt German. A few years ago, I went back to my local 6th Form College and finally took (and got) an A-level in French. So while my main educational achievements have been in the business and quantitative methods fields, I can also "do" languages.
Recently my husband and I drove around mainland Spain - our first visit to this totally fascinating part of the world. I was so embarrassed at having only about 10 words of Spanish, and having to rely on the good will of locals to speak English at me or work with me on sign language.
This feeling of frustration and embarrassment reached its peak in a small town in Andalusia called Baza, where I was really struggling with the lady who owned the motel we were staying in. She was so sweet and they were so kind, and I wanted to explain in some way why we were there, but to no avail... until half way through dinner. In appreciation of the lovely steak and chips that had been placed before me, all I could think of to say was "Merci". Our hostess stopped for a moment, thought and then said "parlez vous francais?" "Oui, oui" we enthusiastically responded, and the sense of relief at finding a common language and a way of communicating was extraordinary on both sides.
While we might think, in our English-centric manner, that everyone in Europe learns English as their first foreign language (apart from the English - and that will be a subject for another day), this is not the case. We discovered that in many parts of Spain away from the coast, French was traditionally the first foreign language, as many Spanish expected to go to France at some stage in their career for work.
For the rest of our visit, I was careful to ask people about an array of languages, when looking for services or assistance, and found that being able to offer more than one got people smiling if nothing else (perhaps the best of all international languages).
It thus struck me that we are doing future generations no favours by removing the compulsion to learn other languages in school. Yes it might be a bit more difficult than some other things, but it is learning for the future, learning for life, and learning to mix with other nations. Surely the most important learning of all?
Before our next visit to Spain, I am determined to at least double my Spanish vocabulary!
Jane, very interesting and thought provoking.
Posted by: Jennifer Fitzgerald | 01/11/2007 at 06:20 PM