#133 A question of language

Hello Friend,

Today, I’ve been thinking about language, particularly learning languages. I’ve always been fascinated with the process of picking up new languages. In the past, I was obsessed with learning Italian. 

Then, I was determined to teach my son English, which I did by speaking to him from birth and investing time in English language materials such as books, videos, DVDs, streaming services, and games. 

My son is now 14, and his spoken English is quite good. I'm concerned that his written English needs work, but he always surprises me as he continues to consume content online and comes up with complex terminologies I’ve never taught him. 

I also tutor local students in ESL and relish helping them to acquire a basic knowledge and understanding of English. 

Honestly English is a difficult language to acquire, I’m not sure if I’d ever have learnt it quite so well if I didn’t have the luck of growing up in an English speaking country. 

I always try to encourage my students, talk to them in english, get them to read, listen and talk as much as possible. But language learning never really ends.

Even after living in Italy for more than 20 years now, I still feel like an Italian student. I will still hear new words and terminologies. So, I am most definitely still learning every day.

I have been meaning to pick up a little bit of conversational French and Spanish but I never seem to find the time to sit down and dedicate the time and concentration to it. 

Photo by Markus Winkler

Language learning requires a decent amount of attention, study, and brain space. A good language student will focus on reading, listening, repetition, and orally saying the phrases and words they are learning. 

It is fundamental to listen, hear the pronunciation and get your mind to understand the way a new language sounds and how it works grammatically. And the only way to do that is through endless repetition.

I have an online course and a self paced audio course waiting for me in both French and Spanish, as soon as I have the mental space for it. I’ll get to it soon because I love learning languages and I’m sure I will make many connections with Italian, as all Romance languages are connected through their Latin bases.

Apart from my work with and desire to learn languages, I’ve been thinking about something related to language's nature.

A few times, after people had met me for the first time and heard that I’d been living in Italy for so long, they said, "You still speak English so well; you haven’t lost your language."