Privvy to Language

If anyone's ever tried learning a language, you will know it takes work.  And that's okay.  In fact, it's more than okay, it's what should be expected.

Why?

Think about a little child you know that either is currently learning a language or learned one.  How long did it take for that child to start to say words?  Form sentences?  Pronounce things correctly? And really become fluent?  One day?  (absolutely!) No.  A long time.  In fact, it's rather an ongoing process to truly cultivate great language skills.  And the best way to do it is to listen, try, and repeat.

So, then, why do so many place treat it like a literature class?  A student I know came back the other day from Spanish 1 with 3 vocab sheets and a quiz in 5 days.  That, to me, just didn't make any sense.  Spanish students I've ever taught start with the basics:  alphabet and numbers.  Then weather and colors.  No sentences, just words.  Why?  Because that's how we learn as a child.  We get good at the words and then learn to string them together.  The advantage to being older when learning language is that you already know how to string them together.  You just need the grammar principals behind the structure.  But how great to suddenly have an arsenal of words at your disposal?!  You feel capable, empowered, able to at least get by because you can identify and describe the things you need, even if not in perfect sentence form.

Then we learn verbs and sentence structure!  Quickly enough, granted, but not in the first 3 weeks and not 3-5 vocab sheets full of words.  We learn them in stages with lots of practice!

And even more important:  PRONUNCIATION PRACTICE!  It's language!  You need to learn to speak with with some competence!  Don't be afraid to be corrected, either, just like you weren't afraid when your parents corrected the way you said a word when you were learning.  It's natural and normal, and a great show of character and determination when you acknowledge the linguistic challenges associated with languages!

So here's to your success and those around you!