Learning a Language

As a former military brat with a Spaniard for a mother, I’ve grown a bit of an affinity for language learning. Currently on my list are German, Mandarin Chinese, French, Italian, and far too many more to continue this sentence. I am fluent in Spanish, have background in Italian (as I used to speak it fluently), and have spent two years learning Mandarin Chinese. But what is the best way to learn a language?

Let’s begin with Spanish. I love Spanish, speaking it, reading it, and even writing it. It has a certain vibe to it when it rolls off the tongue. How did I learn the language? I was raised with it, learning Spanish alongside my English. My mother would speak in mostly Spanish, and my father spoke more in English. So really I learned a form of Spanglish first. Throughout my life, there has been many a vacation to Spain, visiting family and seeing the beautiful country itself. Then I studied abroad last fall in Salamanca, Spain, and after that I was all set. These big and little immersions into the language and culture have certainly helped build confidence in not just understanding the language, but also in speaking it.

Moving on to Italian, and how I quickly picked up the language and quickly lost it as well. My family was stationed a little north of Venice, Italy. At first, my brother and I attended the American schools on the military base, just so we could settle into the new environment. After a few months, we were moved to the Italian schools (which might I add, were awesome). At first, it was all charades to understand the other kids, and to learn the language. Not only did I pick up Italian quickly, but due to the similarities of this language to Spanish, my ability to communicate in Spanish shot up. For kindergarten, first, and second grade, I was trilingual.

When I moved back to the States, I did not need to use Italian. We spoke it at home sometimes, but it often turned back to Spanish and English. Once my tongue did not have to speak the language, it became lazy, and soon enough, forgot the language altogether. After a couple of years in the States, and no trips to Spain, even my confidence with speaking Spanish was fading.

Then I moved again, to the east coast. I was beginning middle school, and began to take French and Spanish at school. Both were easy enough to ace, and after three years, I knew how to count and introduce myself in French. In Spanish, I learned some scattered vocabulary associated with classroom items. That was in three years.

When I moved to the high school, I had the option to take Mandarin Chinese. I knew that I would be wasting my time in French or Spanish, and thought it would be wicked cool to learn a language that does not take it's roots in Latin. This class was unlike any other, and I took it for two years. The entire class took place online.  You could go at your own pace and review lessons whenever you wanted. I learned so much in that class. When I transferred high schools, I continued my studies through Rosetta Stone.  I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of information I absorbed even without immersion or an actual teacher speaking in Chinese on a regular basis.

How do you learn another language best? For me, it’s actually being surrounded entirely by the language. Going to the country where the language makes its home (it’s near impossible to truly understand a language without knowing its culture) or taking classes where everything is in the language you are trying to learn are personally how I learn best. Now, back to reading Warm Bodies in Italian…