JENN McKINLAY: Growing up in New England, taking a foreign language in middle school and high school was mandatory. We had three choices: French, German, or Spanish. I chose Spanish on advice from my mom who said, “You’ll have more opportunities to use that one.” Little did she know.
I ended up in Spanish V Honors my senior year and was sent to the neighboring elementary school to teach the littles Spanish. It was fun! Then I went to college where I studied two years of Russian just to expand my horizons. I know enough to understand the basics – Добрый вечер (dobryy vecher -- good evening) – which is delightful as Hub and I are currently watching PONIES (two CIA wives become spies in 1976 Moscow - so good)!
Fast forward to my move to Phoenix decades ago and because of my Spanish, I was tapped by the library to do story times and teach computer classes in Spanish, where my Hispanic co-teacher teased me by saying I spoke “newscaster Spanish” (very proper). Anyway, nod to mom. She was right about the Spanish!
Presently, I’m studying Japanese with the Hooligans as we are planning an excursion to Japan. Side note: why must they have multiple alphabets? Hirigana, Katakana, and Kanji – you’re killing me. Needless to say the progress is slow but I’m confident that desu ka ですか (roughly meaning “is it?”/”what is it?”) will do most of the heavy lifting.
HALLIE EPHRON: Wish my mom had talked to your mom. Mine insisted we take 2 years of LATIN! (because other languages derive from it)... And then French. Boy do I wish I’d taken Spanish instead. So much more useful. When I taught in the New York City public schools (Go, PS189M!) I took classes after school in Spanish. I desperately wanted to be able to communicate with my students’ parents.
Needless to say there are precious few opportunities to practice my Latin. Veni, vedi, vici! Gallia in tres partes divisa est.
RHYS BOWEN: I had twelve years of French… beginning at 8 at my private school and ending with a degree. So my French is pretty good. When I’ve been in France for a couple of days it comes back enough to be able to read newspapers and have earnest discussions.
My German is also almost as good as my English. I spent summers in Austria, took intensive German in school and then went to stay with the family of the German teaching assistant at my school with whom I had become good friends. I took a gap year working in a corner grocery store in Stuttgart, where everyone spoke the Swabish dialect so i became good at that out of necessity. I also met my friend’s brother… so I took a semester at the University of Freiburg with him, then he came to London for year, then I did a Semester in Kiel. When I am in Germany people ask me what part of Germany I’m from so I guess I would have been a good spy!
Living in California you have to speak some Spanish. I did a year at school and can muddle through. Ditto Italian when I am in Italy. A little smattering of Welsh from my childhood and I did try Russian when I was in college. I signed up for beginner’s Russian only to find most of the class had taken A level in school and could discuss the quietly flowing Don while I was still mastering the alphabet.
Oh, and I took 5 years of Latin in school. Compulsory. I enjoyed it.
LUCY BURDETTE: French all the way for me. I started in high school and went through college. I’ve also taken refresher conversation classes that I talked about here on the blog–helped a lot with confidence! I admire our grandkids who’re going to dual language classes in 1st and 3rd grade. They already speak and read Spanish, which is handy in San Diego!
JENN: The Hooligans did Spanish immersion from Kindergarten through High School - very helpful in AZ!
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Rhys, I didn’t know you lived in Stuttgart! That’s where my family was stationed, and yes, all the German I know sounds (I’ve been told) distinctly Bavarian.
My academic language was French, and like a lot of you, I began in sixth grade (why do we start so late in the US?) and took it all the way through three years of college. My vocabulary and verb tenses are extremely rusty, but I’m guessing if I spent any time in France or Quebec, it would come back pretty quickly.
It was helpful when I was on an archaeological dig in the Apennine foothills of Tuscany; I picked up enough Italian in six weeks to understand the other students (mostly) and to get around confidently. One Romance language = all Romance languages.
I’m gearing myself up to begin studying Nederlands (Dutch.) If Youngest stays there and if things continue with her Very Tall Boyfriend… well, I want to be able to communicate with any grandchildren I might have!
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: You know what they call a person who speaks several languages? Multi-lingual.
What about what they call a person who speaks two languages? Bi-lingual.
How about what they call someone who speaks ONE language? An American.
🙂
I used to be extremely fluent in French, but no more, grr. But I bet if I were in total immersion (like going to Paris with Hallie, I wish) I would be fine. Maybe not waxing philosophical, but I could get my size in black, just saying.
I’m fine in Spanish and German, too, halting but manageable. And always when I’m there, I get back into it. I agree, Lucy, a lot of it has to do with confidence.
I always feel so unworthy and uneducated when I can’t speak the language. My sister Nancy, a chef/caterer, is effortlessly bilingual in Spanish, and her entire demeanor changes when she speaks it.
That would be so wonderful.
I am doing Duolingo to get my French back, but I’m not sure it’s effective. But it’s fun.
Oh, when we went to Italy I did my best, but my go-to was: “Mi dispiace, no lo sapevo.”
Meaning: I’m sorry, I did not know that.
Always valuable.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Here in Texas we started Spanish in elementary school. I think French was offered in middle school but I stuck with Spanish. Unfortunately, since I left high school after my sophomore year, I didn’t take advanced classes. But I had spent much time in Mexico with my parents, and when I was eighteen I lived in Mexico City for a summer with my folks’ Mexican friends. I was functional if not fluent.
After college, I took a semester’s French course, but it didn’t stick. My Spanish is rusty but good enough that I’ve unwittingly eavesdropped on some conversations! (Our contractors, when we had our house remodeled. Oh, my. I kept having to remind them that I understood them!) I always have good intentions to brush up. I’m very embarrassed that I’m not at least fully bilingual.
How about you, Readers? Have you studied a second language or mastered one?
I'm always embarrassed to admit that I'm that American, the one who only speaks a single language. They didn't offer any languages until high school in our school system, and I did take what was available, which was two years Latin and two years French. For some reason my university, University of Kentucky, didn't require a language when I attended. I wish someone had encouraged me to take one though. My daughter and son both took two years of Spanish in high school, which was all that was required, two years of a language. However, Kevin took German in college and was continuing to learn it before he passed. His main reason for the German is that he was a philosophy major, and so many historically famous philosophers were German. I think he wanted to read them in German.
ReplyDeleteI had a couple of years of French in high school and one year of German in college. Until then, all my classes were easy, but I do not have a good ear for languages nor a good memory for sounds.
ReplyDeleteWith more time in France, my restaurant French is pretty good, but I have a ways to go before I’ll be able to talk about ideas as well as things.
I learned some Italian for a trip, and as I listened to my Pimsleur while climbing stairs, my hands started moving of their own accord. There’s something about that language.
I learned some Japanese for my trip there, but noped out when I got to counting. The numbers are different depending on the shape of the noun - just nope.
It's been way too many years since high school language classes [Latin and French], so, no, I can't speak any other language(s) . . .
ReplyDeleteI love this topic! I had poorly taught Spanish in California grades 5-8. After my son married Puerto Rican Alexandra, I started taking adult ed lessons so I could better speak with her family, but I've abandoned that.
ReplyDeleteIn 8th grade I started French at the high school first period and continued through fourth year. As an adult I spent time in Quebec with my sister, a semester in Grenoble, and two years in former Francophone West African countries, so I can muddle along pretty well.
I also did four years of German at high school and three at college, but I never lived in a German-speaking country, so fluency escaped me.
My best language is still Portuguese from my year in Brazil at 17 (and it helps me with the Spanish, mostly). And I was delighted that my Japanese burbled back to the surface when I was there two years ago after living in the country and studying the language nearly fifty years earlier.
Also, both my sons have a facility with languages. Their father is a hyperpolyglot (it's disgusting - I've seen him pick up a new language in a week). We immersed our sons in French language schools in Mali when they were 3 and five, and they both still speak it. Allan took Russian in high school and ended up with Russian-American best friends in college and to this day, but he also gets along in Spanish and German, kind of by osmosis. John David moved to Puerto Rico after college and got himself completely fluent by immersion.
DeleteI took five years of Latin. Hallie's mother was right, it did make English grammar clear to me! I also took seven years of French. Not having used it since graduating from high school almost fifty years ago, however, I only retain enough to read road signs and simple sentences in Louise Penny novels. It IS embarrassing, but then I rarely travel far from the farm.
ReplyDeleteI insisted that our children take Spanish, as much more useful in the U.S. Our son is dyslexic and as his Spanish was taught the way Latin was taught to me, almost as a mathematical formula, he learned as much as his dyslexic father did -- almost zero. Our daughter took Spanish through college and won a Fulbright to work on a project in Paraguay which unfortunately was shut down by Covid. Since then she has grown rusty. At various times she has tried to keep up by watching Spanish-speaking teen dramas on television. She has also attempted to teach herself German through online programs because my husband's grandfather immigrated from Austria and she has been there as a ski racer. She is a traveler and I expect she will always push herself to learn more languages. (Selden)
English first (family), then German (lived there), then French (school), and then two years of Russian (also school) when I could have chosen Spanish or Latin -- damn. While I'm happy to have had the Russian learning, I know Spanish would have been more useful in the long run. These days, my German is buried deep and I have no need to go there; my French is more alive but a bit rusty; the Russian is buried and gone. When I hear Europeans from so many different countries speak so beautifully in English (the Finnish president, for example), I am reminded just how lucky we are who have English as our first language; it gets us so many places.
ReplyDeleteI had French in college, but had no one to speak it with over the years. I taught myself a smattering of Spanish when I had a lot of Spanish speaking students, primarily to connect. Then my husband and I both studied Spanish on our own when we started going to Galicia, Spain about 25 years ago. We can get around pretty well. But since we now live in Portugal, we've been studying with a tutor for five years. And now we are taking a class through a high school in a course designed for immigrants: Their certificate is helpful for residency renewal. We are making good progress, but it's quite a difficult language. Spanish is way easier, and even French was. Pronunciation is soooo tricky. 🥴
ReplyDeleteI had a little bit of Spanish in 6th grade, 8th grade and 10th grade. I learned some key phrases in Italian when we went to Italy. 🇮🇹 Where is the bathroom or toilet? is a good one to know. Also thank you and I’m sorry I don’t understand. Be prepared because if you say anything in their language they will come back at you with enthusiasm and it is too fast to grasp.
ReplyDeleteSmiling is the universal language.
I studied French in high school for 4 years and 2 years in college. I wasn't particularly good at it, but I could use my French when traveling. Then I spent 2 years in Israel, beginning with an Ulpan. Once again, not a fast learner but I soon could get by and even taught a class of tiny children my second year there.
ReplyDeleteBut, on a trip to Quebec, I mixed up my languages being rusty at both and creating hilarity wherever I went.
I take a Hebrew Ulpan online now but unless I spend some real time with Hebrew speakers, it won't fully come back.