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.
DeleteWhat a gift! My youngest is like that. When we visited them in Greece the first time she was using Duolingo for Greek, Polish, and Russian, all at once, just for fun, ho-hum. She took French for four years in high school, then German in college, and spent a lot of time in Germany. When they lived in Kenya she picked up a lot of both Swahili and the Kenyan version, Kiswahili, with a smattering of the Masai language.
DeleteEdith, a high school friend was a hyperpolygot because she was fluent in sign language within a week of my teaching her sign language.
DeleteKaren in Ohio, like your daughter, I’m learning Danish, German, Norwegian and Swedish on Duolingo for fun.
I 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.
My high school did not offer Spanish; we had French, German, and Latin. I'm old.
ReplyDeleteOnce, when writing a newsletter, I threw in a full paragraph in Pig Latin; half of those who got the newsletter could not understand it.
When I was a kid, a visiting minister told me that, when he was in France during WWII, the only French he learned was swear words; thirty years later that was still the only French he knew and he could say those words perfectly.
I envy all who are fluent in more than one language. I started French in 9th grade when we moved to Massachusetts. My Mom’s parents met in Tours at the end of WWI so French was always the language to learn. I was a French major in college and spent a semester in Grenoble in 1974. Edith, when we’re you there? I took 3 semesters of Spanish and wish I knew more. I’m thinking of doing some online Spanish in case we go to Spain. I tried learning Italian but it’s much harder as one gets older. Still ,when we spent a week in Paris a few years ago, I had little problem understanding and speaking. I’m okay in Montréal and Québec.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't have an opportunity to study foreign language til high school (what a shame, compared with some of your stories!) I took French. We went to England for 6 months for spring/summer of our freshman year of high school. The Leeds girls at Lawnswood Girls High were many years ahead of us (twin and me) in French. We basically worked through our own textbook because we were so far behind. I also took French for a year in college. I did well, but I never was anywhere near fluent.Fast forward to retirement--in January 2011, I started taking conversational Spanish as part of PCC's community ed program. I kept at it and went to Mexico for the first time in the fall of 2011. In December that year, 50 of us accompanied an immigrant member of our church to court, which opened my eyes to a need I hadn't known about. I have continued to study Spanish, with very few breaks and several two week programs in Mexico. I'm not fluent, but I can converse with my many friends from different Latin American countries. My classes right now are an hour a week. The other student is in Eugene, and our teacher is in Cuernavaca (when she's not visiting her daughters and grandchildren in the US). We are really close, have a great time and have read several novels. Currently we are reading La Casa de los Espiritus (The House of the Spirits) and enjoying it immensely, It's never too late to start learning, and it can be very rewarding.
ReplyDeleteI took French in high school and college and was reasonably fluent when I graduated. Alas, I didn't have occasion to use it after that and I feel like most of my vocabulary is gone. I have never had any training in Spanish, but I've been picking up some just from our culture. My church has merged with another that has a substantial Spanish speaking population, and for some of the big holidays or other special occasions we do bi-lingual services, so I'm trying to learn some of those responses so I can participate more fully.
ReplyDeleteMy poor son wanted to live in Japan since he was about 12, but he has really, really struggled with the language. Languages don't come easily to him (he fought his way through Spanish plus a year of Latin in school to middling returns) and when he tried Japanese in college he came away with very little mastery. Now that he's living there and wants to live there a lot longer, he is highly motivated and using two different language apps daily (one specific to vocabulary, one to grammar) plus a classroom lesson and a private lesson once a week. Japan has a formal testing system for Japanese fluency, and he tells me passing at the N3 level begins to open doors for better employment. (There are five levels, with 5 being the lowest and 1 the highest.) His goal is to pass the N3 test this summer, then begin to work toward the N2, which opens even more doors. When we visited I memorized a very few phrases of the "thank you" and "where is the restroom" variety and left it at that.
What a great topic, Jenn! When my youngest was in 9th grade a friend who was very active in the Sister Cities Exchange program here asked if she wanted to participate. Munich is Cincinnati's German Sister City, and we (especially my two youngest children) have a lot of German heritage. When the Munich group had their turn to come here for two weeks we had several joint cultural events, so we got to know more of the kids than just our student. Talking to the German kids, ages 13-18, was a revelation. None of them spoke fewer than three languages, including our exchange partner, Vanessa, who spoke German, English (with a British accent, thanks to her teacher), Italian, and some French. One of the kids spoke all those, plus Catalan, and another language I've forgotten. By contrast, most of the Americans spoke English and barely anything else.
ReplyDeleteI took two years of French in high school, and have done some Duolingo periodically to try to keep it alive, not very successfully. I can read it better than I can understand spoken French. Whenever we have traveled I try to learn at least the polite conversational phrases before we go: Italian, Spanish, Swahili, Greek, and Polish. Those last two defeated me, sadly. I can only say thank you and cheers in Polish!
Currently I am trying to learn some Spanish, since we will be in Spain for the Camino de Santiago with our daughter, her partner, and his parents. They are Mexican by birth, and although they have lived in the US for more than 50 years (and Omar was born in Chicago), his mother is very much more comfortable speaking Spanish than English. We will be spending two weeks together, so I want to at least try to meet her partway.
So many nonnative English speakers apologize for their "poor" English, when in reality they are fluent, so much more so than many Americans are at their language. It's kind of embarrassing, really.
I took Spanish in school. I got pretty good at it - made it through the AP level in high school and took an advanced Spanish class in college. Straight out of college was the job with the Small Business Administration. I was in Puerto Rico for three months and I tried to speak only Spanish to our local hires. They were very kind to my efforts, which I'm sure were "newscaster Spanish." I was doing quite well when I left. Unfortunately, language is definitely "use it or lose it." My spoken Spanish isn't very good these days, although I can still read it okay.
ReplyDeleteMy kids studied Spanish from kindergarten through high school. The Boy hated it. The Girl liked it. But I think both have mostly lost their skills now, although The Girl has a Spanish-native friend and I'm sure if she tried she could knock a lot of the rust off pretty quickly.
In high school, I took French. It was an utter waste of time. Forget that I'd never have to use it in the future, I was just BAD BAD BAD with the learning of it.
ReplyDeleteI know I didn't have to take it for the full four years of high school, so whenever I hit the mandatory amount of time I had to take a foreign language, I got right the hell out of the class and never looked back.
In fact, the only French I remember is how to say "I can't speak French", and I learned that from a math teacher.
And forget Spanish, the only Spanish I'd ever need in my life is enough to order from the Taco Bell menu (if I actually ate there).
If school wanted to make learning a language interesting to me, they should've offered Klingon or Elvish.
As it is, I remain fluent in only two languages. English and Profanity.
Klingon and Elvish would be great additions! Great idea, Jay. Thanks!
DeleteWhat a great topic, Jenn!
ReplyDeleteI decided to learn the German language since the Austrian sign language lessons are in German language on lingvano app. The word for dog is Hund.
Also learning several Nordic Languages. I’m following several accounts from different Nordic countries. Sometimes translation is not available. I’m starting to recognize some of the words in the captions.
As a child, I grew up with English and Sign language. When I started the 2nd grade, I quickly learned the American Sign Language, which was way more advanced in concepts than signed exact English. I noticed that the grammar is similar to the grammar of several other languages. In the 5th grade, a teacher from France visited our class and I learned the word cinç or cinq for five. Learning American Sign Language helped me learn other languages like Spanish and French in high school. At university, my sign language interpreters would listen to the audiotapes in the foreign languages. I studied several languages at university.
May I ask if any of the jungle red writers or commentators here learned sign language in the Girl Scouts/ Boy Scouts or in school?
That was me.
DeleteI forgot I was taught sign language in school and in the Girl Scouts.
DeleteThat’s wonderful, Dru! Do you still sign?
DeleteIn junior high school I took Spanish. In college I took ASL (American Sign Language) for two semesters, followed by French for two semester and Russian for one. None of them really stuck, but the weirdest thing would happen in French when I was asked a question I answered in ASL (correctly, I might add). Move along to Russian and I would answer in French. Fast forward to today and my landlady's son is deaf and, yep, that ASL just kicked right in.
ReplyDeleteEvidently, it is all in there, it just pops out when I least expect it and it is always the correct response/reaction to the circumstances. I'm far from fluent, but situationally on target. An Army colonel I once knew said he was in another country, went to the bar and ordered a drink. The bartender just stared at him. He replayed what he'd said and realized he had asked for a drink using four different languages in the same sentence! No wonder the poor bartender was confused. -- Victoria
Since Canada is a bilingual country, we of course had to learn French. There were two issues to that in the 1960’s. People in areas outside of Quebec and New Brunswick and small pockets in other places did NOT speak French – actually rural areas had some problems in mastering English, so most teachers were English badly mangling the language that we were supposed to be verbalizing. We also didn’t start until grade 7. As time went on and people realized that the second language would be beneficial especially if you wanted a government job, French became more available and immersion became popular in school. These kids (my kids age – now 40’s) – came out with a fluency in the language both verbal and for reading. The accent – iffy. Our eldest went to a French only school – we lied. We told them we were French (husband although English went to French school all his life) and Catholic – glad they didn’t ask for certificates on that one. Her language is flawless, although for some reason she speaks ‘posh-French’. I can’t understand a word she says. Her kids are going to French-immersion in Halifax – have to be of French heritage to go to full French school. I have heard them speak, and so far, they are marginally better than me. They do mock me when I say “bon-jeore, mad-de-moi-selle.” Listen now: “Graaannnnn!”
ReplyDeleteLocally, we have a large influx of international students and they are doing so much for our communities. They offer invitations and welcome to festivities, culture and of course food. Now they are starting local language classes midafternoons on weekdays. So far, I see Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese and French – from the African community. Lessons are free, two hours, held in the International restaurant and come with sweets. If I was not so far away, I would love to participate.
Julia – my niece has lived in Amsterdam for several years. Last year she married her-too-tall boyfriend – she is borderline 5 ft and he is approaching 7. Talk about stacked heels at the wedding! I wonder if all people there come with height. She is struggling to master the language.
Morning All ~ At the end of my first year of Spanish I asked the teacher if I should take a second year. He said “Perhaps not. Paula, you are the only American I know that speaks Spanish with a French Accent.” When I was in my 40’s I took a college course in American Sign Language. I loved it. During class I signed the song, “Michael rowed the Golden Shores” and made some of the girls in the class cry. I was in the zone, so to speak. The teach gave me an A. I used it for years. I remember some of it even today.
ReplyDeleteI’ve taken Spanish in high school in California and French in college in Virginia. I have absolutely no ear for another language. Even tried sign language and same thing. I understand the rudiments but I cannot understand when spoken (or signed) to me. I envy you all with your abilities.
ReplyDeletePam, I totally understand because I cannot figure out the rudimentary calculus or chemistry. We all are good at something. Languages are my thing, not advanced math nor advanced science.
DeleteI learned Spanish from my neighbors, so in junior high school when we were offered a choice, I chose French and I was pretty good and then the teacher decided that since we live in NYC with a nice population of Spanish-speaking resident, that after the year is up, we are going to learn Spanish. I was able to assist the teacher and continued learning Spanish until first year college. As they say, if you don't use it, you lose it. However, I can still make out a word or two if people around me speak Spanish (my mind wants to tell them to slow down) and I understood most of the words sung by Bad Bunny. Prior to moving south, I was taking Russian so I can hear the gossip.
ReplyDeleteI had 2 years of German in high school, no other opportunity to learn at school, so very jealous of those who had earlier opportunities. American exceptionalism my as*
ReplyDelete