I still vividly remember the day I first understood the impact the existence of other languages beside my mother tongue has.
I must have been around 6 or 7 years old when I spotted a group of children walking towards me when I was taking my dog out for the daily after-school walk. I didn't know those kids but being the curious person I already was back then I decided to try to eavesdrop on them. I braced myself, put on a poker face and started to listen to their conversation as soon as they were within earshot. I'm sure I wasn't able to keep my poker face because I was extremely shocked to realize I couldn't understand a thing they were saying even though they could understand each other perfectly fine.
I think I kind of already knew about the existence of other languages, but what that really meant hit me at that moment really hard; there are people who can't understand me and I can't understand them because we don't speak each other's languages. On the way home I wasn't able to stop pondering this simple truth.
From then on, I couldn't help asking myself and the people around me a lot of questions regarding languages. Why are there different languages? Wouldn't it be easier to speak just one language so everybody could talk to everyone else? How long does it take to learn a language? Could I learn another language? How many words are in one language? How many words do I know in German? Do I already know all the German words? Is there really a word for everything I know in all the other languages? How many languages are there? Is it possible to speak every language?
When it comes to languages, the feelings of confusion, curiosity and excitement haven't ever left me. They may have become even more important to me as an adult.
Is there a topic like that for you as well? Something you could talk the whole day about and never get bored of even after years?
Your post is written in nearly perfect English. The several corrections I made were mainly stylistic, usage, etc. A similar topic that fascinates me is how a foreign language can become more and more your own, the more you learn it. A crazy feeling for me has been hearing a song in a foreign language before having learned it, and then going back to that song years later after having learned the language and being able to understand everything.
Not surprisingly, I find that speaking to children in a language you're learning can be particularly difficult. | Regarding a universal language: I was watching a video the other day about some Spanish speakers in Germany. They spoke German imperfectly so the German speakers switched to English... whomp whomp. | You're post was well written and mostly grammatically correct. You might be at an advanced enough stage where inserting common English expressions or idioms makes you sound less natural. They're good as fillers earlier, but you probably don't need them.
Yeah, languages are pretty amazing and it's a topic that you can go really deep on. One thing that really captivates me about language and motivates me to continue learning is when you're able to really connect with a person in another language, especially if they don't speak your native language. Being able to connect with people across different cultures and languages is a really special feeling to me.
Very good English! You're writing was almost perfect and the few things that needed correcting were pretty minor, so great job.
@maxmo Thank you for all the corrections and explanations. They were really helpful. Yes, so true. I still remember when this happened in English. It’s also funny to translate or explain the meaning of lyrics to somebody who doesn't understand the language and suddenly thinks differently about a song.
@Ons I think you are right. Children are great language learners but not the best language teachers. Sometimes my students try to explain something to me in or about their native language, but I almost never get what they are talking about. By the way, I watched the youtube video you recommended last time (about the possibility of changing your personality while language learning). It was really interesting and he made some good points, even if I don't agree with everything he said.
Could you explain what you mean with “expressions or idioms”. I am not sure which part in the text you meant. I am always glad for advice, so I would appreciate hearing more about it.
@Tyler Thanks for your corrections at my text and the nice words here in the comment! Unfortunately I haven't had an experience like this before, but I hope I will be able to experience it someday. For me English is the first foreign language I am able to understand and speak to a higher level. One of the most fascinating changes I noticed was the possibility to get access to new information and point of views about different topics. For example there are a lot of documentaries out there that have never been dubbed to German.
This was an excellent post. Can't wait for the next one!
@CocoPop Thank you for your nice words :) I really apreciate your help on every text!
I loved this post!