"How many languages do you speak?"
One of the questions I find hardest to answer is: "How many languages do you speak?" If I am honest, the difficulty I have with it isn't to do with not knowing but more to do with the strange attention it gets. I feel embarrassed, like I am becoming an exhibition piece. One acquaintance of mine, observing somebody asking me that question, remarked to me: "I have never seen somebody back-pedal as quickly before".There is also the question of the point at which you can legitimately claim that you speak a language. At what point of fluency can you say that you speak a language? The languages I would say I can understand reasonably fluently are: English (mother tongue), French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Kiwahili. (I may have forgotten a couple.) One or two of those languages have become rusty but, to take Kiswahili as one example, I preached whole sermons in Kiswahili when I was in Kenya. Other languages I speak to varying degrees from a few phrases to basic conversation include: Irish, Welsh, isiXhosa, Chinese (Mandarin), Cantonese, Polish, Portuguese, Catalan, Hindi, Greek, Arabic, Russian. I may here have left off one or two. I also know enough Biblical Hebrew and NT Greek to be able to look up things I need to know. Languages like Arabic or Hindi, I really only know a few phrases and so cannot really claim to speak them. Others, like Catalan, I have read a novel in and listen to radio. I understand quite a lot but would not feel ready to rock up to Barcelona and speak away. (If I could go to Barcelona today, I would do my best and would be confident of reaching a reasonable degree of fluency within a couple of weeks.)
I have often said before that the more languages one learns, the more one learns how to learn languages.
"How did it all start?"
As far as my memory serves, it all started when I was in the first year of Junior School (now known as Year 3). It was still in those days (in the mid '80s) when schools used series of textbooks to teach English. I don't know how true my memory is but I seem to remember that I shot ahead quite quickly. (The interesting thing is that I didn't really pay much attention at school until Year 3.) My class teacher lent me a French phrasebook, thinking that I might be interested. At that age, it was just a book with loads of strange words in it and it wasn't until the 4th year (Year 6) that I started to teach myself French and German by buying those Collins Gem French Grammar and German Grammar books. I don't know why but my interest was piqued. I seem to remember starting to learn Dutch that year too--I still don't know why!
When I went to Secondary School and started to be taught French and German, my teacher asked me how come my French and German were so good. I just sort of shrugged, being slightly embarrassed (but proud of myself at the same time).
In the end, I took my French GCSE two years early, in Year 9. The following November I started to learn Italian from scratch and took the GCSE in June, in Year 10, along with German and Music. What tended to happen was that I would just decide to learn another language out of curiosity and the list grew and grew.
My mother tells the story of one of my French teachers telling her that my teacher could not teach me anything more and that my French was better than the teacher's. I don't know how true that is because I wasn't there, and I remember that that teacher's French was really good and we would usually only ever talk to each other in French. (I suspect my mum has embellished a little. Sorry Mum, if you read this!)
Adult life
I went off to University at 18 to study Foreign Languages. I was doing really well but did not complete the degree (through poor mental health). However, I spent large amounts of my social time with French students, as well as German and Italian. If ever I encountered somebody whose language I knew, I would always speak their language. I was never afraid of making mistakes. If I were to write this blog in another language, it would probably be full of mistakes but I might do it anyway!
The list of languages has just grown and grown and one of the highlights for me in my adult life was when I was in South Africa four years ago, where there are 11 official languages. Where I was, I once spoke in 5 or 6 languages in one day. It was like heaven. My favourite memory was speaking Afrikaans to order a book in a bookshop. At the end of the conversation, the lady I was speaking to politely asked me if I was from the Netherlands. I was more than happy to live with that mistake.
When I was in Kenya, I remember holding a New Year's Eve vigil in the new school building that was almost complete. I gave a little homily in Swahili and one of the children asked me (in Kiswahili) whether I was a white man or an African. When I asked her what she thought, she said "You are African!".
As an aside, making the effort to speak somebody's language really does improve the relationship exponentially, even if you can only manage a few phrases.
"How do you learn?"
I am not sure that I believe that I have some kind of special gift. I think that everybody can learn languages if they really want to and put their mind, time, and energy to it.
- Firstly, I learn alone. (It doesn't matter what the subject is. I always learn best alone, at least to start with. Only then can other people be involved. When I did my theology degree, I soon learnt that lectures rarely helped, whereas a reading list did.)
- Personally, I tend to find starting with grammar helpful. The grammar of a language is like the foundations of a building. Once that is in place, you simply build on top of it.
- The most important thing is to be patient. I am incredibly impatient and want to know 'all the things' immediately. However, it is worth taking it very slowly in the beginning. It is like the foundation: if the foundation is not solid, the rest of the building will not be sound. There is always a point at which it suddenly clicks if one perseveres. One has to resist the urge to give up when it is difficult in the beginning.
- When one reaches a certain level, it is important to immerse oneself in the language. When I was learning Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian, I found that immersing myself in radio and television--easily accessible online these days--was really helpful. Of course, in the beginning it was just random sounds and I found it hard to make out individual words but as I continued, words began to take shape and as my vocabulary grew, so I was able to understand. I happen to love Scandinavian crime thrillers so stocking up on them and reading them in the original languages helped. Of course, for the first few pages, I was looking up almost every word. It was very tedious and I was tempted to give up. However, suddenly the moment came when I was looking up words much less. Now, I can read or listen to the radio and hardly look anything up. Of course, I don't really know how good my spoken abilities are in those languages because I haven't had much opportunity to practise. I did have a long conversation in Danish once and that went very well. I was very surprised.
- I think that the most important thing of all is to try and not be afraid to make mistakes. We will all make mistakes in foreign languages: it doesn't matter how well we speak them. I will still make mistakes, even in my best languages, even in English! There is nothing wrong with that. The fear of making mistakes is, arguably, the biggest obstacle to language learning. If one simply dives in and tries to speak, one finds that the reward of that effort can be massive. A good friend, who will gently correct those mistakes, is worth their weight in gold.
What now?
I don't know what the future holds as far as my languages are concerned. I am beginning to feel though that I need to use more imagination and use the languages in my life. What that will look like, I don't know.
Does it mean leaving ordained ministry? Possibly, but also possibly not.
Does it mean potentially taking bold steps forward into the unknown. I suspect so.
One thing I do know though: I have to do more with my languages. I have to find a way to use them, other than watching lots of foreign TV, listening to foreign radio, reading foreign books.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
