Challenging Myself to Learn A Foreign Language

In school I was actually good at languages. Yeah, that’s right! My friends would probably laugh and take that with a pinch of salt, because it doesn’t seem that way now. Since English is so widely spoken these days, my efforts at speaking the local language often only stretch to “hello”, “goodbye”, “please”, “thank you”, “water” and…”where is the bathroom?”. But back in my school days I was an A* student when it came to learning French and German. I had a bit of a head start with French because my parents would take me on holiday to France as a child, and if you examine the picture below, I liked to get stuck into the Berlitz guide.

Unfortunately for me, I have the memory of a sieve. I have a great short term memory, but my long-term memory is pretty abismal. I stopped learning both of those languages after GCSE when I realised that A-Level involved reading foreign literature and writing about politics in another language. So anything that I did learn up to the age of 16 soon evaporated from my brain.

Language Learning in School Just Wasn’t Fun

I’m definitely one of those people that likes the idea of speaking a language fluently, being a prima ballerina in the Royal Ballet or playing the guitar like Jimmy Hendrix, but the problem is I want to skip right to the big stuff without actually doing any of the steps to get there.

I was put off by language learning at school, which I think has contributed to my lack of motivation at learning a language in recent years. Learning a language in school was a laborious process. For a start we actually never really focused on the spoken language. It was just too mortifying to get it wrong in front of the entire class, so nobody would ever put their hand up. Plus when you come from Manchester, you get a LOT of laughs listening to your classmates trying to speak in French with a Northern English accent! The only time we ever spoke French was in the dreaded oral exam at the end of the year.

What’s more, we tended to repeat the same things over and over again and never really advance onto anything else. Having to start every year at school learning ‘Bonjour’ and ‘Je m’appelle’ felt like a CD stuck on repeat. We learnt the most bizzarre sentences that would never be spoken in real life, instead of learning anything remotely useful.

Instead were forced to watch these retro videos from the 1980s with French kids wearing what looked like brightly coloured ski jackets. We had to endure the weekly vocabulary test which involved memorising as many words as possible, and sometimes we’d have to complete a written exercise and fill in the missing gaps.

In England we naturally have French on the syllabus because it’s the closest country to us, but I actually felt I would have more use out of a language like Spanish. I felt sorry for the teachers in a way because they were trying to teach kids that had never been to France or had any knowledge of the culture- and I think the one thing that makes learning a language fun is being in the country being immersed in the culture.

The reality is…language learning just wasn’t that much fun at school.

Why I want to learn a language now

What triggered me to want to learn a foreign language? Well firstly…it’s pretty attractive when you hear someone speaking a second language fluently don’t you think?! But seriously, I was traveling around southern Spain recently and I felt pretty pathetic and helpless not being able to speak the language and relying on friends to do all the ordering for me in restaurants. Spain is one of those places where I felt not a lot of people speak English, and why should they? I’m the one that should be speaking Spanish. If a Spanish person came to England, I would expect them to speak some English.

Through traveling around the world I’ve come to the point where I feel like language learning can actually be fun. Learning a second language also comes hand in hand with learning about the culture and being in the country. It’s about the way of life as much as the language.

One thing that I am going to have to overcome is my nerves when it comes to speaking in another language…I often know the correct term in my head, but I’m too scared to say it in case I pronounce it wrong.

Everyone learns in different ways, but unfortunately I can’t really learn by just listening to people speak a language or picking it up from other people. I like to learn methodically, in more of a classroom style manner. But I also realised now I am no longer at school I can learn in whichever style I please.

I bought some ‘French with Michel Thomas’ CDs a few years back, and found them to be really useful at helping me build my French. I followed them for a while and was getting very good, but then my attention waned, my iPod broke and other things just got in the way.

I recently decided though, that to signal a new start with language learning, I will learn a completely fresh language. When I visited Venice earlier this year I absolutely adored the language and the culture, so I’m quite keen to learn Italian. On the other hand, Spanish is very widely spoken and would help me when I eventually visit South America. Thoughts and suggestions accepted.

I’ve downloaded the Michel Thomas CDs for both Italian and Spanish, and I’ve signed up to the BBC Steps course where they send you weekly emails on a Monday with tips and slideshows.

I’d be interested in taking classes to keep me motivated, but anything free or pretty damn cheap would be preferable. If any of you have thoughts or suggestions, then feel free to leave a comment below.

Oh yeah, and I’m going to keep everyone updated with my progress on here!

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