Which language should I learn?

[GAME05]

i'll second Straw's comment about the immersion programs. i had a coworker take a two-week one in Mexico--she said she had fun and really learned a lot in the short time.

[strawbossisevil]

I wanted to add some thoughts. I know many people look at Rosetta Stone as a possible way of learning a language. And, I'm sure that it aids in learning a language to a certain extent. But so much of language learning is actually speaking the language with other human beings, and I really question how much a computer program can imitate an environment of speaking with other people. Not to mention the tremendous amount of self discipline it would take to spend a significant amount of time using a program like that on a daily basis. To a great extent, it takes away the greatest joy of language learning, actually speaking with human beings, without that I imagine a program like that would become mundane and difficult to continue.

 

When I started studying Spanish in college, I bought a similar program. And while it was useful in helping me learn some generic vocabulary, it really wasn't the huge help I thought it would be. Even studying a language in a college classroom, while not worthless, is not going to provide an opportunity to really learn to actually communicate using the language. You learn vocabulary, you learn grammar, but you don't really have much time to put the two together. In fact, I remember my first year of Spanish in college, and almost failing the class because while I learned grammatical rules quickly, I just didn't really have a strong grasp of the vocabulary (for lack of using it on a daily basis).

 

That summer after my first year, I worked at a job where I was the only person who spoke English (everyone else was from either Mexico or El Salvador). After a summer working with them, I went from being bottom of my Spanish class to top of my Spanish class, because for 8 hours everyday I was forced to communicate in Spanish. It was either that, or keep quiet, and being an extrovert, that wasn't an option.

 

I improved even more following my stay in Ecuador, where everyday I was surrounded, and forced to communicate in Spanish all day long. Vocabulary words which, otherwise, would have seemed so mundane, now had real life meaning and application when I wanted to use them in my everyday speech. This continued during my time in Mexico too, each day I was picking up numerous words which were more than just lists on a page, but were vital to my ability to communicate my thoughts and ideas. No computer program can know what words you need to best express yourself, they give you generic lists, some of which is somewhat meaningless (I still remember having to learn the spanish word for bio-sphere in college - when would I ever use that?).

 

On top of my current job, I've volunteered as an English teacher now for the past four years. And I can see a dramatic difference between my students who just study in class and go home and for the rest of the week speak in their native languages, and those who make an effort to use what they learned in our classes with people around them, actually applying the course materials in real life situations. Those are the students that are always the ones who learn the fastest, and excel at English in the shortest period of time. They are the ones coming up to me after class asking me for specific vocabulary that they want to use in certain situations because they want to actually communicate in the language, rather than simply have a head knowledge of it.

 

So yeah, I know it sounds expensive, the immersion trips. But really, you get what you pay for. If you want to actually know a language and be comfortable speaking it, that is probably the best way the average person can reach that point in a reasonable period of time. The exception would be if you had a job/hobby that allowed you to use the language on a daily basis (like I had that one summer), I still consider that job to be invaluable despite the crummy pay.

[JonnyLungs]

I'll echo the usefulness of immersion.

 

My high school Spanish teacher once scheduled a meeting with me when she found out I wasn't taking a fourth year of Spanish. I was pretty good at it and was picking it up pretty quick. Being pretty lazy in high school, I decided to take some slack off class instead. Besides, when was I ever going to use Spanish?

 

Fast forward to today and most of the people that work for me only speak Spanish. I decided in college that instead of getting back into classroom Spanish that I'd go on an immersion tour. I had two weeks of intensive classroom Spanish where the instructors either didn't know English or pretended not to know English. I lived with a Mexican family during my stay there also. It all came back really quickly after not using it for five years.

 

Now that I work with Spanish speakers every day, I'm not fluent but I'm good enough to get my point across in most cases. My biggest problem is regional dialect problems as my employees are split between Mexicans and Nicaraguans. I learned Mexican Spanish and my Mexican employees even agree with me that the Nicaraguans are hard to understand. A Central American drawl perhaps?

[strawbossisevil]

Where in Mexico did you study, Jonny?

 

A neat added benefit of doing the whole immersion thing, living w/ a Mexican/Ecuadorian family was getting to see their culture first hand. One of my host families in Ecuador took me along to to football (soccer) game that he was playing in, and introduced me to his friends. My Mexican house mother and I would stay up until bed time just talking, and she'd always try to teach me a joke or two to tell to the teachers the next day. It was a neat experience to get to see a different culture first hand.

 

Also, world travel just is a lot of fun. The Mexico school took us to the huge pyramids in Mexico City and all these other remote archeological places. The Ecuadorian school took us to the rainforest one week, to the beach the next, and took us to climb a volcano and go horseback riding during the weekends. It was really a memorable experience.

 

Plus, the food, especially in Mexico, is second to none. Way better than any Mexican you've ever had in the States. I want to go back sooooooo bad for some tacos al pastor, gorditas, tamale sandwiches, cemitas, burritos de asado, tacos de barbacoa....I could go on forever. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Yum!

[JonnyLungs]

Where in Mexico did you study, Jonny?

Buenavista de Cuellar in Guerrero.

 

I'll echo the food thing too. My rural Wisconsin neighborhood is populated by the Latinos that work on the dairy farms (my own included) and they have some of the best parties around in terms of food. My host mother in Mexico was also a tremendous cook.