Learning A
Language
Filters of all kind
are used on the internet nowadays to discover who you are and what
you may want and I've definitely been identified as an English
ex-pat. One consequence is that I'm constantly being made offers to
place my private pension abroad (already done) and to learn
languages. As it happens I already speak reasonable French but some
of the offers make me laugh. This man learned a language in a week,
I'm told, and this other man speaks 11 languages; learn his secrets!
It's of interest to me because friend Steve and I are about to
restart our English conversation classes here in Mollans.
Fortunately I know
enough (more than enough) not to pursue any of these offers. Having
studied French to university level, taught in French for a year at a
French secondary school and now lived full-time in France for 10
years, I find I am still learning the language. And I don't think
I'm a particularly unintelligent student. So how do these apparent
geniuses manage it?
The answer, of
course, is that they don't; they can't possibly do so. What is
possible after a week? Being able to say hello, goodbye, the weather
is fine, my name is…..not much more. Which poses the question:
what does being able to speak a language really mean?
If we are talking
about anywhere near perfection then the majority of native speakers
of the language would fail so we can rule that one out. Given the
last few decades of teaching, we can also rule out understanding and
use of grammar. Spelling? The most obvious howlers abound on the
internet and even in supposedly reputable journals. So what are we
left with?
I think it is the
ability to communicate, with a reasonable degree of subtlety, what we
think, want, or mean to say for most, but by no means all, practical
purposes. That much, given considerable immertion in the language,
should be achievable within a year, maybe a bit less. But……...the
problem with communication is that it is necessarily two-way; you
may be able to communicate to someone else but can you understand
what comes back? Here we're into accents, dialects, idioms and
Heaven knows what else. Learning that in a week? Learning that for
eleven languages? I simply don't believe it is possible. I think it
probably takes best part of a lifetime for even one language.
Autumn
Autumn is definitely
here now. The very hot and dry summer weather continued until a week
ago but a couple of storms have put paid to it and at the moment we
have much more comfortable temperatures and skies varyng between
overcast and sunny. The change shows in the shops and markets and in
activities around the village. Much of the fruit I love has now
disappeared. The last strawberries went about a month ago and
apricots have followed them. There are still peaches, nectarines and
melons to be found though and figs have made an appearance; I'm
making the most of them until they disappear too, probably around the
end of the month. Around the village grape harvesters and trailers
are everywhere as the grapes are stripped from the vines for what
should be a bumper year, given the amount of sunshine we have had.
The next stage will be several varieties of mushrooms in the shops
and invitations to wineries to celebrate the new vintages. Autumn
here can be great as the village gets back to normal after the hordes
of summer visitors, welcome as they are, return from whence they
came. So there is still much to enjoy.