[HPforGrownups] Languages (OT)

[morine10 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 6852

In a message dated 12/13/00 9:46:55 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
harry_potter00 at yahoo.com writes:


> When traveling in other countries it was stated that English speakers 
> rarely know how to converse with the natives of that country. I must 
> add that while I can speak French a little bit i is not the best.  I 
> also found, on a good piece of advice that even if you don't know 
> much trying to say anything in another language will get you a lot 
> farther than staring dumbly and waiting for someone else to talk in 
> your tounge.  Most of the time they do know some English and will be 
> glad to use it if only you use your limited knowledge of their's.

Absolutely!  I've always found people have a smile when I try their language 
out - although they are probably just smiling because the are thinking 
"ignorant American."  After you sputter like a fool, they usually let you off 
the hook and talk to you in near-perfect English.  
If you look at it geographically, it is almost a necessity for Europeans to 
learn a common language because of the close proximity countries have to one 
another.  The US is isolated, most states only border on other states and the 
common language dates back to our start.  Culturally, it was never a 
necessity for us to learn another language.    

> When it comes to learning other languages early in the schooling 
> process I did have Spanish until the fourth grade when the state 
> abolished it.  It can be said though that I never learned much from 
> these classes.  All I can remember from these early classes is 
> skpping in a circle and flapping our arms like chickens, so perhaps 
> it is a good thing they were outed. (Or perhaps not, since, flashing 
> forward to High School and my latin class I can clearly recall 
> dancing in conga lines to new vocabulary words, in fact that was last 
> only two weeks ago.)

Unfortunately in the US, someone, at some point in the development of our 
schools' curriculum, decided that languages should be taught in the latter 
grades.  I didn't receive a language until High School - age 15.  I know Oui  
and that's about it.  Spanish in college produced similar results, si?  If 
you look at the research, I believe that it's sometime after the age of 11 or 
12, (around puberty) that humans loose the ability to learn language easy - 
it's a brain thing.  Something about the pathways becoming so set for 
English, we loose the others that would have helped learn other languages.  
We don't use them, we loose them.  If you look at the research, children that 
are taught (properly) at a very young age do not struggle at all.  They 
develop perfect accents and are able to switch between languages without even 
thinking about it.  


> There we played Mythology Charades and Ink Pinks-
> 
> A Happy Wizard?
> 
> Merry Harry, of course!!!!
> 
> Ink Pinks!  Thanks!  So weird that you mention them.   Just the other day I 
> was trying to remember what they were.  I have a very vague memory of them 
> from grade school.  I think we may have called them Hink Pinks.)  Thanks!



-Mo
****************************
"To me, imagination is a place all by itself." - Kris Kringle, Miracle on 
34th Street.


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