When I was in junior high school and high school I took French. I even took French during college.
But I never learned to speak French. Oh, I tried to, and goodness knows I had excellent teachers. I simply never achieved any level of proficiency in that language.
I came away from those academic pursuits frustrated, and doubly so when I began to pursue my calling in life to serve as a cross-cultural missionary who lived in another culture. Obviously if I never learned to speak a language I would have to fulfill that calling in English. Nothing wrong with that per se, but I hoped to be able to share the most important Message ever in the language of those I lived among.
While I lived in Africa (4 years) there was no problem, because the parts of Africa I lived in were English speaking and, besides, I only lived in South Africa for two years and then Zimbabwe for two more. Language learning wasn’t required.
But when we left Zimbabwe in late 1991, and headed to Taiwan in the summer of 1992, learning a language in order to communicate publicly not just for daily living but as a public speaker (preacher) took on a whole new importance. If I could not communicate in Mandarin, I would not be able to communicate well to lots of people.
We arrived in June 1992, and started language study in our second week in Taipei. Our language school was built upon a model of full immersion, meaning we did all learning from the first day in a one-on-one setting.
One teacher. One student. One language. Not English. There. Was. No. Where. To. Hide.
Was it intimidating? Absolutely. We struggled to even verbalized sounds at first, much less speak complete sentences. The very first sentence we learned was “I am learning to speak Chinese; I only speak a little”. That one sentence took 3 weeks to learn (if I recall correctly).
The next sentence we learned was “What is this thing called in Chinese?” which enabled us to practice in the streets of the city.
And practice we did. Every day. Our homework was to go out, after 3 hours of one on one study, to practice what we had just learned in class.
It was an excellent way to learn. But what is the connection to Rosetta Stone? Pay attention to next week’s post on more of the mechanics of Rosetta Stone.
Have you learned to speak another language? How did you do it?
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Rosetta Stone is a great way to learn a language. If there are people around to speak the new language with, the learning will be faster and more complete.
I took french in high school, but haven’t tried to learn anything since. I would like to know another language (spanish) but just haven’t made it a priority to learn it. I’ve heard great things about Rosetta Stone.
Tim @ Faith and Finance recently posted..Would You Consider Gold As An Investment?
Simple and brilliant phrase, “How do you say this in (blank)?”. I’m teaching my sons Italian, and this phrase will be the very next thing.
Andrew @ 101 Centavos recently posted..Practical Home Security
The Chinese lady that developed the curriculum in the language school we attended in Taipei is brilliant, and the best educator I ever had the privilege to study with. She developed a program that was incredibly practical.
I took a Spanish class in college, for only 1 semester and learned a little. It too was immersion, our professor refused to speak any English. I can barely remember any of it now, but I was doing pretty good while in the class.
Jen @ Master the Art of Saving recently posted..Net Worth Update~ March 2012
It is all about being immersed, and then being motivated to go use what you have learned.
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