Foreign Language Learning Oppurtunities

Have any of you ever tried to learn another language? If you have you know how difficult it can be. Learning another language involves words, grammar, and sometimes tone and inflection. It also requires students to change their entire thought process when it comes to communicating as a whole. It will change your concept of English and speaking and/or signing altogether.

About two years ago I had the very special opportunity to attempt to master the Korean Language. For two years I’ve been studying but, Korean is a slightly… well, very difficult language. It is a language that not only makes you learn new vocabulary, and grammar; it is a language that is in no way related to English. It doesn’t consist of symbols like Chinese but uses a phonetic alphabet like English albeit a little stranger looking to the American eye, not to mention backwards grammar and strange pronunciation. Through two years of learning this arguably crazy language, I learned more about English, languages in general, and communication.

Many of us in the United States of America grow up speaking English. However many of us don’t really think about the fact that we are just making random sounds with our mouth that merely symbolize ideas, and thoughts, and actions. When you listen to a foreign language what does it sound like to you? It sure doesn’t sound like words… or anything close to comprehensible. But to a native speaker of that language it doesn’t sound like "English" (as I thought it would in the process of learning a second language) rather it is a different set of sounds, but all of them have meaning attached to them. It all makes sense just as the "English" sounds make sense to us. And to non-English speakers I’m sure our language sounds just as strange… weird to think about huh… someone not understanding English, the language I’ve never not understood. So by looking long and hard at a language and actually living in another country for two years I began to see English in another light: the non-speakers perspective. This was an interesting insight, and made me think about why we say things the way we do. I’ve come to realize that a good number of the things we say in modern America don’t make a lot of sense from a denotation standpoint. But they work nonetheless and I like those non-sensical phrases to boot.

While I spent my time in Korea I taught English for free. It was a good experience and helped me wonder more and more about why things are said the way they are in the U.S., mostly due to frequent questions on the subject. To be perfectly honest to them I could never answer perfectly due to a glaring lack of knowledge. I always counseled them to take my word for it because that’s what I always did with Korean, they must have been impressed with my skills because they didn’t ask further questions. When it comes to learning languages, in the early stages it seems like there is no way you could get a hold of things so… ungraspable. From seeing people around me learn the same things that I was (I was learning in a group) the people who seemed to improve the fastest were not the critical thinking smart minds of the group. It was the optimistically accepting almost absent-minded learners that seemed to catch on and ride fast taking in new concepts like their favorite Ice Cream. At an early stage I took note of this and realized that when learning a new language, at first, knowing the background and how everything works, and, more importantly, why everything works the way it does is not important to know. These things are not prerequisite to the language and will slow you down. The most important key to learning fast and grasping the target language is your mindset. When one is immediately accepting what the teacher says and is actively trying to master it, he/she can expect better than average results. The background and nuances of each word that you learn can be better felt when you know how to use the word. The time for word history and deep critical thinking of the language is best done after a foundation has been made.

If you happen to master a second language, you’re "up"side is drastically increased. When looking for something to set you apart from those interviewing for the same job foreign language ability is very attractive. I’d also like to add that the harder the learned language is the more impressive it is to those interested. Other things to take into account would be whether or not the country is in active business with the U.S. or whichever country you might be from. Some killer languages include, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, German and many others. So if you want my advice take the time to learn another language. The benefits are amazing not only externally but internally as well.

Jesse Smith is a Client Account Specialist for 10xMarketing. If you need professional translation, localization and any other language help contact The Big Word a translation services company at www.thebigword.com, other keywords include Interpreter translator, Swedish translator, Afrikaans translation