Day 3 - 212 -- Learning Languages

Being from a country with two official languages has been a blessing. In grades 7, 8, and 9, French was a required subject. I continued with it through high school and took that as my language for my undergraduate degree. I also audited an advanced grammar and literature course when doing my doctoral degree. When I was unemployed before my career even got started, I took two Spanish courses as sanity savers. While there are some similarities between the languages, Spanish is more pedestrian and accessible. Every letter is pronounced, unlike in English or French. <smile>.

Languages seem to use different areas of the brain. I have been revisiting Spanish lately and found that even though it has been 30 years, some of the rhythms and structures were unearthed readily even when not used for so long. It seems that reading and writing are easier than speaking for me -- which shouldn't be a surprise since that is the same for English <smile>.  Listening is a challenge -- it takes a long time to get my head around what was said. Often someone has asked me a question in French and it takes me a while to respond. Usually just as I am ready to respond, the person gives up and speaks English to me. <sigh>  So, I began responding in English which seemed to create a pause on their side instead of mine <smile>.  The issue with the pausing is that my brain will translate what they said and then translate my response -- a slow process. If I were working in the language daily, I'd be able to think in the language and the process would be more streamlined. Languages can help the brain to be challenged in a different way. They can help reinforce grammar of our mother tongue. Each of these can push us out of our lazy habits.

Music is its own language. Lyrics can communicate the feelings even when not fully understood by the listener. Think of opera -- it is moving even just knowing the gist of the story and not fully grasping all the words being sung in a different language. The selections for today came to mind when I was thinking of the French lyrics from a band from my youth and the Spanish lyrics from a more recent singer. Enjoy!

It always happens this way/c'est toujours a recommencer -- Toulouse

Viver mi vida -- Marc Anthony