Second language learning

2010-03-22 - Steve Brooks

There are many reasons for learning a second language, and many different kinds of people wishing to do so. There is the expatriate retiree, or recent immigrant, struggling to make better sense of what is happening around him in his adopted country. There is the more serious tourist, who wishes a greater understanding of the people he meets during his travel experience. There is the student who wishes to study abroad, when the target second language is a vehicle of education and opportunity. Then there are people who admire and respect another culture or religion from that of their birth and who wish to engage more intimately with it. On a more calculating level there are those whose business interests require a facility in other languages. It has often been said that when you are buying you can use your own language, but when you are selling you must use your customer’s! Then there are those for whom the reasons for acquiring a second language are perhaps not so benign – the soldiers and spies of countries bent on conquest or subversion. Lastly, there are those fortunate natural linguists, who wish to hone their skills and extend their knowledge of languages for its own sake.

Each of these people will approach the learning of a second language from a different perspective, and with a different end in sight. Nonetheless, there are advantages to learning a second language that are common to all.

In the first place, anyone without familiarity with a second language is, to a certain extent, not really conscious of his own culture – since he has no viewpoint outside it that would allow him to judge it from their perspective of others. He often cannot imagine any point of view other than his own, and has little idea that there are other people who may view the world in often startlingly different ways. The Thai language, for example, is rich in pronoun forms that delineate exactly the social relationship between speakers, something that English lacks. This is one of the ways in which culture and language are inextricably linked. Thai social life is based on hierarchies of status, and on social relationships based on a patron-client basis. Not something familiar to English-speaking societies since the nineteenth century, when we lost the hitherto important distinction between ‘thou’ and ‘you’. Thus, language provides an insight into the differences between cultures.

Secondly, learning a second language provides a gateway to new social experiences. Initially, the shared endeavour of learning can lead to new friendships in the classroom. Thereafter, knowledge of the target language enables the learner to make new friends in a new culture.

Thirdly, learning a new language is a wonderful mental exercise in itself. It brings together the skills of memorisation, analysis, the detection of patterns and so on. This is particularly beneficial for retirees whose mental muscles need a workout!

So go on. Sign up for that language course today!