Showing posts with label benefits of language learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label benefits of language learning. Show all posts

Tuesday, 19 February 2013

Non-Native Thought for the Day #5

One remarkable and definitely enviable thing about learning languages consecutively from birth is that the words come with no baggage, no preconceived ideas about what does and doesn't sound right and no mental blocks around the pronunciation of certain sounds.

The languages simply are what they are.

What a wonderful way to be able to see the world. From a position of acceptance, free of questions, doubts and insecurities.

I often get a reminder of this wonderful phenomenon when I listen to Poppette speak. She often freely uses words that I remember finding either hard to learn or perhaps ones that in the past I had avoided using as they just sounded odd to someone who's brain is hard wired first and foremost to the sounds of the English language.

This morning was a great example. Poppette (28 months) bounded out of the front door and exclaimed " [ Il ] fait [ du ] brouillard [it's foggy]. Now you don't get many words less English sounding and, therefore, more technically difficult to grasp as a starting French language learner than brouillard!

When words and phrases like this jump out of her mouth it makes me very happy that we chose to teach her both her languages together. It reminds me that there are so many benefits to doing it this way.

Another very handy benefit is never having to learn the gender of nouns! Oh what a delight... imagine just knowing that, regardless of whether it's a boy or a girl, a baby is un bébé and that an apple is une pomme whilst a grape is un raisin. I am so happy that my children will never have to grapple with genders because they will just instinctively know....

The flip side of that is, of course, that I need to be darned careful about making mistakes just in case they become hardwired into their little brains....grrrr.....more revision then!

Thursday, 25 October 2012

What Do You Love About Speaking Another Language?

If I were to ask any one of my language loving friends what they thought was the biggest benefit of speaking a second language, they would probably all give a different answer. There are sooooo many reasons to learn another language.......a lot of which can be very personal.

Ask me why I love to speak French and I would say...because to not speak French is to not be me. I am one of those people who's ears prick up at th sound of French ... who's heart accelerates when simply sitting in a little French café, soaking up the sights and sounds...for me, the French language transforms the mundane into the marvellous.

Kaplan International (who offer English language courses worldwide) have created this great infographic highlighting some of the benefits of language learning.

inspire language learning

What do you feel is the biggest benefit to you of speaking more than one language?