Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Learning French

One of my goals that I had for myself was that after I completed my PhD I would learn at least one language. I have some Spanish to my name, enough to get me into trouble, but it has been years since I spoke it or at least remember what I said when I did speak it.

All the research says that if you want to learn languages you should begin at a very very young age as that is when you develop your vocal cords and are able to train them to speak the sounds. Makes sense.

Well I am no long very very young, not even very young or young, but I am on a mission.

There are four languages I want to learn: French, Italian, Spanish, and Sign. There is something fasinating to me when someone is speaking English one moment and all of a sudden can go into French or some other language. It is impressive and I want to be one of those people.

The main reason for learning languages now is to travel. NOT that I will ever come off as a French Lady, or Italian Babe, or even a Spanish Senorita, but I think that if you plan on traveling it is respectful to not expect other countries to speak English and at least try to learn some of theirs.

If you read the Sunday paper there were a few news reports about cities and states wanting to make a law that said "English is the official language". I get that and I respect that, but I wonder if these folks who are pushing this ever thought about how they travel?

There seems to be an expectation that since the USA has some magical power everyone should cater to us so a French Restaurant should have their menu in English in case one of us happens to dine there. We all can be a little over the top. I have decided not to be one of those folks.

I want to travel outside of the USA. I want to experience the local nuances of other countries, so I will learn a few languages to at least attempt to be respectful of their "Official" Language.

Our French Tapes came tonight, so let the learning begin!

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