by Bill Steele

Created on: August 28, 2008

The first thing to say is that it is not as hard as some other things. I did languages at school because, for me at least, it was a lot easier than physics, chemistry or math.

It's like learning a code the trouble is, that code has to encompass all of life. And then the first stage is really the hardest, so that to get to where you feel you are making progress takes some time. The first stage is to learn the building blocks the grammar which means verb conjugations, noun declensions, and vocabulary. And for every rule there are lots of exceptions which you simply have to learn. One of my favourite memories is my German teacher, who had been a translator at the Nuremberg trials, talking about one of those exception lists, the "wedding night prepositions"; an, auf, hinter, in neben ueber, unter, vor, zwischen. (At, on, behind, in, near, over, under, in front of, between). So it can take a while before you are anywhere near holding a simple conversation other than ordering beer. It takes persistence and enthusiasm. Many people are put off at this stage because it consists of dry grammar lessons at school, where they dud not want to be.

You can learn languages through the so-called "total immersion" programme without the concentration on grammar. If you learn only from listening to the natives, you will be understood, but you will not be speaking grammatically. Without understanding the underlying grammatical structures, you will not be able correctly to construct a grammatical sentence. They will listen to you, and be patient with you, probably laugh at you behind your back, and you will always be a foreigner. My brother in law spent some years in Germany, and spoke German happily to the locals, without any lessons at all. But he has a gift; and his grammar was terrible.

The next barrier is social. To get the facility in the language, you need to speak it, and immediately you are in serious danger of embarrassment. Think about what is going on. You need to listen carefully to the other person, translate back into English, construct an answer, and then translate it back into their language. All without pen paper or dictionary. While you are doing that, they have happily carried on to another sentence, and as you've been translating your answer you haven't been listening. It's hard!

You have to be patient with yourself and also have the ability to laugh it off and press on. Most people in my experience are patient with you, and are pleased that you are trying; except

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