Foreign language courses are grand. I took Spanish in high school not just because a foreign language was required but because I wanted to learn. I tried taking the things I learned in my courses out of the classroom and i think i may have cracked my friend’s ribs. She found everything I said so hilarious and I naturally assumed it was my southern Georgia twang showing through…..then she translated what I said (and keep in mind that everything I said was taught to me by my professora) *blinks a few times* apparently I called her a b**** with the face of a banana…..or something like that. It was a wonderful thing that I used my amiga as my guinea pig and not any other Puerto Rican woman, I may not have lived to tell this tale.

The moral of the story foreign language courses are grand if they are taught by people who know the language well and who have lived for some time speaking the language in everyday life, but a book will never teach you what you need to know. The best person to learn a language from is a person who spoke that language before they spoke any other.

smile

Learning languages can open you up to new ways of thinking and perceiving the world. Language is the material with which we think, and to expand the flexibility of that process is well worth the effort of studying language. It will enrich your appreciation of English and can lead you to discoveries in literature that may delight you. Think of reading Miguel de Cervantes, for example, in the original language! Or Neruda, or Borges.

I think we are too eager to provide ourselves with escape hatches when it comes to doing demanding academic work, but in the long run, we short-change ourselves.

Go on and study Spanish, or Latin, or Greek or French, or all of them. Your mind will be richer, more responsive and your communication will be the better for it.

I took it in both High School and College and can’t speak a word today and never could.

the first helps you with the second one, at least partially