My experience abroad has also influenced my perspective on the foreign language learning of English speakers. Sometimes people’s views on both how difficult or easy it is to learn a language surprise me.
I took a course called Serbo-Croatian at my university, four hours a week for 40 weeks or so before I went to work in Sarajevo for two years. I had a few lessons once there, used the language somewhat frequently and watched tv with local language subtitles. Today, this language is my strongest foreign language – I can make questions, use past present and future, understand the basics of the grammar (though I certainly don’t use it correctly) and use a lot of verbs and nouns. I can have a simple to average conversation with a stranger and talk about basic topics, but while I speak with some fluency (meaning regular pace, without stumbling over or repeating words) I am nowhere near fluent in the sense of near bi-lingual. I would not be able to understand a newspaper article well or fully appreciate a film without subtitles.
I think my success with this language, which isn’t really all that much, is connected to things like the positive feeling I have about the place and people I associate with it. I’m not great, but it’s hard for me to imagine achieving this level with another language, even a similar one like Slovak.
I think many English speakers don’t have experience with many foreign languages, and also use Spanish or French as a measuring stick, and other languages are just more difficult. See the US State Department difficulty ratings for several languages here (and keep in mind the time in weeks incorporates full-time study).
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We’ve been living in France on and off since 1989. I can carry on a conversation, read books in French, write (with plenty of mistakes in French grammar) but still feel there’s a LOT to learn! Just checked out the rating of language difficulties that French falls into the Category 1 rating. When I think of my native-born Chinese friend who’s currently teaching English to American high school students – then try to imagine me switching places with her and trying to teach Chinese in Shanghai to high school kids – well – it’s very humbling. Moral of the story? There’s no time to get smug – there’s a long way to go when it comes to improving language skills.
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Very good point, Chris. When I think of my students, both abroad and in the US, some of whom have been studying English for years, it frustrates me to hear people – generally native English speakers – talk about learning a language in, say, a year (there really are people who think this). If it was that easy…why do people study English for years on end? Sure, immersion helps…but it takes time to learn a language and there are degrees of how well you speak. I think to us – because we both live abroad – and others in the same position, this is very obvious, but to many people it’s not.
I should also point out that I definitely don’t mean to imply that French is easy – my experience is obviously not comprehensive as I’ve only studied a few languages – but pronunciation-wise (and similarly comprehension-wise) I thnk there is a LOT to master to function in French. Despite the cases, aspects, fleeting “a”, and diacritical marks of Slavic languages…there are still many aspects that I find easier.
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