Most liberal arts colleges require their students to take at least a class or two learning another language, no matter their major, minor, heritage, race, etc. Then you get into those majors like mine who require that you learn up to one and a half to two years of a language before you graduate. I know for history majors, the thought is to be able to read primary documents in their native text. At least that's what I'm told.
Then there are those of us who are minoring/ double majoring in another language. Those first few classes might feel hard at first, but you being to miss those basics grammar lessons when the subject material is something else (but still being taught in your second language)! I had that joy this past semester, when I decided to take Spanish 2002 (the last grammar class) along with Latin American Music, a culture-based class taught in Spanish.
One struggle I had for a while was being able to to understand phrases in Spanish that didn't literally align to what they translate to in English. For a basic example, in Spanish, you don't really say "My name is..." even though that is how we translate "Me llamo..." What it literally means is "I call myself..." which makes more sense when you look at how verbs are conjugated.
Another struggle I had for a while was remembering genders. I am currently trying to learn German through Duolingo, and am finding myself having the same problems I had when I first learned Spanish: remembering the difference between masculine and feminine (and, with German, gender neutral) nouns. Words that end in "o" are masculine and words that end in "a" are feminine. Then there are words that are irregular, and follow their own rule, like "el problema, el poema," etc. Luckily, with Spanish it is all about sound, so once you've been hearing the language spoke long enough, you can begin to figure stuff out just based on the way it is supposed to sound.
Luckily, I am investing my time learning languages that have the same alphabet as English, so I don't have tot deal with the alternative: starting at the bottom. Learning a new language opens up your mind to a whole new way of thinking, which helps you transcend the box that your mind was before. It puts you on level of understanding others you might never have had before. It helps you relate and reach them.
For the missionary, learning a new language helps break down walls of prejudice held by both parties and love the person in a way that is familiar to him. If I were in a foreign country and someone tried to reach me by speaking to me in my native tongue (no matter how broken up there English is), it would mean a lot to me.
Even though the hardships and struggles every language-learner experiences, the adventure of learning a new language is one that cannot be compared to learning anything else!
¡Gracias para leer mi artÃculo!
Thanks for reading!
