Language Learning Reference Points

A major typhoon, and a few hours to kill because going outside would not have been safe. What a great time to study Korean.

Today’s lesson: pronunciation and reading. Simple enough right? So I log onto the website and start going through the modules.

It got me to thinking about something really important to me, and that’s language learning and the reference points it gives you.

Now, for me, learning a language is very non-rigid, uses many other languages to explain one thing, and I never study one language solely through the use of another. If you’ve ever seen my notes, any notes, not just study notes, you’ll notice a splash of languages and alphabets all jumbled up together.

So what’s my point? My point is that being able to speak and know different languages has made picking up new ones so much easier for me. For example, today my goal was to improve my Korean pronunciation, and to do that, I used many languages. Korean, I’m learning, is a language of very subtle pronunciation differences, and had I not been able to decipher them in my own unique way, p would still be p, b would be b, g would be g, k is k, etc. (for those of you who have studied Korean, you know what I mean)

But, because I love languages, because I’m fluent in 3 (for now) and have a good grasp of many others (like reading Chinese and understanding it without being able to pronounce it, some Turkish/French/German pronunciation, can read Portuguese, and of course English, Spanish, and Japanese).

So what this does for my mind is helps me relate and pick out the subtle nuances in Korean, as I’m learning. An example, ㅂ and ㅍboth sound very similar to the “p” sound. It took me a while to get this.ㄱandㅋ are very similar to the “k” sound. So while many have said thatㅂsounds like “b” while ㅍsounds like “p,” that’s not entirely true.

So here’s where the many languages kicks in. Say “papa” in Spanish. Now say “park” in English. Now notice that the p in papa and the p and park are said differently, very subtle. Now you sort of got the difference between ㅂ and ㅍ and can understand why the b and p sound can be difficult for some Korean speakers. Now say “casa” in Spanish and “かさ” (kasa) in Japanese. Notice how the “k” sounds are slightly different depending on the language. Now you sort of get the difference betweenㄱandㅋ. You’re welcome, and Korean is full of these nuances and subtleties by the way.

So who cares? What’s the big deal? That just sounds like some crazy linguist crap that nobody but “smart” people can accomplish. Well wait, I’d argue that no, that’s not true.

Let’s take another approach and make the broad statement that language itself, i.e. the language(s) that you know/speak/study/etc. directly and indirectly creates to a great extent the reality that you live in. What a broad statement right? Well, the more languages I learn, and the more cultures I’m exposed to, the more I have found this to be true in my experience. Do not take this view as deterministic, I did not say that the language you speak determines your reality, I’m more along the lines of that it influences it greatly. Languages evolve and change and are fluid, there is no such thing as a “stagnant language.” (Even “dead” languages were the products of years and years of evolution)

Again, so what? Well, if language creates our social realities to a great extent, allows our cultures to evolve, and allows us to understand each other better, does it not make sense that we should all learn more instead of rely on only one when we express ourselves? We forget many times that language is tied to unique emotions, unique cultural outlooks, and various forms of existence. That said, a shot at language learning (here’s looking at you educational policy folks) is a shot at our natural intelligence, is a shot at our belief in ourselves to be creative problem solvers, and is a shot at trying to create a dominant culture at the expense of others in the pretense that if we all spoke the same language “we could all understand each other better.”

So I’m arguing that we should learn more languages. But wait, language isn’t solely about rote memorization and having an alphabet. There are many languages out there outside of speaking. I’m broadening the conceptualization of the term “language” to include all forms of expression and understanding. So, a mathematician speaks the language of numbers and formulas, an artist speaks the language of expressing their inner beauties (well, good artists do anyway…), a musician knows the notes, tones, and tempos for various types of music (that’s a language), and even partners can speak a unique language all their own with body movements, inside references, and subtle movements.

My point here is to show that by learning other languages, we expand our mind power. Simply by learning languages, we expand the points of references that we have to depart from. For example, that means that to an onlooker of my notes, it looks like a jumbled mess of too many alphabets and incoherent languages. To my mind, it means there are shortcuts to explaining certain concepts in one language via the use of multiple as opposed to relying on only English to learn Korean. This means that while I can easily explain the grammar of Korean via Japanese, I use English, French, Turkish, German, Japanese and Spanish to explain the pronunciation of certain characters in Korean. Contrary to popular belief, knowing more languages helps make you smarter, not confuse you. Sure, sometimes they do get mixed up in your head and there are moments you forget which one you meant to express yourself in, but this is not a product of language learning itself, it’s a simple product of forgetfulness or unfamiliar contexts; like when you forget your grocery list at home for example. So, learning new languages and then applying them in everyday life has given me access to emotions that I never knew existed, has made it easier for me to pick up entirely new languages, and has strengthened my appreciation for the mind that is uniquely all my own.

So rather than confuse me, languages have helped clarify the world around me. It’s why I’m so stuck on the idea that we need to not rely on translations, we need to BE the language. We need to know the culture, we need to know the words, we need to see each other’s existences as just as unique and just as precious as our own. It is amazing the changes in your mind that occur when you pick up a new language and begin to use it in various societies and contexts. New ways of thought, new ways of life, and new appreciations for things you never knew to exist until you learned the language. Rather than think that everyone should be one way in order to “simplify” things (i.e. all speak English or any other one language), you realize that everyone’s in the same boat, everyone has ideals and values that differ, and everyone’s dreams are different. You then begin to realize that it is this complexity and diverse way of existence that essentially makes us all the same. It is the uniqueness of the forms of our expressions that make each and every one of us valuable, and it is the languages we use to make sense of our world that help to create the types of futures we envision. So get out there and challenge yourself to a new language or two or more and a new way of life, the world will thank you : ) P.S. you don’t always have to travel far or be young in order to make new friends who speak other languages, we are all on the same planet after all (for now).