Misconceptions about Language Learning

1-     Children and language learning

A lot of people are discouraged to pursue the study of a second language thinking they’re too old, or feeling that the crucial ‘time’ to learn has passed. I would like to point out a few things about children and language.

-First, a child does not have to learn as much as an adult to achieve communication. A child’s vocabulary is smaller and constructions are shorter and simpler.

-Age difference itself is not the main reason for language proficiency. It is related to other factors such as motivation, time, and environment which make the learning successful.

-Children learn language mainly by acquisition, rather than study. While adults learn by study of the new language.  It is the circumstance that facilitates leaning, not the age. So age difference reflects differences in the situation of learning rather in capacity to learn.

-An adult will have a harder time trying to match a native’s accent than a child, due to the years spent in  communicating in the same language to a sudden change of new sounds and different pronunciation.

The main advantage of learning as a child is the ability to mimic closely the native pronunciation and intonation of the new language. The older we get the harder it becomes to pronounce new sounds. It is not about the age, but about the pronunciation habits we acquire from our own language making it difficult to pronounce some sounds just like a native speaker does.

So what is difficult it’s not to learn a foreign language after childhood, but to match a native’s pronunciation when learning as an adult.

On the other hand, 99% of the people find accents charming. And more importantly this does not means you cannot communicate efficiently.

Also, keep in mind the adult can make logical connections much more quickly than a child.  Making adult understanding a lot quicker than a child’s.What takes a child months or even years to understand can be explained to and understood by an adult in a matter of minutes. 

2-     The more time spent studying the quicker you will learn.

Language (in the conversational sense) cannot be studied as a science. In order to learn how to speak another language you need to, well, speak it! Do invest time in studying things you can apply to your daily life, it is far more important to understand what they mean, and how they are used rather than spending time in studying new vocabulary and making long word lists.

3-     Formal instruction is the only way you will master a new language.

This does not means formal instruction is useless, it is just one of several tools you can use to learn. You will definitely need help, specially with pronunciation. Audio files, a native speaker willing to assist you as well as formal instruction can help with this. Just keep in mind there are several resources you can use, if formal instruction is not possible.

Learning a Foreign Language

The importance of learning a second or more languages is not merely limited to increase your employment potential; this is probably what drives most to learn a foreign language. It is not only about the ability to communicate in different languages. It is about gaining global intercultural understanding. To be multilingual is to be multicultural. Language and culture are directly linked. I believe not enough time is spent understanding the culture of the target language, and it is this that will help you to understand the many whys. Why they speak the way they do, why the say xxxxx as opposed to xxxxx . It is through cultural understanding how you will learn to efficiently communicate with native speakers and learn to understand and speak the ‘local’ way and avoid being lost in translation.

Learning to master another language aside your mother tongue, improves you overall linguistic and cognitive capacity. You will also develop greater analytical and comparative conceptualization of language in general and gain a deeper understanding of your own language.

My intention is not to promote the advantages of learning a foreign language. It is to help and motivate those who are already learning, or considering taking up a new language.

English has become a global language. This is the reason I choose to write in English. Nevertheless, it is for this reason a lot native English speakers do not feel the need to learn another language. For example:

The United States is the only industrialized country that routinely graduates students from high school who lack knowledge of a foreign language. Whereas 52.7% of Europeans are fluent in both their native tongue and at least one other language, only 9.3% of Americans are fluent in both their native tongue and another language.

*Statistics from vistawide.com

What will follow is a series of notes and ‘tips’, based on my own learning experience and research. The aim is to help you save time and frustration. Is about the things I wish I knew before I started learning other languages.

Why are comic books stigmatized?

 

Various answers come to mind. It is evident comics books have not reached the acceptance enjoyed by other media. Often labeled as essentially children’s entertainment (mainly due to Western comics who were being directed ‘solely’ for children).  It has yet to achieve a high level of legitimacy as a unique form of expression that blends words and pictures in a way that no other medium can duplicate.

 

In the past I have found myself unintentionally justifying why I read comics.  When this happens I always think of an anecdote from Neil Gaiman, as recounted to Hy Bender

 

—— Once, while at a party in London, the editor of the literary reviews page of a major newspaper struck up a conversation with me, and we chatted pleasantly until he asked what I did for a living.”I write comics, «I said; and I watched the editor’s interest instantly drain away, as if he suddenly realized he was speaking to someone beneath his nose.

-Just to be polite, he followed up by inquiring ,”Oh yes? Which comics have you written?” So I mentioned a few titles, which he nodded at perfunctorily; and I concluded, “I also did this thing called Sandman” At that point he became excited and said, «Hang on, I know who you are. You’re Neil Gaiman!” I admitted that I was.”My God, man, you don’t write comics, “he said.”You write graphic novels!”

-He meant it as a compliment I suppose. But all of a sudden I felt like someone who’d been informed that she wasn’t actually a hooker; that in fact she was a lady of the evening.

-This editor had obviously heard positive things about Sandman; but he was so stuck on the idea that comics are juvenile he couldn’t deal with something good being done as a comic book. He needed to put Sandman in a box to make it respectable. [The Sandman Companion: A Dreamer's Guide to the Award-Winning Comic Series]

 

Likewise I have experienced a semblable scenario; as the reader of a often misinterpreted medium and which audience is labeled or ’boxed’. Just as there are juvenile comics, there are comics directed to mature readers as well as mature content comics. It is not all children’s fare.

A younger audience was the result of lighter content comics. The CMMA (Comics Magazine Association of America) was created; in order to regulate the content of comic books in North America. Content believed to be too violent or plain inappropriate. This, however, played a big role in why comics are the way they are today.  As some publishers adapted to the ‘Code’, others went out of business and others flourished as a result, and so did new titles, hence the lighter content. This is most likely where the stigma of comics as juvenile literature was born. Still, underground comics were being produced and banned by the code. But I will not get into great detail here as it will make this longer than intended.

 

Many comics have legitimate literary value, indeed.

‘Maus’ (Pullitzer Prize winner in 1992) is a memoir by Art Spiegelman about his father struggle to survive the Holocaust in Poland before and during the Second World War.

One personal favorite is The Sandman series, the only comic to have ever won the World Fantasy Award. Is about the dreaming world and a being who is the personification of dreams, also his seven immortal siblings who personify abstract concepts: Dream, Death, Destiny, Desire, Delirium, Destruction and Despair. It takes place in both the dreaming and the waking world. Is a series about stories, where they come from and how they shape us.

 

Each time I have recommended Sandman to friends who normally do not read comics, not only did they enjoyed the series but they have also continued to read other titles by other authors in comic form. It is hard to suggest a starting point. I believe Neil Gaiman’s references and use of historical characters and mythology in The Sandman makes it easier for those who enjoy reading fiction or fantasy in non-comic form to enjoy it. And of course anyone that reads comics has read Alan Moore’s famous Swamp Thing or From Hell or even V for Vendetta. Frank Miller’s The Dark Knights Returns is another classic. Personally I really enjoyed Garth Ennis’s Preacher, and Mike Carey’s Lucifer. It also happens to be a DC comic series, but there are (several) other great publishers and titles. I just happen to read a lot of DC titles.A downside of the medium is that publishers direct comics to already existing fans but do not encourage the non-comic enthusiasts to read them.

To those unfamiliar with comics, do give them a try! Or simply prevent from (mis)labeling them.

 

All in all, a mediocre piece of ‘literary work’ will rest mediocre regardless of the medium used. Just as a brilliant piece will always remain brilliant be it a comic or  graphic novel or else. I have read mediocre books just as I have read mediocre comics.

 

Samuel Delany puts it best “Each medium does things the other can’t, and one medium isn’t replaceable by another. What you can do in comics you can’t do in movies. What you can do on stage you can’t do in a novel. It’s the intensity and the vividness with which the form of a medium disseminates the experience of the medium itself.”

 

Thus, why should you read comics? All I can say is there is no reason why you should not.