Your children can learn a world language today!
This time a few months ago, the average American was accustomed to talking mostly about domestic news, particularly the primary election season. That feels like years ago. But now, as we see the world constantly changing before our eyes, we’re also beginning to talk more and more about the world beyond our borders. And these days, China is always in the news.
I hope that all of you are safe, healthy, and adjusting to this new normal of being at home indefinitely. This is a great time to learn some new phrases in a foreign language, and that’s exactly what today’s blog is all about.
Hi everyone! Last month in France, it was cold and rainy. However, I was in hot and desert-y West Africa, in Senegal to be exact. The difference between 5 degrees Celsius and 45 degrees Celsius has been a difficult readjustment, to say the least. However, this is not a weather blog, it’s a language blog, so let’s talk about why I was there.
Chicken lo mein, crab rangoons, and beef and broccoli. These are some of the staple dishes we all know and love to call “Chinese food.” But is it, actually?
This month, let’s take a look at appreciating our native language(s). This topic might seem a bit counter-intuitive since I’m always talking about how great it is to learn a new language. However, as important as it is to learn a new language, it is also important to take some time to appreciate your native language.
I am excited to be writing my first blog post for One World Language School! Given that it’s the beginning of a new year, I thought I would take this opportunity to tell you all a little bit about myself before getting into some other topics.
I am writing to you a little late this month because I have had a hectic start to the New Year. I am taking my language learning even further this year by attending a school in France to study naturopathic medicine. Let me tell you, studying science in a foreign language is not easy. I’m only a few days into the course and I know that this course is not only going to fill me with knowledge about naturopathy, it is also going to greatly improve my French skills.
This month, I want to ask you to think about a question: how do you feel about formal “you” pronouns? I think about this quite often when I compare English with many other languages which have formal and informal “you’s” and singular and plural “you’s”. For us English speakers, this can feel a bit tricky to navigate because we use the same word anytime we are referring to someone in the second person, “you”. The only time we differ is when we refer to something someone owns, aka the possessive case, where we use “your/s”.
We’re coming up on the end of the year and with two months left to go, it’s a good time to reflect on what you’ve accomplished so far this year, and what you still want to do before the end of December. This time of year can be very busy, with holidays, family commitments, work parties and more. It is easy to say, “It’s too late this year to start something new. I’ll wait until the new year.” But come January, won’t you say the same thing? “It’s too busy now, I’m tired after the holidays, I’ll start when the weather is nicer out and things are less busy.” There is always going to be another excuse to not do something. While you can make as many excuses as you like about starting your other goals, if you want to start learning a language, I’m here to tell you that there is no better time to start than now.
Have you ever found yourself contemplating learning a new language but backing out before you can start because you tell yourself, “I’ll never be a native speaker, I’ll never be able to speak this language perfectly, so why bother trying?” If this is you, don’t worry, this is only fear talking, and it’s a common fear. Putting yourself out there to learn a new language is scary. There is unknown pronunciation to master, confusing verbs to conjugate and a whole host of cultural differences apparent in the structure and practices of the language. If you’re a perfectionist, then this can seem like a whole storm of things to master, things which you may never master to 100% perfection. But, does the lack of perfection mean that you shouldn’t even try to learn something new?