Learning a New Language

Language is the inheritance of a certain nation or region. The accent most often emphasizes the origin of the speaker. Then what is the reason, you may ask, as to why people choose to learn a non-native language? Some choose to learn a language because later they could have opportunities to study or work abroad. Others may choose to study a language because of the culture of a country they admire, by learning that specific language they feel closer to that particular culture.

Learning a language needs a painstaking work, and it can be understood only through experience: through conversation with the native speakers and reading books in the language. The first step to successfully learn a language is to have interest in it and the next step is to practice it through verbal and written communication. It takes time to “polish” a language. The best way to enrich one’s vocabulary is to read books, but what if one cannot make out a word of the text? The solution is to visit one of many internet sources that provide dictionaries. However instead of torturing oneself with lengthy books, it is better to visit online language-game sites. They can be found by automatic web search by only inserting the language’s name and games. The answer to the question “Why?”, is that teenagers and youngsters often find it hard to learn more than couple of new words per day.

Many people learn English, which has become a world-wide used language, at a young age. However, this does not mean that one language is easier than another. It solely depends on an individual, on one’s native tongue and languages learned in childhood. Languages have similarities, some less, others more. For example a Spaniard may find French easier then a Slavic speaking person because of grammar and vocabulary. To sum it up every language has its differences that make it unique. It may be structure, pronunciation of the words or intonations. Different languages make literature interesting. When reading out loud one can inspect the unique sounds of the language. It is considered to be an advantage to read a work with its original text, completely conveying author’s ideas and feelings.

Many children have parents who travel a lot, so they get to learn at least some basics of the language in a country they visit. The reason is because the local language makes it easier to socialize with others. The benefits of traveling are widening one’s cultural knowledge and socializing with people of different characters. However one may feel exhausted of constant environment change, feel insecurity and burden. To best way to get through that “newcomer” stage is to have patience. Staying in touch with people from the previous schools helps to gain confidence.

I come from a Slavic speaking country, but still found Macedonian enigmatic for the first month in Skopje. It was awkward when people spoke to me but I could not make out the meaning. I often used hands to express myself, some found it hard, some gave up from talking to me, but others seeing my will to communicate stayed patient. Eventually I started to see similarities between my language and Macedonian and not long after I started speaking. Even though I speak broken Macedonian, I am understood. In a year, I learned the basics that helped me a lot. It is never too late to learn a language and there are never too “many” languages to learn. All one needs is time.