My Experiences as a Language Learner

From LiteracyTentWiki

          MY EXPERIENCE WITH LANGUAGES

     I have studied 6 languages to one degree or another in my life. 

Below is a synopsis of the course content and curriculum, and method of teaching.

1. French, 1 year, in my 8th grade English teacher's French club. We learned phrases and pronunciation. I bought a book called "French Through Pictures" which I used for a while. I still remember a song, "Sur Le Ponte."

Bilingual

2. Latin, 6 years, from 7th grade to 12th. We began by translating into English "Ceasar's Gallic Wars" and ended by translating some very raunchy poetry of Plautus and a few other poets. It was only at the end did I have any interest in learning Latin!

Bilingual

3. German, 7 years. I began in my sophomore year in a experimental immersion course in 1960. Our first year texts included “Deutsch Fur Auslander” by Kessler, which I still own. We also used a Langensheidt’s German English dictionary.

There were 6 to 8 students in our classes and we read very good books. I still remember the first sentence from Kafka's "Metamorphosis", which we studied our second or third year. We also read "The Visit" by Durrenmat, which became a movie with Anthony Quinn and Sophia Loren.

I studied German for four years in college. I read “Faust” by Goethe, most of Schiller’s and Brecht’s plays, and I also translated the poetry of Gottfried Benn.

German Immersion

4. Norwegian, 3 months. When I was about 30, I visited a Norwegian girl friend for the summer. I tried attending a NSL class for adults, which had about 20 people from different countries, and was conducted only in Norwegian. I dropped out and instead exchanged lessons with a six year old daughter of my friend's friend.

Bilingual, bicultural

5. Irish (Gaelic), 3 months. I took an extension course primarily to learn pronunciation so I could sing a few Gaelic songs in a group I had joined.

Bilingual

6. Spanish, since 1985. I lived in Mexico for about ten years, and learned Spanish with the help of my ex-wife and my students when I started teaching ESL. I am still learning.

Bilingual