Languages

"You can never understand one language until you understand at least two."
—Geoffrey Willans

I'm on my way. I practice Spanish every day with Duolingo and with my Spanish friend in Costa Rica. I practice about 20 to 25 hours per week and I'm on a 199 day streak. At this point I might be able to hold up my end of a conversation with a one year old Spanish child.

Why am I learning Spanish? Because I might want to visit south Florida one day. Have you heard those people in Miami? They all have strong Spanish accents. Some don't speak any English. I might be visiting Miami Beach and decide I want a cheeseburger. How would I order one? Knowing Spanish, I would ask for a "hamburguesa con queso"—a hamburger with cheese. And I might want to order a Diet Coke. In Spanish, that would be "Coca-Cola Light." Seriously.

But getting back to the quote by Mr. Willans (at the top of this post), I understand what he is saying. Languages are different, and it's not just that they use different words. You cannot substitute Spanish versions of English words into an English sentence and have a new Spanish sentence with correct grammar. Spanish grammar differs from English grammar. You might translate an English sentence word for word and end up with a perfectly okay Spanish sentence, or you might end up with a mess that a Spanish speaker wouldn't understand. It depends on what you're trying to say.

And what I'm trying to say is that learning another language isn't only about learning new words, it's also about learning a new way of using those words. Learning new words is a challenge to the memory, but learning to use them in a new language is a challenge to your way of thinking. The most frustrating thing for me is when I ask my Spanish friend, "Why can't I say it that way?" and she replies, "Because it's wrong." That's not telling me anything. I know it's wrong, I just want to know why it's wrong. Too often, there is no answer to why. It is a certain way because that is what Spanish people have learned from toddler to adult until it becomes automatic. "You say it this way." 

When people converse, they are exchanging thoughts. To exchange thoughts, humans create sounds. We've even learned how to express those thoughts as symbols. The sounds and symbols are what is called language. Certainly, thoughts influence language, but does language influence thoughts? I suspect it does, in some subtle ways. A good translator doesn't just convert words from one language to another language. I have a translator app on my phone that can do that much. A good human translator converts a thought in one language to the same thought in another language, and that is a much more difficult skill to master.