3 Phases of Language Learning

The soul-splitting experience that comes with taking on another language, packaged into bite-sized pieces.

There is a rush that comes with each and every new drop of knowledge that you acquire. At times you find yourself practicing and smiling, looking back at all of the things that you can say, write and understand.

Perhaps you are learning with others at the same time, so you get a lot of encouragement from your peers. If not encouragement, at least you are getting comradery! Excitement loves company.

Or maybe you are going at it on your own, weathering the uncharted territories of a dead language. Some of you might be self-studying a relatively common tongue, but for whatever reason you are diving into it by yourself. Nose to the grindstone and making large strides.

So you can order your favorite dish at a restaurant and have small talk with the locals. If you are lost you can ask for help and directions. From here you may be feeling a sense of accomplishment. You are elated that you can get by in a new country and sometimes you dream in this new language.

After some bit of time in the vast plains phase of language learning you begin to realize that perhaps there is more to life than just “getting by”. You are craving deeper conversations. You want to know the words for systems of government, niche economic policy terms, philosophical terms to express abstract emotions beyond: happy, sad, angry, frustrated, intrigued, upset, anxious or fascinated. Yesterday you asked a local, “what is the word for hierarchy”.

The vast plains phase seems like the longest, without it actually being the longest. Yes, you can understand most of what is happening in movies or television shows. Grasping general ideas from newspapers is also doable. But, you start questioning cultural nuance. Does this thing that I am reading really mean what I am reading? Is what I heard really what I heard?

The concept that language cannot be separated from the culture that it comes from really starts to take hold. And you are the alien looking in.

The dust has settled and there is a new form of clarity that has come from fully embracing a new language. Fluttering thoughts of doubt about competence have quieted in your mind.

However you are left with the aching feeling that in order to express yourself fully you may need to mix the languages that you have learned because there are certain things that can be succinctly expressed in one language that just cannot really be expressed in another. So, you continue to dig deeper. You try to phrase things in one language that mirror the other language, but you inevitably miss the mark.

One day you have found yourself in a place where you are of course, very fluent in your new language, but you have to now keep up with its evolution. As with everything throughout history, change is inevitable. The highway of language acquisition has many intersections, traffic stops and bumps. But, what it doesn’t have is immunity to change. You have signed on to dedicate the rest of your life to growing with this new language, and you are happy with your decision.

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