Learning a Foreign Language and Zen

When I first moved to this area...

I had no idea that I was committing myself to learning a foreign language or FOUR!

In fact, just a few days after I arrived in France, I came face to face with the biggest challenge of my life so far...

No, I'm not referring to taking the French Driver's License exam (both written and driving) in French although that was a bit of a challenge.

And I'm not referring to going to 20 different grocery stores looking for cheddar cheese and Caesar salad dressing...

Which did result in a rant or two about this "god-forsaken country".

My biggest challenge so far has been the way people switch from one language to another mid-sentence.

Learning a foreign language or two can seem like the hardest thing in the world at first.

At least, that's how I felt about it when I first arrived in France.

Maybe you're lucky enough to not live in a two or three language household.

But in the border region of France, Germany, and Switzerland, it's commonplace.

My family speaks French, German, Swiss German and Alsatian depending on their mood which seems to change minute by minute.

This is where my journey into spoken foreign languages began.

You see, I'd already studied written foreign languages in school, but they left out a lot of important details...

And here I am now, committed by marriage vows to four foreign languages.

Two of which are only spoken languages...

I didn't just marry my husband...I married his region, culture and languages...so I guess I'm just going to have to accept it or go crazy...

Which I don't recommend...

I've tried it...

It doesn't make the adjustment process go smoother.

Over the last four years, I've learned more than I expected.

Sure, I've learned plenty of vocabulary and all about grammar...

But I've also learned how to deal with the challenges of not understanding or speaking a language as well as I would like to.

I've found out a lot about learning a foreign language mostly by trial and error.

I probably made every mistake you could and then tried something else...

And eventually some of those "something elses" worked great.

So after enough of that, I have gotten really good at learning a foreign language or four.

Did I mention that I have to be a parent in Swiss German?

As well as a daughter in law in French and German...and then a neighbor in French and Alsatian.

Oh yes, I almost forgot...and a teacher and coworker in French.

I don't have the luxury of avoiding it.

There is no avoiding it!

And I don't have the luxury of being a victim about it either.

Well, that's not true...

I do have that option...

But from experience, it doesn't speed up the learning process at all.

So I don't recommend it.

Well, after I tried going crazy and then being a poor victim of my horrible predicament...

I decided to go out on a limb and experiment with some other methods for dealing with my unwanted reality.

The first of them that has made my life much more enjoyable is to relax.

So, I don't always remember how to conjugate "faire" or "lesen" properly.

I don't always remember how to do the subjunctive in French or what gender "Gesicht" is in German.

And no I don't know how to say "weiyah" in High German yet.

It's the "zen" approach to language learning.

Where I am right now is just right for me.

Can I just accept where I am right now and enjoy the experience?

In fact, WHAT would happen IF I just relaxed and enjoyed where I am now?

Because there are advantages to being where I am now... What are they?

At first, I didn't have to pay attention to anyone. No one expected me to understand them. I could just relax and tune out whenever I wanted to. It was wonderful!

Now I have different advantages.

What are they?

It's a good question to ask yourself when you're learning a foreign language...

And while we're on the subject of learning a foreign language or two...

If you've got a question or something to say about learning a foreign language or anything else, you can talk about it here...

Or just read what everyone else has said...

Or you can introduce yourself to the Thought Detective community!

And tell us a little bit about you, where you are living, how you got there or anything you'd like to tell us about yourself here...

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