Language Learning

I have not blogged nearly as much as I would have liked. I went to San Francisco in December and Thailand and Cambodia in June, but just have felt writer's block for so many months.

I haven't traveled as much as I would like, but I have been taking lots of language classes. Since last fall, I've taken Polish, Mandarin, French, Russian and Turkish classes, and one thing is clear. Whether it's innate ability or as a result of studying linguistics, many foreign languages and TESL, I am a great language learner. Things just make sense to me that are difficult to others.

I have been taking community language classes, which are cheap, and so my classmates come from all walks of life. In Polish class, many had Polish ancestors and wanted to connect with their roots. French class was full of retirees who wanted to move to France. Turkish class is a good mix - one girl is taking it because she loves the Turkish restaurant in St. Paul, and a couple is learning Turkish so that they can communicate with their daughter's Turkish in-laws. Whoever they are, most have had no foreign language experience. When genders were introduced in Polish class, one man spent weeks and weeks questioning this since, "How can a chair be a man? Why is coffee a girl?" Turkish is a pronoun-optional language, but one woman asks EVERY time if, for example, "ben yorgunum" means the same thing as "yorgunum." YES, YES, YES! Every time, yes.

It makes it very frustrating for me since classes progresses at the speed of molasses in January. It also means that my classmates turn to me for help, but also secretly resent me. I'm sure they wonder why I'm in beginning Turkish when I seem to know it all. However, it's all new to me, it just happens to make perfect sense. Turkish is the most logical language I've studied, and it boggles my mind that others don't find it as easy as I do.

One would hope that university language classes, which cost about $4000 for a semester, have higher expectations of the students than the cheaper community classes ($50-$100 for 6-8 weeks). However, unless the class if full of linguists and serial language learners, I fear the same frustration would be there, only my bank account would be emptier. Private lessons would be the way to go, but they are more expensive and I need other students to motivate me to do homework. So, I guess I'll continue doing what I'm doing. It is definitely a good practice in patience, something I'll need in teaching EFL. If only "excellent language learning ability" was a real resume builder, and if only serial language learning was a real job I could get.