Archers For The Lord: Ask Mary

There are a number of factors to consider when considering studying a foreign language. I was raised in a German environment. My grandfather lived at a German old-age home, and my mother frequently spoke German around the house. I never really "studied" the language, except for a one-year stint in high school, when I had little motivation for learning any academic subjects. To this day, although I really am not capable of reading, speaking, or writing German, I can understand most of what people are saying when I'm confronted with German speakers, either in person or on the television. Clearly, early learning is very potent. The little bit of German I do know is very second-nature to me and doesn't even feel like a foreign language. However, I believe that the fact it was a natural part of my environment, rather than a "learning experience" made the learning stick more than it would have if it had been part of a "unit study in German".  

When my own children were young, I introduced them to the sounds of many languages. The only time we ever looked a bit like a school was at the breakfast table. I figured I had them all there anyway, so we might as well do something! We read "The Story Bible" by Pearl Buck over and over for years and the kids did their own artwork to illustrate the stories from the Old and New Testaments. Afterwards, we always did one other "subject". A good deal of the time, that subject was a foreign language. We studied French, Spanish, German, and a little bit of Russian. (Actually, I was the one who wanted to learn the Russian, and I backed off after it became obvious that I was the ONLY one who wanted to learn the Russian!)  

One of the reasons I did this was to train their ears to hear the sounds of other languages. Obviously, to accomplish that, it was important that I was pretty good at pronunciation myself, or I would have had to use other resources. At that point, we certainly weren't striving for fluency. I also tried to tie in information about other cultures, religions, and peoples. I believe that these early experiences laid the foundation for later work in foreign languages.  

When learning a foreign language, self-motivation is extremely important. Right now, I'm trying to increase my own fluency in Spanish and learn Korean on an intermediate level. My motivation for learning Spanish is to communicate with the many Hispanics in our area, and to be able to help Hispanic mothers consider the possibility of homeschooling their children. I'm learning Korean because two of my own kids live in Korea, I'm visiting there this fall and doing a workshop in Seoul, and two of my books, "The Relaxed Home School", and "The Joyful Home Schooler" are being translated and published in Korea sometime soon. Those are powerful motivators. Back when I was trying to learn Russian, the only real "reason" I had is that I thought it sounded cool. That wasn't nearly enough motivation to persevere when things got tough, so I wound up giving up after awhile.  

When trying to learn a foreign language, it also helps if you have people or situations in which to practice. In many areas of the United States, Spanish is best for this purpose, because you have your choice of watching Spanish television, listening to Spanish radio shows, or going out and finding real Hispanics with which to converse. It is usually tougher finding similar opportunities to practice other languages.  

That being said, however, I believe in allowing children to study any foreign language which they would like to learn, since internal motivation is so important. Definitely, in the case of your children, if they are motivated to learn Japanese, let them. However, don't feel like YOU have to learn Japanese if you'd rather learn Spanish! The challenge, of course, will be to find the people, experiences, etc., which will help them to learn, especially if you don't want to put in the time to learn the same language yourself.  

I have personally made the most headway through using audio programs in my car. Getting into some kind of a habit where the study of a foreign language is a normal part of your daily routine is critical. I've set tons of goals in the past few years that never happened. My goals for foreign language study have been met because EVERY time I go out in the car, I turn on a tape. (The series I like is Pimsleur audio, available through The Ultimate Language Store in Dallas TX,cheappimsleur.com). (P. S. Not really cheap.) I also try hard to either watch a few minutes of Spanish television at night (I prefer the news or weather, because I recognize more words in those situations), and I spend a little bit of time reading in Spanish each day, especially the local Hispanic newspaper. Another thing I've done is to get several books in both Spanish and English, such as Joel Osteen's "Your Best Life Today/Su Mejor Vida Ahora", and read them one paragraph at a time, first in Spanish and then in English.  

I believe that learning at least one foreign language makes a person more well-rounded. The only better thing is to travel abroad. I know my recent trip to Africa was a life-changing event, and I hope to continue growing as I begin doing more speaking outside the U.S., now that my own children are grown.  

Finally, as a "relaxed homeschooler", I never really worked with my kids on English grammar when they were young, preferring to emphasize reading and writing in a natural manner. When they began studying foreign languages, often at the middle school level, it provided a perfect opportunity to learn some things about English grammar that they had never learned before. For example, when they started learning how to conjugate verbs, they realized that English has a "hole" in the language, because we have no second person plural pronoun. That's why each area makes up its own y'all, youse guys, yo'uns, etc. To me, that was a more interesting way to learn grammar, when comparing one language with another.  

If you have one student who has no internal motivation to learn a language, and you are simply doing it to get it on a high school transcript, I recommend doing it the last two years of high school, because they may have to pass a placement test, and if they have zero motivation, they won't remember it for long. However, if they are motivated at any age, the learning should be much better and longer lasting.