The Great Adventure of Language Learning: A Road Map.
Lingo Flamingo board member Tamara Mihályi writes on language learning as an adventure, her experience of living internationally and tips on how to get started with your own language journey.
Ed. Robbie Norval and Rebecca Gill
I grew up in Hungary, in the 1980’s. Linguistically, this provided a thin context for later on. I’m often asked what kind of language Hungarian is and I have given this a lot of thought over the years. It belongs to the Finno-Ugric family and is not really similar to any of the other languages in this taxonomic class. So, while I appreciate its uniqueness and have great admiration for anyone who tries to learn it, this means it’s only understood by a relatively small proportion of this planet’s population...
In terms of usefulness and ease of connection it may seem a little less attractive as a choice of learning, but I’ve found that people enjoy learning a wee bit of Hungarian. For example, people often ask me “how do you say “cheers” in Hungarian?” It usually ends up with loads of laughter, since it’s a relatively long word with a lot of consonants: To one person we say “Egészségedre” and for a group of people we say “Egészségetekre!”.
Whilst growing up in Hungary, I always wanted to travel the world and I was very much aware that I needed knowledge of a more common language to do so. Our elementary school offered English or German. Due to my German roots, geographical proximity, and interest in the culture, I initially chose to study German. This accompanied me through high school, living a couple of years in Aachen, Germany, at the end of the 90’s. My MA in Germanistics opened doors to work internationally from early on in my career. I then developed my English skills and saw the benefits of different languages in building up a knowledge which could be used across different languages.
Learning different foreign languages can help with learning future languages. For instance, many Romanians can learn French or Italian fairly quickly due to commonalities. This also goes for Germanic languages. I don’t speak Dutch, but I understand German and English and can therefore recognise many Dutch expressions, especially when seeing them written down. I once read a book from a writer who spoke ca. 92 languages... some on a native level, some on a basic conversational level. He said that the main thing with language learning is that you need to have a deep motivation to do it. So, you may have a certain connection, motivation, or passion to learn a language, and this is an important motivator in continuing to learn a language.
If you feel inspired to learn a language, my best advice is to articulate your motivations concretely: How will you be able to use the language? How will it feel when you can do that? Whenever you feel like you want to give up or stall, or you feel like you’re not doing well enough, your list of motivations can remind you of why you started learning in the first place and you can continue with renewed passion and energy. Bear in mind that learning a language is like running a marathon and is not a sprint, it takes time, commitment and passion so be kind to yourself. Enjoy the self-discovery that comes with language learning and find out which of the Lingo Flamingo languages speaks to you.
Tamara
Tamara Mihályi is a member of the board of Lingo Flamingo. She originally reached out to Robbie to support the organisation, because of her calling to support our elderly in whatever way she can. Learning about the benefits of the work, the immense positive impact of the team and how language learning helps keep our brains active to help defend against the onset of dementia, she appreciates the choices that have allowed her to immerse herself in other languages and their unique cultures.