A: Is it true?
B: Yes, it happened just like we thought it would.
A: Oh no. And is it bad?
B: Uh-huh – at least 5 have been affected.
A: Oh dear. How long do they think it will last?
B: It could be up to three weeks.
I hope that as you read this conversation you found that you understood every word and yet still didn't have a clue what these people were talking about. This is how I sometimes feel at our current stage of language learning (though I also have times where I don't understand many of the words!).
Language is more than just learning vocabulary and getting to grips with grammar. It also involves relationships, and knowing what the person you're talking with knows about which you therefore don't need to mention explicitly.
This means that when you come into a village where everyone has known everyone from birth, and spends most of their time together, you are bound to lack a lot of the shared knowledge. I sat through an hour-long church meeting recently where everyone else knew what the problem was which was being talked about, but I didn't! So although I understood quite a lot of what was said, I was missing the crucial bit of information necessary to work out the relevance of what everyone was saying!
Of course, when people are talking directly to us they do adapt what they say accordingly. They know we don't know the same people, and haven't experienced the same events. But even then, there may be cultural assumptions we don't share.
For example, I was telling my seamstress how much Simon liked the new trousers she had made for him.
Me: This morning he told me, “Mummy, I want to wear my new trousers!”
Seamstress (in a jokey manner): Ah, was he going on a journey?
Me: (puzzled silence until I remembered that here people dress in their best clothes if they are travelling somewhere – quite the opposite from what I would tend to do!)
We could allow ourselves to be discouraged when we realise that we have a far greater task ahead of us than simply learning the rules of a language. Yet it also makes it more exciting, as we have a whole new world to explore, and a new community to become part of. Yes, we'll always be outsiders to some extent, but that doesn't mean we won't have real friends and a positive role to play.
PS Even I don't know what A and B are talking about above ;o)
B: Yes, it happened just like we thought it would.
A: Oh no. And is it bad?
B: Uh-huh – at least 5 have been affected.
A: Oh dear. How long do they think it will last?
B: It could be up to three weeks.
I hope that as you read this conversation you found that you understood every word and yet still didn't have a clue what these people were talking about. This is how I sometimes feel at our current stage of language learning (though I also have times where I don't understand many of the words!).
Language is more than just learning vocabulary and getting to grips with grammar. It also involves relationships, and knowing what the person you're talking with knows about which you therefore don't need to mention explicitly.
This means that when you come into a village where everyone has known everyone from birth, and spends most of their time together, you are bound to lack a lot of the shared knowledge. I sat through an hour-long church meeting recently where everyone else knew what the problem was which was being talked about, but I didn't! So although I understood quite a lot of what was said, I was missing the crucial bit of information necessary to work out the relevance of what everyone was saying!
Of course, when people are talking directly to us they do adapt what they say accordingly. They know we don't know the same people, and haven't experienced the same events. But even then, there may be cultural assumptions we don't share.
For example, I was telling my seamstress how much Simon liked the new trousers she had made for him.
Me: This morning he told me, “Mummy, I want to wear my new trousers!”
Seamstress (in a jokey manner): Ah, was he going on a journey?
Me: (puzzled silence until I remembered that here people dress in their best clothes if they are travelling somewhere – quite the opposite from what I would tend to do!)
We could allow ourselves to be discouraged when we realise that we have a far greater task ahead of us than simply learning the rules of a language. Yet it also makes it more exciting, as we have a whole new world to explore, and a new community to become part of. Yes, we'll always be outsiders to some extent, but that doesn't mean we won't have real friends and a positive role to play.
PS Even I don't know what A and B are talking about above ;o)
1 comment:
Sounds like swine flu!
Liz
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