DIES: Foreign languages

Published 9:00 am Tuesday, April 23, 2024

I read Dean Poling’s article about speaking other languages. As a young person, I took the required courses in Spanish and French. I struggled with Spanish at first. But then it just clicked, and I knew I was getting it. At 14 we loved our Spanish teacher who was from California and only 8 years older than we were. After two years of Spanish, I then took two years of French. I’ve always been an aural learner. Sounds of other languages fascinated me.

I majored in French. The language had always intrigued me because I love how it sounded.  And I minored in Spanish. And when I was a junior I decided to take German as well. It was so very different than the two Romance Languages. And it was harder to learn because of its precise word order and declensions. 

I ended up teaching high school language. One year I taught all three languages and had trouble speaking English by the end of that long year.

I was fortunate to get summer learning experiences in France, Germany, and Costa Rica to improve my language abilities.  I wanted to know what it was like to live in those countries and to speak the language every day with English left behind.  The great thing about studying other languages is that you learn more about your native language, its grammar, and how it is put together.

I am retired now and don’t get a lot of opportunity to speak the other languages. But I know they still have a place in my brain because when I interact with native speakers of the language, I’m able to communicate with them.

According to some studies, the learning of other languages is good for older brains and is helpful in avoiding problems like dementia. I sure hope that is true.  I used to tell my students that there a lots of languages in the world, and our brains are capable of learning them all without fear of our brains ever topping out. 

Jeri H. Dies

Milledgeville