Why even try?

Plus a little surprise

The other night I was working with a student. I was laughing because he told me he understood context to be "vibes" and it reminded me of when I was learning French. I was a kid and it was so difficult to take anything seriously. Definitely don’t look up how to say “I am tired” in French and think about what it was like to learn that as an 18 year old. We laughed, but what really got to me is that this young kid (early 20s) is investing more in himself than most adults ever will.

It got me thinking about why I'm so passionate about languages and why I'm so tough on the people with whom I work. My students know I have sky high expectations, but they also know there is a reason behind it. For those of you who I don't work with one on one, here is why I want so badly for you to master your target language.

At age 17, I moved to Costa Rica with an exchange program called Modern Language Study Abroad (MLSA). At that time, I spoke 2 semesters of public school Spanish and nothing else. After living in Costa Rica for several months, I moved back to the US and finished high school. That year, a German exchange student moved to our town. We played on the same soccer team and quickly became friends. One thing led to another and my family ended up hosting him for 7 months. We shared a room. We had bunk beds. There was so much room for activities!

Without that German kid, now man, I would have never made it to Belgium. I likely would have never learned French. My entire life would look completely different. He spent weeks teaching me German and I helped him perfect his English. Learning German with him was one of the most important things I have done in my life because some of the most important people in the world to me only speak German. One of those people being his mom. In fact, my (in)famous sticky note method comes directly from her!

When I lived with them for a month, she covered the house in sticky notes. She would ask me the same questions every morning and repeat things slowly to me so I would feel comfortable speaking, and it worked. After just a month I was managing short conversations with her and those short conversations led to an unbreakable bond. His entire family, including his now soon to be wife, are as close with us as ever.

All of this to say, you never know who you will meet or when or where you will meet them. Sometimes the most important people in your life will appear in the least likely place at the least likely time. By equipping yourself with a second, third, or fourth language you are giving yourself the absolute best chance possible to make the most of the moment when it comes.

It is incredible how quickly you can form a connection with someone when you can speak their language. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't even have to be complete. Even a few words to express yourself can be enough, especially if you are clearly putting in the work. People appreciate it more than you know. It is not easy by any means. But you can do it because you can do difficult things and be great. So get out and do some difficult things and become great. I'll be rooting for you, and devising some more Second Language Strategies for you to take with you to battle.

Speaking of, as a thank you to all of you I am making the Spanish Patterns Guide 1.0 FREE for everyone. Find it at the top of the Language Learning PDFs page. I'll be adding more documents for paid subs there too, so if you're a paid sub don't forget to check it out.

-BtO