Language Learning

The Swahili learning is coming along nicely though there are more than their fair share of frustrating moments. Still, I only have to think back upon first arriving and that perspective allows me to appreciate the slow and steady progress over the last nine months. In fact, it's not only easy to forget the progress made, but equally as easy to forget the important fact that yes, you can learn a different language. It's a long and slow process with a high amount of saturation necessary. Memorizing many different words can be taxing on an adult brain and words don't often "stick" until a few days later. Because it combines not only learning new words but also social interaction, it can make many people anxious and they can give up easily. The closest thing I compare it to is learning to play an instrument as you need a lot of repetition and it invokes the same feeling of, "I'm never going to get this..." as language does.

I remember my first experience living in country that didn't speak English (China) and I felt so overwhelmed by the language barrier that I dreaded going out for simple things like toilet paper. Every transaction was a mix of confusion and anxiety. Anyone who has been to a foreign country knows the feeling when you newly arrive and want to test out the local "hello" only to be answered by a rapid fire response as if somehow saying, "Hi" projects you as a native speaker. In the initial stages of learning this is often when I get the look on my face that I imagine reflects what is going on in my brain. I imagine my brain to be like an old fashioned mix of gears and all the sudden the gears get jammed. Eyes fixed, eyebrows raised, mouth slightly open, no breathing. Um, what?

The next level of fluency involves being able to eventually stammer the local equivalent of, "I don't understand" or some variant of the correct way. It's one of the first phrases to learn (after hello and thank you) and even if I happened to do some pre-trip studying, in real time in the middle of Argentina or Nigeria or wherever, trust me, it finds a way to suddenly escape you. It's tricky because becoming too comfortable with this phrase can be a crutch in which you can immediately ripcord the conversation to a screeching halt. This is then often followed by repeating "hello" and "thank you" if you've gotten those down.

Swahili proved to be quite difficult even in the greeting part. To start with, Tanzanians love greetings. It's not odd to start a conversations off with four or five consecutive versions of "how are you?". This is often the way that "flycatchers" (slang for tourist hustlers) test you to see if you're a possible target for harassment. In addition to the multiple greetings, there is a different greeting for people older than you and changes to the grammar if there is more than one person (in English "hello" is pretty versatile). Further complicating things there are of course the response to the various greetings which are mostly different. When I was first learning I loved exchanging greetings with people and thought of it as "greeting sparring" where I'd trade greetings with someone and test my response time.

After the greetings are down it's all about the marketplace. Knowing numbers and asking prices for things is critical. Especially living in a big tourist area, knowing numbers reduces the amount of over-charging. When I first arrived I remember going to a shop and literally saying, "Hello. I want..(point at items)"...at which point I would then mumble something sounding like "how much" and then I would hand her the largest denomination bill, hoping that I owed less than that. I literally had a piece of paper with those phrases on it that I crammed into my brain as I walked to the shop. In retrospect I now know that the woman must have reciprocated my greeting, at which point I simply ignored her and frantically started pointing at vegetables. Also, although I tried to play it cool and my plan to memorize some key phrases and blend it, I'm sure they all knew I had no clue what I was doing.

After one has the basics down it then gets a little murkier. You're suddenly able to greet with confidence and ask basic questions but are still routinely baffled by complex responses. Still, this is when it becomes a lot of fun and I am always humbled when thinking of myself in that way that I see non-native English speakers saying things like, "I no like this" and "Which way bus go?". One of my favorite examples of being in this stage is aptly described by David Sedaris in his book, When You Are Engulfed In Flames, where he talks about living in Japan and learning some of the language. 

“Cute,” I said, and when the florist agreed, I supersized the compliment to “very cute.” “You speak with skill,” she told me. Drunk with praise, I then observed that the weather was nice. She said that it certainly was, and after paying I headed for the door. Anywhere else I’d say good-bye when exiting a shop or restaurant. Here, though, I use a phrase I learned from my instructional CD. “Now I am leaving,” I announce, and the people around me laugh, perhaps because I am stating the obvious.

Since I've had experience traveling I know what it's like to be reduced to pantomiming and smiles. It's a lot more fun and adventurous while you are a temporary visitor; when you live somewhere it quickly becomes a way to differentiate yourself from the aforementioned tourists. Naturally it's also an effort to show local people you are at least trying. Although English is widely spoken around the world, the people inhabiting those countries usually have a local language and just as it's difficult for you to speak their local language it's equally, if not more, taxing to speak English. And although it's nice to have an English speaker in a foreign country, it's by no means compulsory as I am the one visiting the foreign country. If there's a misunderstanding at a restaurant and I get the wrong dish, I think it's me who is at fault, not the waiter. However, this is apparently not a universal viewpoint as I've seen many people in the service industry get chewed out over misunderstandings rooted in language. The most cringe-worthy is when it is a non-native English speaker with a heavy accent berating a local in a pidgin sort of English that is even difficult for me to understand.

Many of my friends and family have stated their admiration over my language abilities. I am quick to tell them that I know for a fact I am not quick with languages. I've seen people who are good with languages and I'm certainly not one of them. It's simply the opportunity that I've had to live in different countries paired with my inability to keep quiet and the patience to keep studying and practicing. If you want to learn Italian you can pick up a learning book or get Rosetta stone, but likely months of practice will not even equal a week in Italy. Still, language can be very difficult to learn and in the awesome book, This Is Your Brain on Music, by Daniel J. Levitin, there is a passage that explains why it's so tough for adults (as well as corroborates my comparison to learning an instrument):

If a child doesn’t learn language by the age of six or so (whether a first or a second language), the child will never learn to speak with the effortlessness that characterizes most native speakers of a language. Music and mathematics have an extended window, but not an unlimited one: If a student hasn’t had music lessons or mathematical training prior to about age twenty, he can still learn these subjects, but only with great difficulty, and it’s likely that he will never “speak” math or music like someone who learned them early. This is because of the biological course for synaptic growth.