Thursday, July 5, 2007

Why five?

Why not. In some parts of the world speaking five languages is as natural as waking up in the morning. For some reason, or many reasons, that is not the case where I live. But that does not mean that it can't be.

Over the past several years I've spent a noticeable amount of time helping native English speakers try to learn at least a little bit of Spanish. But there's no reason to stop with Spanish. In Europe, for instance, someone who speaks Spanish can probably also communicate in Italian and maybe Portuguese as well. French is not out of the question and some bits of Romanian will at least sound familiar.

Fluency is not what matters about this kind of polylinguism -- what matters is being able to have a basic but effective conversation. No one here will ever advocate that everyone should have interpretive skills that could be used at the United Nations. It's more about how to order a meal, catch a bus or get a date in five different languages. Five is what I'm using here, but that is not a limit on you. I want to know about your multilingual experience, even if it's just your attempt and even if it's not a Romance language. After all, communication is the important thing.

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