How I went from French to international
Spoiler alert: this is about learning new languages
Education helps to find motivation
How does being bilingual sound ? Pretty cool huh ? This is only the first step of the coolest path: Polyglotism.
I am French and I am going to tell you how I have learnt 3 other languages by the age of 21.
I will skip the part where clichés about French people are brought up and go straight to the heart of the subject.
The French education system is probably like many others, but I don’t know enough about others to tell. I don’t want to confuse with grades, that’s why I will relate everything to the age.
By the age of 10, every French pupil has to learn a second language, English or German, and the vast majority choses the former. There is also another possibility, learning both ! That’s what I did.
Just so you know, everyone was to pick a second foreign language by the age of 12. This time the choice was broaden, Spanish and Italian were possibilities.
But I chose German, and there was no going back. I am not going to lie to you, it was a pain in the ass for a very long time. I decided to go for Latin as well, I don’t know if it helped me or not and quit after 2 years. That is our “middle school” and God knows I war average in both English and German.
When I was 14, I entered “high school” and I was to keep both English and German as foreign languages, at least until high school graduation. I was introduced to the opportunity to picking optional courses. And guess what ? I went for Spanish as my third foreign language.
This was the best decision ever.
My teacher at the time was the one in charge of those new beginners in Spanish, and as it was optional, she was not restricted by a method. She told us that she was going to use an ancient method that wasn’t taught anymore.
The idea of this method was repetition. We were supposed to learn Spanish dialogs by heart every week, and recite them with a partner in front of the class. Everyone was to recite each and every one of those dialogs. We all overcame the shyness very quickly as we were a small group.
That was the key: we were learning actual meaningful Spanish sentences.
Every now and then, we would stop and make a grammar lesson, but the key part was the oral expression. It was graded, and not only on the accuracy or the grammar, but also on the pronunciation and the accent (which are important in Spanish) ! And the teacher was strict about it.
I caught up in Spanish with people who started years before me.
The main difference is that I was enjoying learning and speaking Spanish whereas they were not.
Unfortunately she retired right before my high school graduation, and I fear that this method is lost forever. She left me with a very good level and a sincere love for the language.
Dedication and hard work pay off
I only talked about Spanish during my high school years, but I got interested in learning English during this period as well. This was when I began to enjoy the British and American culture, mostly through music and cinema. However I was still far from considering myself bilingual.
On the other hand my German level was stagnating…
After High School, I was accepted in a pretty serious curriculum in Math and Physics. It was a 2-years-prep to enter top engineering schools.
I couldn’t keep up with 3 languages, and dropped Spanish. I could have dropped German, but what the hell, I wanted to improve and I thought this could be the time. It wasn’t.
You might think that a French, doing math, couldn’t care less about english. This is far from true. Once again I faced regular oral examinations. Once a week, I was given a press article, and I had 20 minutes to sum it up and give my opinion about it, for 12–13 minutes. Afterwards I had to interact with the examiner for 5 to 8 minutes.
At first, it was hell !
But at some point, I got myself together, and bought a weekly subscription to The Economist. It was in proper English, it was press, what could go wrong ?
And for almost 1 year and a half, I dedicated a lot of time reading and trying to understand this newspaper. This an efficient technique, because the news were international or at least European, which means I could follow them in French as well.
It paid off ! My oral examinations grades went up through this year and a half ! Reading + Speaking = Best combo.
I was also aware of the British news, and I became addicted to read in english. Since then, almost all my google research are in English, no questions asked !
But my German level didn’t improve at all. It probably even decreased.
You have to keep practicing
After those 2 years of preparation, I entered a pretty prestigious engineering school in France.
Naturally we were having English classes, but we had, once again, the opportunity to chose another language (but only one) whether as beginner or not. As you might expect: I chose German!
The main focuses weren’t languages. To get there we already had to have a descent English level. The second language we were learning was more for personal general knowledge.
One of the best advantages of this engineering school was the fact that it welcomes many foreign students ! And many of them were from Spain or South America. This gave me chances to work my Spanish skills with actual native speakers ! God knows how fast they speak !
I spent 2 years in this school, casually speaking Spanish and English on a very regular basis. German was pretty much dragging behind…
We also were encouraged into going abroad to complete our studies. Those programs are double degrees and require spending at least a year abroad. As I was still take German classes without very little result, I chose Germany !
Now here I am, living in Munich for more than a year — one more to go at least. Obviously it was harsh at the beginning but I can say my level skyrocketed !
Immersion is very efficient, there is no doubt, but you still can live in Munich not knowing a word of German as English is widespread.
You still have to get interested in the language and more generally, the culture of the country itself. This is key, and today I would hesitate as my favorite language !
I also met people from South America as well which allow me to practice my Spanish, everything is working out very well!
What to keep in mind?
Learning a language has to be an initiative. If it’s a constraint, you won’t put enough effort into it, and you are most likely to never reach a proper level.
At the beginning, you should speak! That is the most efficient way to dive into the learning process. It will increase tremendously your level for a relatively low amount of effort!
Speaking often goes when listening, but even speaking out loud for oneself remains a good idea.
Reading and writing are more tricky, they often require a solid knowledge of grammar and vocabulary which is harder to get.
The best part in all of this: Learning calls for learning ! Once on this path, you will always look for more to learn.
SP.
