#5 Learning Languages

Language is such an amazing tool. With it we can take complex thoughts and feelings and package them into communicable messages with words of many different sizes and forms. It's an amazing thing to watch people speak to each other in languages, understood or not, and to see how different people take their own ideas and express them in their own tongue. Language is such a complex tool, so how is it that we as humans learn languages? English is a second language to my mother's side of my family, so how did she pick it up, and how did she become so fluent, almost as if she's a native?

Comments:

-Great questions!

-How does this affect you? How has your mother's use of language changed your life? 

-Is it easier to learn English or other languages?  What are the language barriers that prevent some people from learning quickly?  Do you learn more effectively with natives or in a classroom setting?

-Ammon Boone:

What is a specific area you can research? 


On further consideration of my topic, research, and the above comments, I sought to understand better the process and growth that come from immigrants learning English as a second language and then becoming proficient in Engish. After going over my sources in further depth, my thesis is as follows:

Despite the idea that learning English as a second language is nothing more than rote memorization of vocabulary and grammar principles, immigrating to an English-speaking country and learning English is a deep and probing experience that involves an emotional connection to the language and culture, yet still maintaining a solid grasp on one's own language and culture. Immersion in both is the most efficient and metamorphosing experience.



What do you guys think?