“Everyone speaks English anyway, right?”
7/8/14
Learning a foreign language is hard. I know, I know. It requires time, patience, a good
memory, time, dedication, commitment, patience, a good memory…did I say that already? It
is not so much a short term passionate fling but a long term commitment, full of tears, stress,
heartache, and many long nights spent drinking coffee and wondering where the hell it all
went so wrong (pluperfect subjunctive, anyone?). Learning languages is tough and timeconsuming but, as any language student will tell you, ultimately rewarding and
satisfying. However, throughout my 8 years of language learning (regardless of my current
fluency, or lack thereof) I have constantly been met with the most infuriating question any
English-speaking lover of languages can be asked:
“Why bother learning another language? Everyone speaks English anyway nowadays.”
Asking language students this question is the equivalent of smacking them hard across the
face with their respective dictionaries and be under no illusion that these dictionaries are in
any way weightless. Yes, it is true that English is one of the most widely spoken languages
in the world, and it is true that the schooling systems of many non English speaking countries
begin teaching their pupils the language from the moment they start school. It is true that
many foreign speakers of English can speak the language with better grammar than many
natives, and it is sadly true that many people have adopted the arrogant belief that everyone
should learn English whilst they themselves refuse to make any effort to learn some foreign
lingo.
This is all entirely irrelevant to the motives of a language student.
Language is unarguably a tool for communication. However, if it were true that everyone in
the world spoke English (they don’t) and that language was purely for communication (it
isn’t) then what motivation would we have to curl our tongues around foreign words? Or in
my case, foreign words which only five millions people have as their mother tongue? There
is another force driving us, pushing us to undertake this task which is seemingly confuses so
many people. We learn to communicate, and we also learn to understand.
The motto, battle-cry, philosophy – call it what you will – of many language students
essentially boils down to the following quote by the great Nelson Mandela:
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him
in his language, that goes to his heart.”
There is no better feeling than the feeling of being understood, and I believe that this works
on behalf of both the language learner and the native speaker. Those who resign themselves
to the undeniably arrogant “you speak my language so why bother learning yours?” attitude
will never know the indescribable feeling of having endured months, maybe even years, of
stress, studying and subjunctive tenses, only to have a conversation with a native speaker and
realise that s/he understands you. Perhaps you cannot fully express yourself. Perhaps your
grammar is clumsy, your sentences soft, you pronunciation peculiar. Perhaps you mentally
kick yourself every time you make a mistake. But the overarching feeling of achievement,
disbelief and cultural acceptance is enough to dispel any wicked or self-deprecating thoughts
from the mind’s over-analytical eye. It brings a sense of achievement, a sense of
accomplishment, and an uplifting boost of self-esteem.
On the other side of the spectrum, I imagine that it must be a strange yet surprisingly nice
experience for non-English natives to witness their own language being studied and learned
by an English native speaker. It is true that learning a language is not for everyone, but I
believe that we, as English natives, take our language privilege for granted. We are so used
to English being so widely spoken that we often forget that English is in fact a difficult
language to learn, yet many thousands of people have done so for many different reasons,
whether that be in compulsory schooling, for immigration purposes, career choices…the
reasons are endless, and all as valid as each other. Another thing I believe we English natives
often forget is that it is a lot more difficult to express one’s true self in a language that is not
one’s mother tongue. I personally have found that, even though I am able to get by and sort
out different practicalities using Norwegian, it is difficult to truly portray oneself exactly how
one would want to be portrayed. Maybe you want to make a joke, but you don’t know the
vocabulary. Perhaps your sense of humour is understood in certain countries more than
others. I can only imagine that it must be a nice break for a non-native speaker of English
witnessing a native speaker making an attempt to understand a language and culture than is
not his or her own instead of the reverse – as I mentioned before, there is no better feeling
than the feeling of being understood, and no better feeling than someone wanting to
understand you.
In learning a language, we teach and are taught. We teach ourselves self-betterment,
discipline, drive. We teach ourselves not to give up, to push ourselves to our limits, to strive
for a self-defined perfection and to be proud of what we can achieve. In learning a language,
we are taught humility. We, as English speakers, are taught and made aware of just how
difficult it is to adopt an entirely different personality, way of speaking, way of life. We are
taught in great depth about the culture of countries that one cannot learn simply from tourist
information books, and we are taught a greater understanding of different societies from both
perspectives and from employing a hands-on approach.
So, why bother learning another language?
Because it not only opens up doors: it opens up entirely different worlds.