What is a language?

A language is a system of communication used by a specific community. Nearly everyone speaks (or signs) at least one language. Speaking only one language, or monolingualism, is common in many parts of the English-speaking world such as North America, the UK and Australia. However, a much larger number of the world’s population live in countries where multiple languages are spoken throughout the day. For example people may have a home, community, religious, colonial, academic and/or business language. A lot of the challenges faced by monolingual learners of secondary languages is a result of two factors: little exposure to second or third languages in childhood, and a poor education in grammar instruction.

Are all languages similar?

Languages are similar in that they enable humans to communicate with each other. All languages are spoken (or signed) but not all languages are written. Languages change over generations so that a modern version of a language may be very different than an older version although the degree to which languages change depends on many factors and some people can read texts that are hundreds of years old with little difficulty.

Is my target language related to English?

Languages are grouped first by family, then group and branch similarly to plants or animals. For example, English is a member of the Indo-European language family that includes most languages spoken throughout Europe, India and Iran. Furthermore, there are nine sub-groupings one of which is the Germanic family. English belongs to the West Germanic branch which includes closely related languages such as Dutch and German. Spanish on the other hand belongs to a different subgrouping called Italic, of which the majority of the languages such as Spanish, Italian, Portuguese are referred to as Romance languages.

What are the similarities between English and my target language?

German and English share some similar grammar structures and vocabulary that go back several hundred years. Spanish and English share a lot of similar vocabulary owing to the fact that English borrowed many Latin words during the Middle Ages. The grammar between English and Spanish can, at times, be quite different.

How do people learn a language?

The most common and natural way to learn language is as a young child exposed to the language being used in your household and community. To learn to read and write you generally receive formal instruction. The second way to learn a language is through formal instruction. This is the way most people learn a second language as adolescents and adults. Sometimes the two methods can be combined whereas for example someone goes and lives abroad for a number of years and learns to speak by communicating with native speakers while simultaneously taking formal lessons. If you are unable to live among people speaking your target language, re-creating an immersion environment as much as possible is suggested.

When is the best time of day to learn?

This varies a lot. Some people learn best first thing in the morning when their mind is fresh while others thrive at the end of the day. Furthermore, people have different learning styles. Some people enjoy having background music while others need total silence. Experiment and see when and in what type of environment you learn best.

What is involved?

When developing a new skill such as a language it is important to revisit concepts and vocabulary repeatedly throughout the day in small increments of 10-20 minutes. Just like exercising your body, do a 2-3 minute warm-up by reviewing some older material and then challenge yourself. By consistently exposing your brain pathways to new vocabulary, sentence structure and grammar the language will start to feel more natural and less foreign.

How can I be successful?

Like many things in life, confidence and consistent effort are the key to your success! Making mistakes is a natural and necessary part of learning any language including your first language. Self-defeating thoughts, or berating yourself if you don’t do your homework is not helpful. Set realistic goals and stick to them. Also, remember to celebrate the milestones along the way.

What should my expectations be?

It is important to set realistic goals while learning a new language. Track your short, medium and long-term goals. With regular study, you can expect to hold a basic conversation within a few weeks and a more complex conversation within 3 months. By 6-9 months you should be ready to face most daily situations and express yourself in the present, future and past tenses. This level is called “conversationally fluent”. For native fluency the learning never ends!

Is it worth the effort?

Definitely! There are numerous benefits associated with learning an additional language. The obvious one is that you are able to communicate with new people in your personal or professional life. Secondly, you are also able to appreciate a new culture on a deeper level. Language learning is also good for your brain development and maintenance. The best news is the more languages you learn the easier it gets!

This is a very difficult question to answer. Many factors go into a person’s ability to learn a language. I often discuss how long it takes my average student to achieve certain milestones, such as being comfortable in everyday conversations, or being confident in a business setting.

After I work with clients for a few sessions and get to know their learning styles, I can answer this question with greater certainty.  There are five key factors that I believe determine how fast someone can learn a new language:

1) Age – the younger you are when you start learning a new language, the easier learning will be. 

Young children learn new languages effortlessly because the developing human brain is a sponge for language acquisition, particularly from birth until age 5. From ages 5 to 12, one can still pick up a language easily enough to be taken for a native speaker, which requires an in-depth understanding of the language’s grammar and vocabulary and the absence of an accent. (People speak with an accent when their mouths are so accustomed to making the sounds and cadences required by their mother tongue that they superimpose their mother tongue onto the new language.  In linguistic terms this is known as “mother tongue influence” or MTI.)

2) Previous exposure to multiple languages – students who have benefitted from such exposure already understand that there are many ways to refer to the same item or concept.

Many of my monolingual students struggle to conceptualize the seemingly “other” or “strange” way people refer to something in their target language. This does not mean that you cannot achieve fluency without previous exposure to other languages, but such exposure is definitely a benefit, particularly when your target language is in the same language family.  For example, a student may have been in French immersion as a child and is now attempting to learn Spanish.

3) Memory – having a good memory is an obvious time-saver. 

Some people have been gifted with better memories than others. That said, there are many study techniques that you can adopt to help you memorize the vocabulary needed to communicate effectively in your target language. You can visit my two-part blog series on memory to get some further ideas.

4) Effort – some people don’t realize how much effort it takes to learn a new language as an adult. 

Learning a language is like working out at the gym – consistent effort is rewarded.  Ideally, a student of mine will study four days per weak, 30-60 minutes per session outside of classroom time.

5) Motivation – time and again in my career, I have seen people who may have been lacking in other respects achieve amazing results because of their motivation!

Strong motivation might come from a business opportunity, a personal challenge, or love.  Some of my highest achieving clients have specific reasons for wanting to learn.  They care deeply and are eager for results.

What most people do not understand is that to become a translator or interpreter one must understand all the varied nuances between two languages so as not to commit any mistakes. Training takes many years of both schooling and “living the language.” Found in Translation is full of anecdotes of what can happen when an unqualified person attempts to translate or interpret.

When I first started learning Spanish 17 years ago I remember coming across words which seemed to be the same in both languages but in fact had very different meanings. Anyone who has studied a language has found themselves on the wrong side of these “false friends.” Kelly details one such example in Chapter 1 in a side note titled Embarrassed to be Embarazada. I always get a good chuckle from my beginner Spanish students when I explain that the Spanish expression “estoy embarazada” has very little to do with being embarrassed but rather being pregnant!

I particularly enjoyed chapter 5, Partaking in Pleasures and Delighting the Senses in Translation. One part of this chapter gives hilarious examples of when companies get international brand names very wrong; so wrong that they are unsellable in English-speaking countries. Some examples given include the following: a Polish juice named Fart, a sports drink in the Czech Republic named Erektus, and a soft drink from Ghana called Pee Cola. For your eating pleasure you will find the Chinese snack food Only Puke, Prick, a Brazilian potato chips brand and Shitto which is apparently the name given to a spicy pepper sauce. I think it’s fair to say that these companies did not invest in proper translation!

An overarching theme of the book is how translators and interpreters often go unnoticed and underappreciated. Even I was surprised at many of the ways translation affects our everyday life without us even being aware of it. Translation is crucial for healthcare, the justice system, scientific advancements, politics and even love stories to reach their potential. I have heard Nataly Kelly speak on one of my favorite language podcasts PRI’s The World in Words where she very eloquently explained how she has a brief window into a very intimate moment in a person’s life and then she is gone often without knowing the outcome. This rang especially true when she described her experiences interpreting 911 calls.

In sum, Found in Translation is a wonderful read that can be enjoyed by language service professionals, students of language or just those curious about this profession. The book contains an extensive notes section with excellent resources for those in the interpreting and translation fields as well as an extensive index to cross reference specific interests.