Confidence and Multiple Language Acquisition
I recently wrote a paper about how I aquired my languages of English, French and Japanese and the difficulties I encountered while learning these languages at different stages of my life. I thought it is kind of interesting, so I decided to post it on my journal.
Confidence and Multiple Language Acquisition
Throughout my life, I have so far learnt three different languages and each learning experience was distinctly different. As a fist language, I learnt primarily English seeing that my mother’s native tongue is English; however, I also learnt a little French right from infancy as my father’s entire family speaks French as a first language. While I had my share of accomplishments and difficulties learning those two languages, my learning experiences of English and French differ vastly from my third language, Japanese, which I began to learn much later in life at the age of twenty-three. By examining my experiences as a second and third language learner at vastly different stages of my life, I hope to better understand not only my own learning trends, but also those of other students who chose to study additional languages.
Right from when I was first born, the most common language I heard around the house was English since it was the only common language both my mother and father shared. My father however was from a very large French speaking family of fourteen siblings, most of whom were married to other French-speaking partners. I also belonged to the largest French community in Canada outside of Quebec, St. Bonniface, a portion of Winnipeg Manitoba. Given this setting, I was strongly encouraged to learn French from a very young age. Despite my father’s best efforts to teach me French, he simply was not home enough to encourage me to speak the language and as a result, by the time I was five, I had a very low proficiency in the language. This all began to change when I was placed into a French immersion school when I began kindergarten. Seeing as I had the opportunity to speak French all day in school and then speak with my father when I got home, I was quickly picking up the language. By the time I made it the to the first grade, I had obtained at least a moderate competency in French and being a child with strong support from both the school and my father, I was more than willing to practice my French even though I still frequently made mistakes. This all changed however in the later half of the first grade.
I was very proud of my skills in French, especially at the fact that I knew something my mother did not, but despite my effort, I was not being raised in an entirely French setting like the vast majority of my cousins on my father’s side and as a result, I was not nearly as fluent as many of them. One day I went to visit my favorite cousin. He was a few years older than me and kind of a role model. Being so proud of my newfound language, I decided that I would try to speak French with him, just like he does with the rest of the family. The result was that he fell on the floor in laughter as I spoke to him with a thick English accent and he told me “your French sucks”. I was devastated! I never told my parents why, but I began to refuse to talk in French and my grades on the subject were quickly falling. By the end of the year the teacher had suggested that I drop out of the French program and go to an English school, but my father would not permit it. As the years passed, I gradually attained a higher level of French through the necessity of my studies but my confidence never returned ever since I was made acutely aware of the fact that my French skills were not at the same level as the others of my age in my family.
I began to get some of my confidence back when I reached the eighth grade. At that time I moved to Saskatoon Saskatchewan where French was not nearly as common of a language. I attended a French immersion school, but it was much different than my previous institution. Everyone spoke French with a thick English accent (of which by that time I had lost) and with poor grammar skills. While my French at the time was not the same as that of a native speaker, it was in fact close. The teacher even recommended that I instead go to a school meant for native speakers but I was quite content with the sudden change of environment in which I could speak French with little inhabitations. I also wanted to avoid going to an entirely French school through fear of being subject to the same criticism as I had received from my cousin so many years back despite the fact that by that time I probably could have handled it, especially at one of the all French schools in Saskatoon which I later learned had students with a proficiency level approximately the same as Immersion schools in St. Bonniface.
I continued in the French program in Saskatoon all the way to graduation, but to this day, I am still afraid to speak in French with my father’s family and some of them don’t even know that I speak the language anymore. I however have one uncle from France who did not speak a word of English when he arrived in Canada and as a result, I was forced to speak in French with him. He was surprised that I spoke French and greatly encouraged me to keep up my work with the language. Now when I go to Winnipeg to visit my family, I always make it a point to visit my uncle on his farm so I can keep my language skills and enjoy the language in a comfortable environment.
The conversations I had with my uncle made me realize something; I love language and the ability to express myself in completely different ways. When I got to the ninth grade, I was required to choose a third language to learn. I was given the choices of Spanish, German or Japanese. I was a little interested in learning German because my great grandfather who was still alive at the time could speak German but the third language option, Japanese, positively intrigued me. I knew nothing at all about the language and had barely even heard of the small island country in the east known as Japan. I decided to sign up for the class and that decision changed my life forever. I was oblivious to the concept that cultures vastly different than mine existed in the world and the notion of living in a completely different environment dazzled me. I was further pulled into the world of external cultures and language when my class had an exchange with Japanese students. It was then that I found the delight in the trade of stories and explanations of both my own culture and that of the students I was hosting. I was determined to learn Japanese but unfortunately, the class I was in turned out to be more of sociology class than a language class and as a result, I could barely say a single sentence even as simple as a greeting. Being Saskatoon, there were no real opportunities to learn Japanese and I was forced to give up the language until almost ten years later.
I graduated, went to University for a computer science degree, and worked for four years only to discover that I find the computer industry to be in more ways than one unfulfilling. I had went through a lot of changes in my late teen years and became a much more social person than I was as a child. I desired to work with people, not machines. This resulted in me making the unexpected decision to quit my job and return to University, this time in British Columbia to attempt to acquire the language I remembered so badly wanting to learn and to get a degree in an international field. By this time I was twenty-three and language acquisition was not at all like I had remembered it. I sat in a class all day reading from a textbook while being forced to memorize endless lists of vocabulary and analyze grammar patterns. While the university advertised that an emphasis would be placed on basic oral skills, I was lucky if more than two Japanese phrases exited my mouth per day. The program was not bad; it was simply unreasonable to hold a class where all the students speak Japanese to each other all day under the supervision of a single teacher for two hours per day. While French was a natural progression in an immersive environment at a young age where I simply accepted everything I was told for what it was, learning Japanese was like studying the terminology and use of syntax in my biology class; memorize, regurgitate, then wait for feedback two weeks later when your homework came back. I worked extremely hard in the class never once missing an assignment or reading but despite this fact, I ended up failing my first and only class in my entire life. I was stunned. How could I have possibly failed the one class I wanted to succeed at most? I was not a poor student; I had always gotten As an Bs in my classes, but the immense memorization required for the class was not a skill that I excelled at by any means. I took the class a second time and passed but was made painfully aware of the fact that I would struggle greatly if I continued to learn Japanese by the methods being given to me. Thinking back to my time in immersion, I decided that the best way for me to learn Japanese would be to go on exchange to Japan, so the following year I was off to Tokyo for my first ever truly immersive experience.
When I first got to Japan, I was completely lost. Tokyo was huge and the train system was so complex that even the locals sometimes have difficulty with it. I would try to exercise my basic language skills to ask for general directions by using simple two or three word phrases, but the responses I would usually receive were far to complex for my proficiency level. When I would ask people to speak slowly in as simple of terms as they can, they would usually ignore me or try to find someone who speaks English instead of rephrasing their answer. Sometimes I would say a single small sentence perfectly fluently resulting in the listener over assessing my skills and speaking to me in Japanese just as they would any other native speaker. For my first month in Japan, I barely spoke a word as most people would not speak to me. This began to change when I met the kanrinin (caretaker/landlord) of the dorm I was staying in, Azetaka san. She was a very friendly motherly person with a keen interest in international culture. She could only speak Japanese, but was patient to a degree that I can only hope to ever match. Being her first year at that dorm, she did not know how to communicate with international students at first but she quickly learnt to speak slowly and as simply as possible, rephrasing sentences whenever we did not understand what she was saying. Within a few weeks, it became a daily habit to speak with Azetaka san and along with the skills I was acquiring in class; I was learning Japanese at a pace I did not think possible. I was not fluent, but I was learning at a pace drastically faster than when I was in Vancouver. The content of the classes was much the same as it was Vancouver, but by actually applying them in my everyday life, the lessons were remaining in my memory. After a few months, I realized that I was starting to pick up words that were not taught in class. This amazed me. Unlike when I was learning French, sometimes a word would just flow out of my mouth that I had no recollection of learning from a textbook. I would get giddy when I went to my textbook and found out that in fact this new word had somehow made it into my vocabulary outside of the classroom. While this greatly pleased me, I developed a desire to establish a relationship with Japanese students my own age so that I could truly interact in this society and learn the ways in which people my age speak. I realized that to accomplish this, I would need to immerse myself in an environment where the students are both required to speak with me and are incapable of speaking in English. After much though, I concluded that the best course of action would be to join one of the regular clubs at the Japanese University. Although this was very rare for students at the elementary Japanese level, I stubbornly searched the club listings and finally joined the Kyudo club (Japanese archery).
I was extremely intimidated on the first day I joined the club, especially when I found out that I have to wear Japanese style clothing for practice. I stood out like a sore thumb being the only non-Asian in the club, wearing ancient Japanese style clothing and a new learner of the language at that. Fortunately, the clothing I was wearing brought great glee to the other members as while foreigners in Tokyo are not terribly uncommon, foreigners wearing Japanese clothing were. The people in the club were extremely curious and friendly about this odd sight and many of them took great pains to communicate to me as best they could in simple Japanese. I received even more respect when a student tried to speak to me in English to explain something I did not understand, but I declared that while I was in Japan I would speak only in Japanese instead of forcing others to speak my native tongue. It was almost impossible for me to hold any kind of conversation with most of my peers at first, but by the end of the year, I was holding fairly lengthy conversations with them. Near the end of the year, one of the greatest challenges I would face is sometimes I would get very deep into a conversation and as a result the people I was talking to would speed up and use more complex vocabulary. Eventually the conversation would get to such a pace that I could no longer keep up and the person I was conversing with would stare at me with a look of puzzlement as they began to forget that Japanese is my third language, not my first. With many people, this would usually end up with the conversation ending as the person speaking to me tries to explain a point that is way beyond my proficiency, and then the said person walking away. With other people like my sempais (mentor/peer) Hiranuma san and Kobayashi san, they would simply change the subject to keep the conversation going. In the case of those sempais, they greatly increased my confidence through their understanding and support to include me in their conversations. They made me feel welcome and gave me the encouragement to study the language even harder. If not for people like them, I do not know if I would still be studying Japanese today.
Through all of my learning experiences in language, I learnt that confidence and security are key factors when tackling such a daunting task as learning another language. Gathering the energy and courage to speak a language you know you are not very good at is a difficult task, but having native speakers around you who are both patient and socially sensitive to your position can make the difference between a second language learner having the best experience of their life or spending a long period of time in a strange country while in complete isolation. Knowing this I hope to better understand both myself and others who chose to embark on the journey to acquire other languages.
Confidence and Multiple Language Acquisition
Throughout my life, I have so far learnt three different languages and each learning experience was distinctly different. As a fist language, I learnt primarily English seeing that my mother’s native tongue is English; however, I also learnt a little French right from infancy as my father’s entire family speaks French as a first language. While I had my share of accomplishments and difficulties learning those two languages, my learning experiences of English and French differ vastly from my third language, Japanese, which I began to learn much later in life at the age of twenty-three. By examining my experiences as a second and third language learner at vastly different stages of my life, I hope to better understand not only my own learning trends, but also those of other students who chose to study additional languages.
Right from when I was first born, the most common language I heard around the house was English since it was the only common language both my mother and father shared. My father however was from a very large French speaking family of fourteen siblings, most of whom were married to other French-speaking partners. I also belonged to the largest French community in Canada outside of Quebec, St. Bonniface, a portion of Winnipeg Manitoba. Given this setting, I was strongly encouraged to learn French from a very young age. Despite my father’s best efforts to teach me French, he simply was not home enough to encourage me to speak the language and as a result, by the time I was five, I had a very low proficiency in the language. This all began to change when I was placed into a French immersion school when I began kindergarten. Seeing as I had the opportunity to speak French all day in school and then speak with my father when I got home, I was quickly picking up the language. By the time I made it the to the first grade, I had obtained at least a moderate competency in French and being a child with strong support from both the school and my father, I was more than willing to practice my French even though I still frequently made mistakes. This all changed however in the later half of the first grade.
I was very proud of my skills in French, especially at the fact that I knew something my mother did not, but despite my effort, I was not being raised in an entirely French setting like the vast majority of my cousins on my father’s side and as a result, I was not nearly as fluent as many of them. One day I went to visit my favorite cousin. He was a few years older than me and kind of a role model. Being so proud of my newfound language, I decided that I would try to speak French with him, just like he does with the rest of the family. The result was that he fell on the floor in laughter as I spoke to him with a thick English accent and he told me “your French sucks”. I was devastated! I never told my parents why, but I began to refuse to talk in French and my grades on the subject were quickly falling. By the end of the year the teacher had suggested that I drop out of the French program and go to an English school, but my father would not permit it. As the years passed, I gradually attained a higher level of French through the necessity of my studies but my confidence never returned ever since I was made acutely aware of the fact that my French skills were not at the same level as the others of my age in my family.
I began to get some of my confidence back when I reached the eighth grade. At that time I moved to Saskatoon Saskatchewan where French was not nearly as common of a language. I attended a French immersion school, but it was much different than my previous institution. Everyone spoke French with a thick English accent (of which by that time I had lost) and with poor grammar skills. While my French at the time was not the same as that of a native speaker, it was in fact close. The teacher even recommended that I instead go to a school meant for native speakers but I was quite content with the sudden change of environment in which I could speak French with little inhabitations. I also wanted to avoid going to an entirely French school through fear of being subject to the same criticism as I had received from my cousin so many years back despite the fact that by that time I probably could have handled it, especially at one of the all French schools in Saskatoon which I later learned had students with a proficiency level approximately the same as Immersion schools in St. Bonniface.
I continued in the French program in Saskatoon all the way to graduation, but to this day, I am still afraid to speak in French with my father’s family and some of them don’t even know that I speak the language anymore. I however have one uncle from France who did not speak a word of English when he arrived in Canada and as a result, I was forced to speak in French with him. He was surprised that I spoke French and greatly encouraged me to keep up my work with the language. Now when I go to Winnipeg to visit my family, I always make it a point to visit my uncle on his farm so I can keep my language skills and enjoy the language in a comfortable environment.
The conversations I had with my uncle made me realize something; I love language and the ability to express myself in completely different ways. When I got to the ninth grade, I was required to choose a third language to learn. I was given the choices of Spanish, German or Japanese. I was a little interested in learning German because my great grandfather who was still alive at the time could speak German but the third language option, Japanese, positively intrigued me. I knew nothing at all about the language and had barely even heard of the small island country in the east known as Japan. I decided to sign up for the class and that decision changed my life forever. I was oblivious to the concept that cultures vastly different than mine existed in the world and the notion of living in a completely different environment dazzled me. I was further pulled into the world of external cultures and language when my class had an exchange with Japanese students. It was then that I found the delight in the trade of stories and explanations of both my own culture and that of the students I was hosting. I was determined to learn Japanese but unfortunately, the class I was in turned out to be more of sociology class than a language class and as a result, I could barely say a single sentence even as simple as a greeting. Being Saskatoon, there were no real opportunities to learn Japanese and I was forced to give up the language until almost ten years later.
I graduated, went to University for a computer science degree, and worked for four years only to discover that I find the computer industry to be in more ways than one unfulfilling. I had went through a lot of changes in my late teen years and became a much more social person than I was as a child. I desired to work with people, not machines. This resulted in me making the unexpected decision to quit my job and return to University, this time in British Columbia to attempt to acquire the language I remembered so badly wanting to learn and to get a degree in an international field. By this time I was twenty-three and language acquisition was not at all like I had remembered it. I sat in a class all day reading from a textbook while being forced to memorize endless lists of vocabulary and analyze grammar patterns. While the university advertised that an emphasis would be placed on basic oral skills, I was lucky if more than two Japanese phrases exited my mouth per day. The program was not bad; it was simply unreasonable to hold a class where all the students speak Japanese to each other all day under the supervision of a single teacher for two hours per day. While French was a natural progression in an immersive environment at a young age where I simply accepted everything I was told for what it was, learning Japanese was like studying the terminology and use of syntax in my biology class; memorize, regurgitate, then wait for feedback two weeks later when your homework came back. I worked extremely hard in the class never once missing an assignment or reading but despite this fact, I ended up failing my first and only class in my entire life. I was stunned. How could I have possibly failed the one class I wanted to succeed at most? I was not a poor student; I had always gotten As an Bs in my classes, but the immense memorization required for the class was not a skill that I excelled at by any means. I took the class a second time and passed but was made painfully aware of the fact that I would struggle greatly if I continued to learn Japanese by the methods being given to me. Thinking back to my time in immersion, I decided that the best way for me to learn Japanese would be to go on exchange to Japan, so the following year I was off to Tokyo for my first ever truly immersive experience.
When I first got to Japan, I was completely lost. Tokyo was huge and the train system was so complex that even the locals sometimes have difficulty with it. I would try to exercise my basic language skills to ask for general directions by using simple two or three word phrases, but the responses I would usually receive were far to complex for my proficiency level. When I would ask people to speak slowly in as simple of terms as they can, they would usually ignore me or try to find someone who speaks English instead of rephrasing their answer. Sometimes I would say a single small sentence perfectly fluently resulting in the listener over assessing my skills and speaking to me in Japanese just as they would any other native speaker. For my first month in Japan, I barely spoke a word as most people would not speak to me. This began to change when I met the kanrinin (caretaker/landlord) of the dorm I was staying in, Azetaka san. She was a very friendly motherly person with a keen interest in international culture. She could only speak Japanese, but was patient to a degree that I can only hope to ever match. Being her first year at that dorm, she did not know how to communicate with international students at first but she quickly learnt to speak slowly and as simply as possible, rephrasing sentences whenever we did not understand what she was saying. Within a few weeks, it became a daily habit to speak with Azetaka san and along with the skills I was acquiring in class; I was learning Japanese at a pace I did not think possible. I was not fluent, but I was learning at a pace drastically faster than when I was in Vancouver. The content of the classes was much the same as it was Vancouver, but by actually applying them in my everyday life, the lessons were remaining in my memory. After a few months, I realized that I was starting to pick up words that were not taught in class. This amazed me. Unlike when I was learning French, sometimes a word would just flow out of my mouth that I had no recollection of learning from a textbook. I would get giddy when I went to my textbook and found out that in fact this new word had somehow made it into my vocabulary outside of the classroom. While this greatly pleased me, I developed a desire to establish a relationship with Japanese students my own age so that I could truly interact in this society and learn the ways in which people my age speak. I realized that to accomplish this, I would need to immerse myself in an environment where the students are both required to speak with me and are incapable of speaking in English. After much though, I concluded that the best course of action would be to join one of the regular clubs at the Japanese University. Although this was very rare for students at the elementary Japanese level, I stubbornly searched the club listings and finally joined the Kyudo club (Japanese archery).
I was extremely intimidated on the first day I joined the club, especially when I found out that I have to wear Japanese style clothing for practice. I stood out like a sore thumb being the only non-Asian in the club, wearing ancient Japanese style clothing and a new learner of the language at that. Fortunately, the clothing I was wearing brought great glee to the other members as while foreigners in Tokyo are not terribly uncommon, foreigners wearing Japanese clothing were. The people in the club were extremely curious and friendly about this odd sight and many of them took great pains to communicate to me as best they could in simple Japanese. I received even more respect when a student tried to speak to me in English to explain something I did not understand, but I declared that while I was in Japan I would speak only in Japanese instead of forcing others to speak my native tongue. It was almost impossible for me to hold any kind of conversation with most of my peers at first, but by the end of the year, I was holding fairly lengthy conversations with them. Near the end of the year, one of the greatest challenges I would face is sometimes I would get very deep into a conversation and as a result the people I was talking to would speed up and use more complex vocabulary. Eventually the conversation would get to such a pace that I could no longer keep up and the person I was conversing with would stare at me with a look of puzzlement as they began to forget that Japanese is my third language, not my first. With many people, this would usually end up with the conversation ending as the person speaking to me tries to explain a point that is way beyond my proficiency, and then the said person walking away. With other people like my sempais (mentor/peer) Hiranuma san and Kobayashi san, they would simply change the subject to keep the conversation going. In the case of those sempais, they greatly increased my confidence through their understanding and support to include me in their conversations. They made me feel welcome and gave me the encouragement to study the language even harder. If not for people like them, I do not know if I would still be studying Japanese today.
Through all of my learning experiences in language, I learnt that confidence and security are key factors when tackling such a daunting task as learning another language. Gathering the energy and courage to speak a language you know you are not very good at is a difficult task, but having native speakers around you who are both patient and socially sensitive to your position can make the difference between a second language learner having the best experience of their life or spending a long period of time in a strange country while in complete isolation. Knowing this I hope to better understand both myself and others who chose to embark on the journey to acquire other languages.