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blue moon My not knowing another language surprises some people when they first meet me. They think that it is a given that I know more than one language. I guess that it would fall into the stereotype of how people perceive me. What I mean is that I like the arts and I am somewhat well read yet I don't speak another language. Most liberal arts people have to take foreign language classes at some point in their school career and so did I except that after alll of my education I can't speak anything but mangled English. My first excuse for this shortcoming is that I can not stand the way American schools teach foreign languages. Usually they start way too late. A foreign language should be taught in grade school along side English not later in high school when the brain is hardwired to think in English. Learning a language should be a fluid experience not one of rote memorization or endless repetition. Maybe I am wrong, but I would have been more inclined to learn if it was more than conjugating verbs over and over. Most American students can't get a good grasp on English grammar let alone the grammar of another language. My other excuse would be that foreign language instructors have a tendency to be flaky. I'm not sure why, but every foreign language instructor that I have met seems a bit odd or eccentric. They never seem to be quite right. They expect their students to embrace the language of choice with open arms and use a few tricks to get the students adjusted to their vision. For example, each student in class is given the foreign equivalent of their name or a new one if a match can't be made. A total immersion effect is sought by having everything said in the foreign language, but this is never quite accomplished in the classroom environment. All of it struck me as being silly and didn't help me want to learn the language. To this day my French vocabulary is that of a small child. I can count and name the days of the week and the months of the year. As for trying to hold an adult conversation I would be lost. Actually I can read more French than I can speak. I can recognize the words, but I can't say them. I certainly don't think in French, but I can get a general idea of what is being said on the page. Then in the college linguistics course I took we discussed how some of French was incorporated into the English language. Over time French spelling and some French words were interwoven into English. Multiple viewing of the film Red with Irene Jacob also helps with my understanding of French. So maybe if either Irene Jacob or Juliette Binoche had been teaching me French I would have paid more attention than I did years ago. Of course all of this is irrelevant because the language of choice for business would be either Spanish or Japanese certainly not French. I have thought about teaching myself another language, but I never seem to get around to it. I think that the only way I would learn a language was if I was involved with someone that spoke another language or I moved to a foreign contry. The need would have to be great to get me to learn. America may say that it promotes a diversity of cultures, but when it comes to language we are all expected to speak English or at least some form of it which I agree with to a degree. However Americans have very little emphasis placed on them to try and understand a different language which makes us some of the most arrogant tourists. At first I am excited that Sunday is here, because it is the start of my weekend. I can leave work behind me and just relax. For the most part this plans works very well. Where it fails is after midnight when I am still wide awake and can't really go anywhere. If I spend the first half of the evening online or watching television I have had enough of it by the time midnight rolls around. So in a sad way I have to pace my leisure activities. If I want to do any shopping I have to wake up early, shower and get out of the house before the stores close on a Sunday evening. Then when I get back I can sift through my new purchases and go online later. Actually my life can't be that bad when my biggest concern is how to plan my weekends. Tonight was the second full moon that we had this month which is called a blue moon. I didn't know that until a few days ago.
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