Barriers to Learning a New Language - Essay Example

7 September Assignment English is a language that is dominant all over the world and more than half of the world is aware of the language,making it one of the most spoken languages to conduct any sort of business or affair in. It is, thus, very important to understand and learn the language, especially if one has to study in an English speaking country. There are many countries around the world where English is not spoken or considered to be an official language, however, it is imperative and important to know the same because knowing the language helps an individual to open up to a whole new culture, a great deal of literature, as well as meet new people and interact with them. Furthermore, learning a language amounts to the spread of literacy and fluency in yet another aspect and, thus, is helpful mainly to communicate with people. As a student from China, learning the English language did pose a few problems to me, however, gradually, I was able to catch on very well though not without a few eventful incidents and memories to remember the process by. “Many who today hear me somewhere in person, or on television, or those who read something I’ve said, will think I went to school far beyond the eighth grade. This impression is due entirely to my prison studies.” (Malcolm X) Malcolm X, the renowned leader of Black America, has been an inspiration along my journey of learning English. His quote suggests that everything is possible, even teaching oneself an alien language. As I signed myself for some English speaking lessons, I felt excited knowing that I would be providing myself the opportunity to delve into another road in life and learn a number of new things which could help me somewhere in the future. Also, I retain a keen interest in reading and, thus, learning a new language means having twice the literature material, if not more, to read and gain knowledge and information. Initially, my enthusiasm knew no bounds as my instructor began teaching me the fundamentals of the English grammar; however, soon I became weary and began to lose interest. With time, it was becoming frustrating to learn the language because I would often trip on my grammar and make silly mistakes; I would forget what certain words meant and where and how to use them in sentences; and I even got annoyed at myself for not being able to understand accents of the English speaking people living abroad. However, my dream of studying abroad in an English speaking environment kept me going and soon I realized just how funny the language was. I began to understand laughter-causing things like homonyms and puns, not to forget mentioning beautiful proverbs and idioms that I began to make use of in my daily speech. My teacher was impressed with me as I took to reading books for children in English to begin with. My class was full of fresh zeal, both children and adults alike, trying to master the English language through skits, plays, dialogues, songs and poems. But for my teacher, I would not have been so fluent in the language today; he made sure that we signed up for participating in English plays, watching English movies and listening to English music while singing along in order to strengthen whatever knowledge we had, and to also make sure that we would not make silly mistakes while learning. I recall watching the film ‘My Fair Lady’, which is about a young girl trying to learn the sophisticated form of speaking in English in order to impress people from high society and make them believe that she fitted in there. That film gave me the motivation to open my books and practise my speech more and more because it helped me believe that I, too, one day, could be as polished in the language as she was. With time, I realized that watching English movies with their subtitles was one of the best ways to learn new sentences and how to use them in speech. Also, my teacher urged us to watch the news in English so that it would also help us keep in touch with current affairs from around the world and we would be able to narrate them to others in English, if need be. The frustration turned into happiness when I realized that English was easier than I thought; I began writing e-mails and letters to my friends and even started posting entries in my diary in English about my day’s happenings. These small things helped me practise the usage of the language. Soon, my teacher suggested to me that I could help my younger siblings or my parents to learn the language too, and in the process, I would be able to revise the language for myself. I found that idea to be wonderful and I began teaching my parents whenever we had free time on a mutual basis. The idea of me teaching English to others was so exciting and I thought to myself, ‘There was a day when I refused to open the book because I didn’t understand grammar and today there are other people that are overjoyed by the thought of me opening their minds up to a new world altogether!’ I started giving random weekly tests to my parents at the dinner table when we would sit together to eat and speaking to them and teaching them helped me realize that absolutely anyone in the world can learn a language and communicate with other people without making mistakes. This happened when I asked my mother to get me some bread from the market and she understood something else and got me a pet ‘bird’ instead. We both had a good laugh over it and I helped her to understand how complicated the language seemed but was not so actually. English is a funny language because many words and phrases seem alike whereas they mean something completely different from each other. I can recall a similar situation I read about in an article by Amy Tan, “Then she began to talk more loudly. “What he want, I come to New York tell him front of his boss, you cheating me?" And I was trying to calm her down, make her be quiet, while telling the stockbroker, "I can't tolerate any more excuses. If I don't receive the check immediately, I am going to have to speak to your manager when I'm in New York next week." And sure enough, the following week there we were in front of this astonished stockbroker, and I was sitting there red-faced and quiet, and my mother, the real Mrs. Tan,was shouting at his boss in her impeccable broken English.” (Tan, Amy) This makes people understand differently if they are not careful. I further realized that communication was the key to solving any kind of problem and world over, people could cut down on their frustration and sadness by simply talking to each other, writing letters and communicating in a language clearly so as to make the other person understand. Today, I feel as if there was never a day when I did not know how to speak to another person in English or write something in the language. An essay I recently read helped me relate to the situation of learning English; it said, “I didn't have the vocabulary to say "paragraph," but I realized that a paragraph was a fence that held words. The words inside a paragraph worked together for a common purpose. They had some specific reason for being inside the same fence. This knowledge delighted me.” (Alexie, Sherman) Watching movies, reading books and listening to music in English is as easy to understand as if it is in Mandarin and I have been taught the same since I was born. I am determined to learn another language soon and master it the same way as I did with English. Learning a new language can bring down a number of barriers to communication and help people engage in a number of activities with other people that share the same interest. Language is thus something that can help people go a long way; moreover, I now have some more people to converse in English with when I go back home. Taken from an essay I read written by Malcolm X, these following lines have been imprinted in my mind and help me relate to the time when I began to learn and understand the English language, “I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.” (Malcolm X) Today, I have written this down on a piece of paper for myself to see every morning when I wake up in order to keep that motivation and inspiration alive within myself. Works Cited Alexie, Sherman. "Superman and Me." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 1998. Web. 08 Sept. 2012. . Malcolm X. “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” Print. 1965. Tan, Amy. “Mother Toungue.” Web. 11 Sept. 2012. Read More