I have been learning different
languages since I was eight years old: our great school system in Finland makes
it possible. You first start with English and move on to Swedish. I started
learning Swedish as soon as it was possible back then – at fifth grade. At
seventh grade I also added German in. I continued with these three languages
through upper secondary school and university of applied sciences. During upper
secondary school I also studied some basics about Russian, Spanish and Italian.
I have always been interested in different languages and tried to use all the
possibilities available to learn new ones. Been living my whole life in a
pretty small town, however, did not offer that enormous possibilities.
During my years of learning
languages I have noticed that it has also taught me a lot about the cultures
behind the languages even though I have not consciously studied cultural
issues. One of my earliest memories from English lessons is my teacher’s
constant reminders about using the word “please”. I tended to forget the word
since I did not understand why you should always be fawning on everybody. It
was already easier when it came to German and “bitte”. So, early on I learned
that Finns are considered rude because in our language and culture it is not
typical to use words like “please” and “bitte” and we tend to forget them when
communicating with other languages. British people were considered polite,
precise, and even quaint. Then they introduced us American English and
Australian English among others which sounded hilarious and you could instantly
feel that these words are not from the precise Brits.
However, if you only communicate
with a teacher in a classroom and some fellow students the cultural aspects
might remain quite superficial. The best way to learn a language is to speak it
with the natives. The culture comes at the same time automatically, especially
if you are able to travel to the country and stay there for a while. I have
been two times in Germany with my class and that has taught me the most about
the language and also the culture behind it. I have also been actively involved
in all kinds of exchange student happenings during my years in upper secondary
school and in university of applied sciences. I was never myself as an exchange
student which is a shame but you are able to learn also just by communicating
with exchange students in your own environment. I would like to encourage all
of you others as well to contact foreign students and leave your prejudice
aside – you cannot imagine how much you can learn!
Zart (2012) wrote wisely that learning
a language without the cultural framework in which it exists is like cooking
ethnic food without the spices of the region. And I am certain that if you
learn a language you simply even cannot avoid learning about the culture on the
side. And why should you even try not to? The world today is smaller than ever
and in business life as well as in our spare time we have to more and more take
up with people from different cultures. My spouse said to me couple days ago
after walking our dog: ”I think I have to start learning Russian that I can
communicate with our neighbours”. He had met a Russian speaking lady who had
tried to comment something related to our poodle but they did not find a common
language. This is still often true in business life as well. Cultural
misunderstandings are another story that I am not going to discuss in here.
However, I think that you do not lose anything by learning languages and other
cultures. On the contrary, you learn more about your own culture in addition as
I did with the word “please”. So even if you are not that eager to know about
others you should do it at least for yourself and for your own culture! And
before you even notice you want to know more and more.
References:
Text: Riikka Korhonen, student in FV11A9502 Independent Study in English course
