A New Tongue
In addition to other recent plans and goings on in my life, I have started one other new venture that I have been delaying for quite some time.
Learning a new language.
Much like I’ve done with writing, I discuss this hobby now from a beginner’s standpoint, wherein I may talk about what I’ve learned and how my journey progresses throughout. And needless to say, I’m excited about the journey regardless of the result.
And for anyone with even a slight interest in doing so, I highly recommend doing it. Even if it’s one you think won’t be useful, you may surprise yourself. You may wish to learn it to visit a country you’ve wished to travel to, or to talk to friends who happen to be native speakers.
Or even you just want to learn it because you want to, or you simply love the language. I know I certainly encapsulate several of these reasons.
In my case, some of the top languages I wish to learn include German, Te Reo Maori, Icelandic and Japanese.
So I decided to begin learning German. I chose German because I figured it to be easier to switch from one language to another that both share the same etymological root and/or belong under the Germanic/Indo-European family of languages. Seeing the most common European languages, you can even see the subtle similarities and influences from a historical standpoint, even whispers of Latin influence lay down the groundwork for these different tongues.
My hypothesis seems to be proven correct, as learning German from an English standpoint is fairly easy. If, however, I were to begin learning Japanese, a language built on entirely different cultures and influences than English, I figured it would be a lot harder to learn naturally.
With German, I at least have relatively the same written alphabet to work with, with the only additions being the three unique vowels marked with an umlaut and the distinct Eszett.
Reading German (after some light reading) doesn’t seem too hard either once you’re accustomed to different pronunciations such as “ie”, “ei” and “eu”. And flashcards involving the most common words in the language can be slowly absorbed overtime.
In any case, the journey is never-ending but it is a new experience that opens up a whole new section of your brain you may not have touched before. Regardless fo your age, learning a new language is something I recommend to anyone.
Thank you for reading and have a beautiful day!
Daniel
