Talking in two tongues

What are the advantages of speaking more than one language?

As Brits, we are bloody lucky to have English as our first language. We can wander around much of the world, tucked into patriotic Union Jack swimming shorts, slurping on cans of warm Stella, showing off our British Bulldog tattoos, and ordering 'egg and chips' in English at a cafe.

Pardon the stereotype, Brits don't always act this way. However, we have earned ourselves a 'Brits-Abroad' reputation in many countries, that I'm not convinced we can be proud of.  It is safe to say, language-wise, we can often afford to be lazy on holiday. Nearly everyone, everywhere, speaks a little English. If they don't, they are often keen to learn. Being lazy with language can lead to being lazy with culture. Some of us create 'Little Britain' abroad, and act accordingly, forgetting to observe local customs or pay much attention to the new culture surrounding us.

British, and proud

What about kicking English to the curb and getting immersed in a new language? Apparently being able to speak two or more languages increases our brain power. Bonus!

My boyfriend and I have recently booked flights to South America. We leave in 3 months and will be traveling around the continent for 6 months. We are being rather ambitious and plan to learn Spanish...fluently.

Let me fill you in on my knowledge of the Spanish language - I sat an AS-Level at school in Spanish. I got an E (possibly for 'English and ignorant'?). I retook the exam a year later and got an N. I'm still not sure what N stands for, I didn't know there was such a grade? I'm guessing it's not good.

The only word I remember from my Spanish lessons at school is 'los zapatos'. A great word, but unless I want to have conversations in South America that consist of saying 'shoes' over and over again, in different tones of voice, I better try harder this time.

We have started taking weekly Spanish lessons with Maria, a lovely Colombian lady we found on Gumtree. She makes us tea and biscuits and we chat in Spanish and play 'juegos' (games). So far, we have had two lessons and learned the alphabet, numbers, hobbies, personal details and verb conjunctions. She's great, I actually look forward to learning Spanish now.

We are starting, very slowly, to climb one big, fat, mountain. We plan to rent an apartment in Ecuador for a month and take intensive Spanish lessons following on from our weekly visits with Maria. After this, we'll travel and hopefully yabber away in Spanish on the way. Fingers crossed!

During our first lesson, Maria threw a few questions at us in Spanish to get a feel for where we were with the language (beginners). She asked me what colour her sofa was, to which I replied 'moreno'. Very proud that the word 'brown' had sprung forth by surprise from somewhere in the recesses of my brain, I smiled, awaiting congratulation. Maria shook her head severely and told me that 'moreno' is only used to describe skin colour and I must never say that when describing objects. I had essentially called the sofa a black person. Making faux-pas like this (there have been a few) make me all the more keen to learn the language. I need to do this properly, or else I will walk around and offend every other person in South America. 

My Mother is from Finland so I have been brought up bilingual. Does this put me at an advantage in picking up another language? Well, I can roll an 'r', and somehow, 'pineapple' is the same in both Finnish and Spanish ('ananas'). Apart from this, I don't think I have much of a head start.

Learning a second language from birth is probably the easiest way. We learn everything as children, after all. What's one more language on top of the rest of the worldly knowledge we pick up? Later on, it becomes harder.

That's not to say being brought up bilingual never caused any befuddlement.

My Mum remembers me inviting friends home from primary school and forcing them to sit through Finnish episodes of the 'Moomins' that my Grandma had taped and sent over from Finland. Much to the confusion of my friends, I couldn't differentiate between the two tongues that had grown in my mouth.

My little sister perhaps mixed the two languages up the most. As a child, she spoke in seamless sentences of Finnish and English. A vibrant cocktail of language...that none of her teacher's could understand. Luckily this didn't cause too many problems and she soon learned to separate the two languages.

As a teenager, being bilingual was a drag. I was self-conscious of my 'proper, Mother's generation' Finnish when talking to my cousins in Finland. My Mum spoke to us in Finnish at home to encourage the language to blossom. We answered her, lazily, in English. I liked the pictures in Finnish comics, but reading them myself was slow-going and frustrating. Writing and spelling was tricky. When writing letters to my Grandma, I would often give up and draw pictures for her instead. I always had a defeatist habit of saying 'en osaa' - "I can't do it." My Grandma's response was to draw me some pictures in return. Her comic strip and annotations explained that she was very afraid of a language barrier building between us over the years.

Let's not go like this...

...But like this

Underneath she wrote - 'with the Finnish language that you can speak, and the English language that I can speak, we can walk through the language barrier.'

It is only now that I am older that I truly appreciate having two languages. I love the fact that I can speak to my Finnish relatives in their mother tongue and join in at family gatherings. I realise how lucky I am to be so close to my four Finnish cousins, Aunty and Uncle, having spent summers together, in a common tongue, in my Grandma's wooden summer house in the South of Finland. My Grandma has passed away, but I also feel very lucky to have felt so close to her. She was and still remains, one of my favourite people in the world.

Speaking the language of a place brings us closer to the culture. I can identify with my Finnish 'half' as part of myself; it has a location, an identity and a means of expression. I feel rooted in both the Finnish and English cultures and although sometimes I feel like I don't quite fit neatly into either, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Mastering a third language?....watch this space...for now...los zapatos...el caballo...hasta la vista baby

(No, honestly, there is more to come...)