Opssss…I’ve done it again, haven’t I? I’ve intentionally misled innocent people out there with the title that has nothing to do with the things innocent people might’ve imagine it has…well, I must confess that this time it was intended to be a tongue in cheek title. I just feel this way today, you know 
In truth I was going to say few words on linguistics, following a comment. How many languages do I speak? Unfortunately, not too many. I speak only those languages that I’ve got to speak by necessity in my everyday life. Which only leaves two – English and Russian. This doesn’t mean that I despise to speak others. In fact, I have honestly attempted to learn few more. I’ve tried to self-learn French few years ago, simple because I liked how it sounds. Now, that was a complete waste of time – when we went to Paris despite of me having a phrase-book in my hands, the French were less then supportive and as soon as they recognise you’re foreign, especially, from England, they would just ignore you (I wonder if it was that book with the big letters all across its cover that says “English-French Phrase-Book”, that gave me away?[~scratches her head]...)Though, maybe I’ve been talking to the wrong people. Or perhaps I’ve been spoilt by the Brits by that time.
When British talk to the foreigners they tend to be over-patient, listen carefully to all the stutter, wait patiently while you struggle to find the word, nod their approval, creating total impression of their complete understanding of what you helplessly trying to say…and only in about half-hour or later, you realised that they actually haven’t got a clue what you’ve been sorely expressing all this time. But what an encouragement! Used to make me feel so fluent speaking. Which of course, I wasn’t. At that time, at least. I remember those happy times when having moved in UK we set up a household rule to speak only English when at home, so that we could learn it quicker. Later we set up new rule: speak only Russian, so that the Kid won’t forget his native…Neither was of much help…
I had another sudden impulse to learn something different – about a year ago I’ve completed course in Arabic language. Once again, this didn’t bring me any joy and I didn’t start talking. I mean I was good in class, really good. I was so proud of myself. I could write Arabic too. And a little calligraphy. I had my fingers thoroughly stained in ink and a real reed pen. I could say something that make sense too, but right outside, in a real world, all Arabic words would magically vanish out of my head, as if I never learned them…and when I went in Egypt last spring with a task in hand to impress them all, guess what happened?…Apparently they do speak very good English over there. Duh!
That was it. I gave up linguistics officially since my last fiasco. I think that the language skills will come naturally when you go and live in that language environment. Otherwise it takes a person with special talents to learn many languages. And I’m certainly not the one.
In truth I was going to say few words on linguistics, following a comment. How many languages do I speak? Unfortunately, not too many. I speak only those languages that I’ve got to speak by necessity in my everyday life. Which only leaves two – English and Russian. This doesn’t mean that I despise to speak others. In fact, I have honestly attempted to learn few more. I’ve tried to self-learn French few years ago, simple because I liked how it sounds. Now, that was a complete waste of time – when we went to Paris despite of me having a phrase-book in my hands, the French were less then supportive and as soon as they recognise you’re foreign, especially, from England, they would just ignore you (I wonder if it was that book with the big letters all across its cover that says “English-French Phrase-Book”, that gave me away?[~scratches her head]...)Though, maybe I’ve been talking to the wrong people. Or perhaps I’ve been spoilt by the Brits by that time.
When British talk to the foreigners they tend to be over-patient, listen carefully to all the stutter, wait patiently while you struggle to find the word, nod their approval, creating total impression of their complete understanding of what you helplessly trying to say…and only in about half-hour or later, you realised that they actually haven’t got a clue what you’ve been sorely expressing all this time. But what an encouragement! Used to make me feel so fluent speaking. Which of course, I wasn’t. At that time, at least. I remember those happy times when having moved in UK we set up a household rule to speak only English when at home, so that we could learn it quicker. Later we set up new rule: speak only Russian, so that the Kid won’t forget his native…Neither was of much help…
I had another sudden impulse to learn something different – about a year ago I’ve completed course in Arabic language. Once again, this didn’t bring me any joy and I didn’t start talking. I mean I was good in class, really good. I was so proud of myself. I could write Arabic too. And a little calligraphy. I had my fingers thoroughly stained in ink and a real reed pen. I could say something that make sense too, but right outside, in a real world, all Arabic words would magically vanish out of my head, as if I never learned them…and when I went in Egypt last spring with a task in hand to impress them all, guess what happened?…Apparently they do speak very good English over there. Duh!
That was it. I gave up linguistics officially since my last fiasco. I think that the language skills will come naturally when you go and live in that language environment. Otherwise it takes a person with special talents to learn many languages. And I’m certainly not the one.