Languages
I'm Grégoire. I was born and I have always lived in Brazil. Naturally, Portuguese is my mother tongue. However, my father is French so since I was a little boy I have been in contact with his language at the bilingual school I study at.
At the Lycée, after a certain age (11), we have to learn English and later at the age of 13 we can choose between Spanish or German. We can also choose Latin as an option. I prefer to learn to Spanish because I think it is a language that includes more countries than German. German is only spoken in Germany and some countries in Eastern Europe whereas Spanish is spoken in a lot of countries like Mexico, Spain, Argentina and others. Nowadays, Portuguese is the language that I use the most and came French , which I use in class and sometimes with my father at home. I only speak in the Spanish class and sometimes when I joke with my friends.
The fact of always being in Brazil and always be interacting with Brazilians has made me more Brazilian than French. So I use also more Portuguese because I’m more comfortable with it and I have more facility to express myself. However, I’m sure that if I had lived in France, I would have been more comfortable with French. Once, I had the experience of only talking French, when I was travelling alone there. I managed to communicate naturally because I have been studying French since I was four. I prefer, a 1000 times, speaking Portuguese though. I think that when you know a language only through classes, when you have to use it in other situations you become a little bit embarrassed, but with the time you get used to it.
I believe the fact of knowing more than 3 languages will help me a lot, in my future opportunities. And also, I am going to have an upper level if compared to others. Nowadays to get a job, you have to know not only how to speak a lot of languages but also perform in a lot of activities. The market is very competitive and any “extra” will help me. Furthermore, I like the fact of being able to go to a lot of countries and not have commmunication problems. I would like to travel around the world and being able to speak English this can happen more easily.
In conclusion, I think that I’m fond of speaking a lot of languages and getting to know many different cultures not only for the advantages I envisage but also because it is good to know more about and be in closer contact with this huge and diverse world.
At the Lycée, after a certain age (11), we have to learn English and later at the age of 13 we can choose between Spanish or German. We can also choose Latin as an option. I prefer to learn to Spanish because I think it is a language that includes more countries than German. German is only spoken in Germany and some countries in Eastern Europe whereas Spanish is spoken in a lot of countries like Mexico, Spain, Argentina and others. Nowadays, Portuguese is the language that I use the most and came French , which I use in class and sometimes with my father at home. I only speak in the Spanish class and sometimes when I joke with my friends.
The fact of always being in Brazil and always be interacting with Brazilians has made me more Brazilian than French. So I use also more Portuguese because I’m more comfortable with it and I have more facility to express myself. However, I’m sure that if I had lived in France, I would have been more comfortable with French. Once, I had the experience of only talking French, when I was travelling alone there. I managed to communicate naturally because I have been studying French since I was four. I prefer, a 1000 times, speaking Portuguese though. I think that when you know a language only through classes, when you have to use it in other situations you become a little bit embarrassed, but with the time you get used to it.
I believe the fact of knowing more than 3 languages will help me a lot, in my future opportunities. And also, I am going to have an upper level if compared to others. Nowadays to get a job, you have to know not only how to speak a lot of languages but also perform in a lot of activities. The market is very competitive and any “extra” will help me. Furthermore, I like the fact of being able to go to a lot of countries and not have commmunication problems. I would like to travel around the world and being able to speak English this can happen more easily.
In conclusion, I think that I’m fond of speaking a lot of languages and getting to know many different cultures not only for the advantages I envisage but also because it is good to know more about and be in closer contact with this huge and diverse world.
posted by Greg at 3:25 PM
4 Comments:
Hello Grégoire, you are already in your way to become a very successful professional in the future with so many "extra" qualities in your résumé.
I agree with you, it is exciting to travel around the world feeling confident one would understand and be understood in different countries. In your case you already speak Portuguese, French, English and Spanish.
Felicitaciones de parte de una profesora de inglés venezolana que vive en Caracas. Saludos ;-)
After reading your article, I think we almost have the same thought that learning more languages can help us in the future opportunity. In addition, I also think we have the similar situation. My public language is Mandarin, and my private and native language is Taiwanese. However, on the practical aspect, many people in Taiwan have got to learn English which is considered as a global and common language. Because my school is a language school, I can choose one more language to learn excluding English. Thus, I know English and Japanese.
For most eastern people, it is much more difficult to learn English, which stems from Latin language, than western people. I have ever asked a foreigner, who is from western country, how he could learn English, German, French, or Spanish so fast. He just answered me that perhaps those languages all have the same types and the structures are similar. After hearing what he said, I understood why so many Asians are difficult to learn English well. For example, Chinese uses square words to make a sentence, but English use alphabets to make a sentence. Furthermore, chinese people created the words by sound, visualization, image and etc. On the contrary, western people scraped the alphabets together to be a word. In addition, many countries have the similar structures which stem from China expect the countries had ever been colonized by western countries. For these reasons, I think that’s why so many Asians could not learn western languages quite well.
In my opinion, if anyone were able to learn more languages as he or she can, it is really good. However, I think the best way to learn a different language is to stay at that country and touch the culture. For living at that environment, one have to be forced to speak, listen to, read, and write the different language all day. Then, it would be easier to adapt that language.
In conclusion, learning other languages or many languages is good for everyone. It’s a good chance to touch some different cultures, touch the different countries, and get more opportunities for the future life. However, I think the problem is how to get a fast and good method to learn different languages, but not the problem about the will.
Hi Greg:
I agree with you,it's completely different learning a language in class.The good way is immersion of course.
On the other hand if you know two languages it's easier to learn the third one.
Congratulations !!!
Susana Canelo
Del Valle
Argentina
I know four languages—Chinese, Taiwanese, English, and German.
My mother tongue is Taiwanese and official language is Chinese. When I studied in elementary school, I got the difficulty transferring Taiwanese into Chinese. At that time, Taiwanese is the only vocal language without written words. However, there is a spelling system in Chinese. Since now, I sometimes get confused about spelling and can’t pronounce them very well.
I also study at the bilingual school. I learned English since 12 and German since 15. I chose German to be my minor language due to the power of German government has acted strongly in European. I agree that learning many languages really gains the opportunity of finding the job. But even though I can speak English and German, I find that most companies in Taiwan require only English and Japanese. It appears that German is not helpful here. German is the language far from Taiwan and is seldom used in Taiwan. Therefore, I understand why Grégoire chose Spanish instead of German at that time. French, Portugese and Spanish are Latin linguistic system. They are similar to each other and more easily to learn as foreign language.
As a result, I think I am unique because of knowing foreign language. But turning German into reality and using it at work are the first primary task for me to do.
1093100008 Stella Chou
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