Mind your language

One of my New Year's Resolutions this year was to complete the Duolingo French course (I’m anything if not ambitious, clearly). It was while I was sitting on the couch a few days ago testing myself on my reflexive verbs, the weak Spring sunshine gleaming through the window, that I was suddenly filled with this feeling of just pure exoticism? (Read again, that’s EXOTICISM, not EROTICISM. I know French is a sexy language, but please, take your tête out of the gutter.) It felt like I was in holiday mode, basking in the sun (albeit indoors) and uttering phrases in smooth-sounding French. And of course, me being me, it made me think about additional-language-learning and how it impacts on us emotionally and psychologically.



I have always loved languages and, in my time as as a psychology student, the field of psycholinguistics, which is the science of language acquisition. I was raised more or less bilingually, English being my native tongue followed closely by Irish, passed down to me by my mom, my fluency in which has really only come on as an adult, being honest. I always found Irish easy in school, and had great teachers who made me think analytically about the language and imparted beautiful turns of phrase. Irish is so very earthy, too. Our logainmneacha (Irish place names) give us hints about what past secrets the landscape holds, and tell us more about characters of folklore and legend, for example, the mhaol in the name of pirate queen Gráinne Mhaol referring to her bald head rid of long locks she was told would catch in the ship’s ropes in an attempt to deter her from seafaring. For me, speaking Irish means bringing the past and present together, acknowledging my national identity. With the Romantic languages you also see it. Their descent from Latin - a tongue used by onlookers to shout for gladiators in stone coliseums, to profess political beliefs in the toga-clad Senate, and to plot rebellion against corrupt dictators - is quite profound, when you stop to think about it.


Expanding to European languages, I began learning French formally at the age of 10, and German at 12, and while I wasn’t so fond of French initially, that was the one I ended up taking on for the remainder of my secondary schooling. I remember disliking French at first because it was hard. In hindsight, it maybe could’ve been taught a little more interactively (a criticism as a teacher I’m allowed to harbour, so bite me). My difficulties in French were causing me quite a lot of despair a few months out from my school-leaving exams, but it wasn’t until my family hosted two French boys on an exchange with my brother’s school that I began to see French as more than just a school subject. Social encounters at the dinner table, in the car, and in front of the TV saw me grasping for what French I had to communicate effectively with these two guys. The epiphany of French as a language bigger than my limited classroom experience seems a bit delayed for someone who already intrinsically knew this about Irish, but it took me until the age of 17 to consciously transfer this attitude from one language to another, and served to increase my overall confidence in language-learning, and in life, as a result.


In Europe, we are immensely privileged to have a myriad of cultures, languages and folkloric traditions exist in such close proximity. A fundamental part of living here is encountering languages besides your own. When on holidays, I love adapting what I know in French to try and pick apart and comprehend Italian, Spanish or Portuguese, a mental task that always fills me with industry and a glowing sense of pride whenever I get something right, or almost-right, at least.


That leads me nicely to the best part of this blog post today, which is a summary of all the wonderful things additional-language-learning does for our brains, as well as our mental health. Cognitive skills sharpened by bilingualism and multilingualism, ideally begun in childhood, include enhanced problem-solving and better concentration (Tracy Trautner, Michigan State University Extension, 2019). Acquiring another language can also act as a preventative measure against cognitive aging and dementia (Bak et al., 2014). On a more social and emotional level, having knowledge of another language allows us a deeper understanding of that language’s region and culture, not to mention their people, with whom we use the language to connect socially. Learning a few key phrases before going to a non-English speaking country is a surefire way to show respect, make a good impression and allow for a more authentic travel experience.


Languages hold a mirror up to their speakers, and give us clues about the environment they use said language to navigate. Examples of geocentric language use include rural, indgenous communities giving directions that are 'oceanward', 'uphill', 'downstream' and make use of the cardinal compass points (e.g., Dasen & Mishra, 2013). To this point, I also remember hearing in college that the Inuit people have over 40 different words for ‘white’, given that they are surrounded by blankets of snow year-round and need to be able to differentiate between what outsiders would consider indecipherable differences in shade. There’s a joke in there somewhere about how the same applies in Ireland in that we most likely have 40+ ways to say ‘drunk’, but I’ll leave it up to you to work it out.



References

Bak, T. H., Nissan, J. J., Allerhand, M. M., & Deary, I. J. (2014). Does bilingualism influence cognitive aging? Annals of Neurology, 75(6), 959–963. https://doi.org/10.1002/ana.24158

Dasen, P. R., & Mishra, R. C. (2013). Development of Geocentric Spatial Language and Cognition: An Eco-cultural Perspective (Cambridge Studies in Cognitive and Perceptual Development, Series Number 12). Cambridge University Press.

Tracy Trautner, Michigan State University Extension. (2019, January 28). Advantages of a bilingual brain. Early Childhood Development. https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/advantages_of_a_bilingual_brain

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