last night i began my luganda class.
ok. now. i consider myself to be fairly good at learning languages. i took french and spanish and latin in high school- and they were easier for me than chemistry was (note- chosen profession is science based). i lived in costa rica and spoke close to fluently after my semester there. and when i've traveled i've been pretty good at picking up and using a few key phrases to get by. but last night i sat in that class and tried, but it wouldn't stick. our teacher, who was very kind and gentle and was purposefully going nice and slow, would say something for us to repeat back in luganda and even though we'd been working on it for 20 minutes, i would have to look down at my paper and attempt to read it. attempt, because i was often mispronouncing it.
meanwhile, the other students, my classmates, are laughing and breezing along, if anything irritated by the slowish pace and even if their pronunciation wasn't perfect, they remembered the words with out having to read them.
so what is the deal? what is my problem? why am i struggling while they are sailing along?
because emyaka gyange 40. and they are all 20. fo'reals.
i think that is the difference. my 40 year old brain is the problem. it's set in it's ways and it's very full. my brain already has it's patterns- it's comfort zones. it will remember the blood chemistry and cbc results of 10 people with out being asked, and the doses of those ten peoples medications. it's trained that way, it's natural. the only way this brain might let new information in, is if it can find a related idea and settle in next to it. but that is the problem- this bantu language has nothing familiar in it to my brain. can you find any relationship between emyaka gyange and age? and all the words are like that! it really puts the foreign back in foreign language.
the 20 something guy behind me (who sounds like he already speaks luganda) has the strong advantage of growing up overseas and speaking at least 4 languages fluently. the language section of his brain must be huge and plush and inviting. it's probably the 'first class' section in his brain. he informed me that after age 20 it gets progressively harder to learn a new language and he related it to something about aging oral muscles or the brain connecting with the oral muscles or something. i tried to look it up. to find some proof - but i didn't find anything other than the loss of plasticity as our brains age..yada yada.
but i did find an article about the importance of removing our mental barriers about language acquisition (at any age). the need for openness and believing that one can do it!
so while i can't tick back the years, or upgrade the brain i've got, i can do something about my attitude. i can believe in myself and work hard at it. where there's a will there's a way!
ok. now. i consider myself to be fairly good at learning languages. i took french and spanish and latin in high school- and they were easier for me than chemistry was (note- chosen profession is science based). i lived in costa rica and spoke close to fluently after my semester there. and when i've traveled i've been pretty good at picking up and using a few key phrases to get by. but last night i sat in that class and tried, but it wouldn't stick. our teacher, who was very kind and gentle and was purposefully going nice and slow, would say something for us to repeat back in luganda and even though we'd been working on it for 20 minutes, i would have to look down at my paper and attempt to read it. attempt, because i was often mispronouncing it.
meanwhile, the other students, my classmates, are laughing and breezing along, if anything irritated by the slowish pace and even if their pronunciation wasn't perfect, they remembered the words with out having to read them.
so what is the deal? what is my problem? why am i struggling while they are sailing along?
because emyaka gyange 40. and they are all 20. fo'reals.
i think that is the difference. my 40 year old brain is the problem. it's set in it's ways and it's very full. my brain already has it's patterns- it's comfort zones. it will remember the blood chemistry and cbc results of 10 people with out being asked, and the doses of those ten peoples medications. it's trained that way, it's natural. the only way this brain might let new information in, is if it can find a related idea and settle in next to it. but that is the problem- this bantu language has nothing familiar in it to my brain. can you find any relationship between emyaka gyange and age? and all the words are like that! it really puts the foreign back in foreign language.
the 20 something guy behind me (who sounds like he already speaks luganda) has the strong advantage of growing up overseas and speaking at least 4 languages fluently. the language section of his brain must be huge and plush and inviting. it's probably the 'first class' section in his brain. he informed me that after age 20 it gets progressively harder to learn a new language and he related it to something about aging oral muscles or the brain connecting with the oral muscles or something. i tried to look it up. to find some proof - but i didn't find anything other than the loss of plasticity as our brains age..yada yada.
but i did find an article about the importance of removing our mental barriers about language acquisition (at any age). the need for openness and believing that one can do it!
so while i can't tick back the years, or upgrade the brain i've got, i can do something about my attitude. i can believe in myself and work hard at it. where there's a will there's a way!
