Greetings, friends!

You know one of my loves is language, and that it’s being incorporated as a topic within the Coloring My Way Across The Globe campaign. Let’s discuss the “why” behind language learning. Personally, I’ve been studying languages since grade school in New Orleans, Louisiana, where I was born and raised. My mom enrolled me in a wonderful parochial school—St. Clement of Rome—to ensure that I received a superior education. That I did!

For about two years during my time at St. Clement of Rome, we students were required to take French class. I was hooked the first day. Our teacher was a young woman from Tunisia, where Arabic is the mother tongue but French is widely spoken. Language learning and spelling were always my favorite classes, and I looked forward to attending every day and soaking up as much vocabulary and grammar as possible.

It wasn’t until early adulthood in my final semester of college that I learned a foreign language to the point of conversational fluency, though. This occurred in 1994 when I spent a four-month semester in Costa Rica as part of the Christian College Coalition Spanish Language Studies curriculum. Living with a Costa Rican family and attending classes each day conducted solely in Spanish jumpstarted my language learning, and that one semester has continued to yield results for me in learning a third language of Greek present day. Once you learn a second language, learning subsequent languages becomes easier because you know your learning style, as well as what it takes your brain to process new languages.

As adults, language learning becomes much more difficult due to time constraints and lesser bandwidth to retain information. To truly master a language at this stage in life, I believe that it is imperative to keep our minds on the goal and identify our “why,” or reason for learning a foreign language in the first place.

Understanding your motivation for learning the language helps you to maintain focus and determination with the limited time you do have to study languages. The WHY prompts you to advance in the language learning process, even as frustrating and slow of a process as it may be.

What is your WHY?

This will dictate the type of vocabulary and phrasing you learn. Are you in love with someone who speaks this other language and want to get to know them? Are you relocating for work and required to build a business vernacular in the destination language? Are you simply going on vacation and need some basic phrases for use in interacting with the locals?

Here’s MY “why.” I love people and aim to deeply understand and communicate with them in their mother tongue. I believe that the way to truly get to know a person is to communicate in words and phrases that they best understand. There are certain phrases in any language that are unique, and almost untranslatable in other languages. These are the words and phrases I want to learn. I want to understand how words are strung together to form deep meanings and bonds person to person. My motivation for learning language is that I seek deeper, more meaningful conversations with people from other parts of the world. I seek immersive cultural experiences every time I travel, and one of the best ways to do that is to learn at least some phrases in the destination country’s language(s).

I also appreciate colloquialisms and learning about them. What is colloquialism?

Cambridge Dictionary defines colloquialism as follows: an informal word or expression that is more suitable for use in speech than in writing.

Merriam-Webster defines colloquialism as “a local or regional dialect expression.”

Colloquialisms to me are the fun part of language learning and really tell you a lot about a people group. Let’s take Costa Ricans for example. They are known for the use of the phrase “pura vida,” which means “pure life.” They utilize this phrase as simply a greeting or to announce that life for them is good. Costa Ricans are culturally a very easy going, happy people who don’t sweat the small stuff. The expression suits them and their culture perfectly.

Once you determine your true motivation for language learning, then I encourage you to carve out daily time—at least 30 minutes—to begin learning. Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Begin listening to music and podcasts in the destination language to acclimate your ear to the words and sounds made.

2. Learn basic greetings and etiquette. See my last post about how to be a culturally conscious traveler for those phrases.

3. Use Google or another translator to translate words and phrases from English to your destination language, and learn them one at a time. I do this all the time when I think of basic requests or words I want to learn in Greek. I use Google translate, take a screenshot of the translation, write it in a notebook, and commit it to memory.

4. Learn your numbers! I cannot overemphasize this one. I have yet to really master my numbers in Greek, and it’s giving me a hard time during this travel season. You need numbers to telephone someone, for addresses, to pay your bill at a restaurant, and to pay for goods and services while shopping.

5. Set a small language learning goal for yourself of one new word a day. At the end of the year, you will have learned 365 new words, plenty to carry on basic conversation.

6. If you are a visual learner like I am, then use good old fashioned flash cards to write the English word on back and its equivalent in your new language on the front. Have a family member or friend test you on your new words!

Coloring My Way Across The Globe’s mission and campaign is to inspire, encourage and teach you to have your own colorful travel experiences off the beaten path both near and far. Language learning is one of the many keys to having the richest, most immersive and colorful travel experiences possible. Believe me, friends.

Please comment below and tell me which languages you are studying and/or plan to begin studying.

Colorful regards,

Lauren