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- Herausgeber: WS
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
Language and Cultural Bloopers & Stories from Around the World
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Seitenzahl: 148
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Language Learning Laughs
Language and Cultural Bloopers & Stories From Around the World
Marci Renée
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 by Marci Renée
All rights reserved. Published by The Cultural Story-Weaver.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, contact The Cultural Story-Weaver at www.culturalstoryweaver.com.
ISBN 978-1-7367253-8-2
Dedication
Idedicatethisbook to Ann, my first and favorite French teacher. Thank you for sharing your love and passion for language and culture with me. Your "foreign language fever" was contagious! Thank you to my mother, who encouraged me to follow my dreams and released me to live the rest of my life on the other side of the ocean at the age of nineteen. Thank you to my husband and four sons, who have labored alongside me to learn foreign languages and cultures around the globe. You have demonstrated great courage and dedication in building bridges to the world. It's been fun—with much laughter and tears!
Quote
—Ibn Battuta
Contents
It Started With a ‘Bonjour’!
I can still remember the moment. I can still feel the emotion. I can still see the classroom, sitting there on the floor, Indian-style, with bright eyes and eager expectation. Only nine-years-old, wearing long ponytails, my heart beating fast.
Breath blew into me with that one simple word, “Bonjour!”
Something came alive in me when I first heard that beautiful language. It was as if something was birthed inside my heart . . . or perhaps something was awakened deep within my soul . . . something lying dormant.
At that moment, I fell in love—not love at first sight—but love at first sound. “Bonjour.” I felt its rhythm, its song, its accent ripple throughout my body.
“Bonjour.” I heard my destiny calling me. That one brief word invited me, beckoned me to come.
I ran home from school that afternoon.
“I’m going to live in France one day!” I screamed eagerly as my mother barreled through the door after a long, hard day at work.
She was confused, but I was not. My mind was clear . . . determined. I knew exactly where I was going and what I wanted to do. I caught my dream that day, and I never let it go.
Never.
Ten years later, at age nineteen, I boarded an airplane in my hometown in Missouri, in the middle of America, to fly to the other side of the ocean.
My French dream awaited me. The love of my life would greet me at the border. I was not disappointed. I felt her loving arms wrap around me . . . welcome me. My passion and love grew with every moment, every sight, every sound, every taste, every person, every experience.
Cobblestone roads, red geraniums in window boxes, freshly baked baguettes, plaid berets, piles of warm crêpes heaping with chocolate, blooming irises of every color of the rainbow, a charming Frenchman who would one day become my husband and the father of my four children. It was no longer a childhood dream; it was my life—my reality.
Since that first day of stepping foot on your soil, I have traveled to more than thirty countries and lived in many foreign lands.
But, my dear France, you will always be my first love. My dear France, you will always be my beloved. It only took that one little word, “Bonjour,” and you captured my heart . . . forever.
Language Learning Can Be Fun?
I have loved languages since I was nine. That’s how old I was when I first heard a foreign language, one different than the one I grew up speaking.
Before that, I am not sure if I knew that foreign countries, cultures, and languages existed. I was a Missouri girl, born and immersed in the English language, born and raised in deep Midwestern culture.
I didn’t know any different. It was innate. It was natural. It was deeply ingrained in me.
The day I heard French for the first time, the day I heard a new language, I had a radical paradigm shift.
I realized there was a great big world out there, full of people who were different from me. For the first time in my life, I was confronted with the awesome reality that there were people who looked differently than me, talked differently than me, dressed differently than me, learned differently from me, thought differently from me, and lived differently than me. And there were people around the world who ate things other than cheeseburgers, french fries, fried chicken, Grandma Esther’s Creamed Corn Casserole, Grandpa Al’s fried crappie, and pumpkin pie.
Sitting in my fourth-grade classroom each week for French class, I fell in love with languages and the intricacies of words, accents, structures, and sounds. Life suddenly became a word puzzle for me to look at, to admire, to study, and to put together. I became fascinated with language rhythm. It was like music to my ears. I could hear words sing and dance, and it made me happy.
A decade later, while sitting in one of my university French classes, I came across a quote by a famous French philosopher, Montesquieu.
“Teaching is learning twice.”
At that moment, I knew I loved languages, and I knew I wanted to teach languages—my language, foreign languages, any language. It didn’t matter, but I knew I would forever be a student of language and a teacher of language. I wanted everyone to fall in love with foreign languages—just like me!
I quickly discovered that a language is a bridge to the world. It’s a bridge to travel, a bridge to have a conversation with someone from a foreign land, a bridge to deep cultural awareness and learning.
Yes, a language is a bridge to the world!
At the age of twelve, I jumped at the opportunity to continue studying French at my junior high school. I couldn’t get enough of it. Only one hour a day—you have to be kidding me! I wanted to study the French language and culture all day, every day of the week.
I enjoyed it, but I soon realized that my classmates didn’t all have the same passion and perspective as I did. Many of the students complained about not understanding. Some were frustrated for “not getting it.” Others saw no value, no use, no practical reason to study French. I mean, really, we lived in Missouri. What were the chances that we would actually meet a French person and have an opportunity to say, “Bonjour! Ça va?”
It didn’t matter what others said about French and foreign languages, nothing was going to sway me or change my mind. I loved languages!
Why? Why was my experience with learning a foreign language different from the student sitting next to me?
Ok, let’s be honest, learning language comes more easily for some than others. There is an assessment called the MLAT, Modern Language Aptitude Test. It’s required by many companies and organizations who send people overseas to live and work, often requiring the study and mastery of the local language.
Before moving to Morocco to work with our organization, my husband and I had to take the MLAT. I actually liked taking it and scored well; however, that wasn’t the case for everyone. Based on one’s score, the organization could then determine if the person should be placed in a country with a language that is difficult to learn, like Arabic or Mandarin, or in a country with a language that is easier to learn, like Spanish.
All that to say, I can’t discount the reality that not everyone learns languages quickly and easily. I was also a foreign language teacher when we first moved to Morocco to learn Arabic. Certified to teach French to children from kindergarten to the twelfth grade, I had an obvious passion and knack for languages.
Yes, all these things certainly helped me enjoy the intensive, and at times, grueling, act of language learning. However, I’m convinced that there was something else that helped me even more than my ability or my fascination with language. It still helps me today, as I now immerse myself in a new (fourth!) language and culture in Spain.
Hopefully, by now, you are asking, “What?! What helped?! What was it?!”
You might be surprised, but it’s actually quite simple, and everyone can access it. It’s a language learning tool that is free and readily available. The item never goes out of stock. There is an abundant supply worldwide. It’s actually so ridiculously easy and obvious that we overlook it.
LAUGHTER!
One of the first things I learned to do with learning a foreign language was to laugh at myself and to laugh with others. Of all things you can have fun learning, foreign languages rank top on the list!
I’m always disappointed to hear of children and adults who hate learning languages, because their English or French or Spanish teacher is boring and purely academic. I’ve also talked to many—adults and children alike—who are terrified to open their mouths in a foreign language classroom. They fear sounding silly, stupid, or making mistakes.
While living in France and teaching English to Airbus professionals, I was shocked to hear their stories of learning English. They were constantly corrected and had little freedom to open their mouths, try to communicate, and make mistakes. In that type of learning environment, I would hate languages too.
So, who said that language learning has to be hard and boring? It honestly can be boatloads of fun! If you take French or English with me in the classroom, you will usually leave with a bellyache! We laugh, we joke, we dance, we sing, we make faces, we act silly . . .
WE LAUGH!!!
And, I’m not just talking about 5-year-olds. Those Airbus professionals, all decked out in suits and ties, had no idea that learning English could be so much fun! They often expressed that they learned more in my English classes than they did in all their years combined in English classes at school.
Why? What was the difference?
WE LAUGHED!
I believe that laughter, fun, and humor in language learning is one of the essential keys to success. Laughter relaxes the body, relaxes the mind, relaxes the atmosphere, and as a result, we are more at ease and more apt to absorb new concepts. Our brains are better prepared to pave new neural pathways of learning.
As a teacher of foreign languages, I laugh, and as a student of foreign languages, I laugh.
Whether it be in France, in Morocco, or now in Spain, I laugh while learning languages. I laugh A LOT!
During our seven years living in Morocco, I can recall going to hanoutes— local corner grocery stores—markets, schools, and neighbors’ homes, where I would need to speak Arabic. With my imperfect grammar, broken sentence structure, lack of correct vocabulary, and my strong American accent, almost always, people would smile and often laugh.
At that moment, I had a choice. I could get irritated, defensive, and mad . . . or . . . I could laugh! I tried to always choose the latter. Instead of getting upset, angry, frustrated, or offended, I always said the same thing . . .
“Are you laughing AT me?!”
Then I would smile and chuckle.
The person in front of me would always respond with the same words and same embarrassed, turned-down gaze.
“No, of course, I’m not laughing at you!”
I would then say, “No, you aren’t laughing AT me, you are laughing WITH me! And, I’m laughing too!”
This brief conversation opened doors of friendship, built bridges between our foreign worlds, and brought us fun, laughter, and smiles.
Today, I invite you on this journey of laughter in language learning. It’s my personal journey, but it represents the many others around the world who spend countless hours, days, weeks, months, and years learning foreign languages. We all do this to build bridges, bridges to the world. This is noble and honorable. I applaud us all for our hard work and effort. It is extremely hard work!
However, let’s not forget one of the essential keys to unlocking success in language learning—LAUGHTER! Let us not forget to laugh at ourselves and with others. It’s amazing how that slight shift in perspective can change everything and can actually make us better language learners.
For the rest of the world, I hope these funny stories of our family’s language and culture bloopers around the world will entertain you and will encourage you all to jump on the language learning bandwagon. It’s a fun and wild ride you won’t want to miss! It’s actually not a bandwagon, it’s a camel. Yes, it will be bumpy and terrifying on the high dunes, your bum and legs will be sore beyond words the next day, and you may fall off onto the hard sand (like I did in Morocco). But, if you keep laughing at yourself and keep laughing with others, you will build a bridge to the world . . . and fall in love with it at the same time.
So, jump on the camel’s back! But hold on tight to the reins. As the camel slowly stands up, you will be violently jerked forwards and backwards!
WARNING! BEWARE OF LAUGHTER, TEARS, AND A BELLYACHE!
WARNING! PART 5 CONTAINS SOME "UNINTENTIONAL VULGARITY"! HA! THIS SECTION IS NOT INTENDED FOR YOUNGER READERS.
Part One
Hilarious Kid Humor
How to Horrify Your New Babysitter!
When we first arrived in Morocco years ago, our boys (We only had two at the time!) were five and three. We were just beginning to learn Arabic.
Fatima, a wonderful local woman, had just started helping us with childcare. My husband and I needed to go to the grocery store, and we wanted to explain to the babysitter that we would be gone for two hours.
Hard Work and Courage
I worked hard to formulate and practice my sentences in my new language. It took me even more time to muster up enough courage to approach Fatima, open my mouth, and try to pronounce it correctly.
“Fatima, we are going to the grocery store, and we are leaving the two boys with you. We will only be gone for two YEARS.”
I saw the look of surprise and horror on her face, and I knew immediately that I had said something wrong. Fatima then began chuckling, and I had no idea why. I just knew that whatever I had said was very funny.
“Two years?!” she said in between timid giggles.
