Praxis Precedes Perfection
Praxis Precedes Perfection
A lesson for learners of living languages
Every time I try to speak Spanish, the spirit of Cervantes weeps. Still, a week or so ago, in the course of deplaning, my command of that language proved good enough to enable me to help a fellow passenger find her lost luggage.
As I had been in motion for twenty-one hours, the one word that would have been most useful in this conversation - la maleta - failed to report for duty. I thus resorted to a little amateur philology, home-brewing a word - la valisa - that, given the family resemblance between French and Spanish, could have existed.
I would later discover that the fruit of my educated guess existed in Spanish, but only on the margins of the lexicon of that language. (La valija seems to be the most common cognate of la valise.) No matter. I got my point across. The lady found her suitcase, and I learned an important lesson.
Fully fledged fluency lies at the far end of a very long journey, one that many, if not most, students of a foreign tongue will never reach. Nonetheless, those who embark upon this quest will find that they can glean substantial benefits well before they have worn out their first pair of walking shoes.
For Further Reading:
For Further Reading:
Immersion helps, and actually works!
Oh, I remember when I was learning German as a teenager by existing in Germany. I couldn't think of the word for napkin in the cafeteria, and ended up asking for a blanket. That was confusing -- to everyone.