WHY

AM I

WRITING

THIS

BLOG?

I have been considering writing a blog for some time, specifically a blog about language learning. My aim here is to write an honest account of my current level in the languages I’m studying. Therefore I have decided to write each article in all three languages, but because of my restricted vocabulary in Italian and Hungarian they will not be direct translations of the English, but rather alternate versions. I will get these corrected by native speakers, but hopefully they will reflect my current range of vocabulary.

I have over the years found inspiration in various excellent blogs written by polyglots such as Luca Lampariello and Steve Kaufman. People who have already arrived at their destination, or so it seems, of speaking multiple languages to a very high level. At the age of 32 I speak two foreign languages Hungarian and Italian at something approaching intermediate level. However at the age of 28 I could only speak English. I feel that my progress would perhaps have been much more rapid had I been more diligent, but my progress is not indicative of someone with a huge ‘natural talent’ for second language acquisition and might therefore be of some interest to other people who would like to learn another language but do not display maniacal levels of commitment to the task.

My language-learning journey began after a series of health problems in my mid to late twenties and I was advised to find some way of reengaging with my interests. I had always wanted to learn a language and was inspired by a friend of mine who had learned Italian and Hungarian. I began studying Italian, since I could visit my friend to practice. I soon found that it offered me an interesting way of spending my time and it yielded measurable progress. The move from feeling that I was wasting my time to knowing that if I invested the time in language study I would see progress towards my goal was an important one for me. Language learning was not simply about acquiring a new skill but about reengaging with my life.

After a year of studying Italian I decided I wanted to take up a third language. The general consensus of the polyglot community seemed to be that it would be better to reach a comfortable level with one language before studying another, but chose to make a start anyway. I felt that a non-Latinate language would be the best choice since it would be less likely to interfere with my Italian. After some thought I narrowed it down to one of two possibilities, Chinese or Hungarian. Chinese appealed to me because it was tonal and I liked the idea of being able to read a completely alien writing system. Hungarian appealed to me because I had fallen in love with Budapest and was planning to visit again in a few months. Ultimately I picked Hungarian because I had a more concrete short-term objective: to order a beer and some goulash in Hungarian.

I have found that my approach to the two different languages has varied significantly because they are both very different. In Italian for example I began reading my first adult level book after 3 or 4 months, a task that would be almost impossible in Hungarian even after some 2 years of study! The reason for this is that there is so much shared vocabulary between Italian and English and the grammar is, while by no means the same as English, often rather similar. This meant that I acquired a good deal of my new words simply through reading and listening. However I did use Luca’s method of cross translation too. Hungarian on the other hand was much more of a struggle. I found the cross translation to be a real effort. With Hungarian it seems that I need to see the same word hundreds and hundreds of times before I can remember it and if you add to that the notoriously difficult grammar and it appears at first to be an almost impossible task. So I decided to find myself a teacher, Zsuzsi Urogdi, which proved of great benefit to me (in fact it deserves another blog post in it’s own right). I think the most important lesson I have learned so far is that if your approach is not working, or is not enjoyable to you, you need to change it. In addition to that I would say that is important to trust that with exposure you will be able to eventually do with ease things that at first seem impossible.

I hope you enjoyed this post and I look forward to hearing your feedback. I will endeavour to bring you a new post every week. My plan is also to upload audio for those of you who might be learning English, Hungarian or Italian.