The word “language” flows over my tongue like music.

I was talking with a friend the other day about reflexive verbs in Spanish. He said that he wished that he could just be able to translate Spanish to English word for word and have it make sense. My husband, Josh, was there and he said that he likes how there are words in other languages that there is no equivalent for in English. Our friend said, “You like that in theory, or practice?”

In theory it is beautiful and interesting, yet in practice it can be frustrating.

That conversation reminded me of playing the piano. Playing the piano (or any instrument) is like speaking a new language. I remember first learning how to play. First I learned playing with both hands separate. Then I had to put them together! And both hands played two different things. This was really a mind trick!

Then I learned music theory, the rules of the piano language. But only knowing all those rules couldn’t  make someone a good piano player. It takes practice, and it takes something intangible and feely to really get it.

Pretty soon, if you stick with it, you’re playing the piano and you realize that you don’t know how this is happening. How is it that now, you can make these sounds come out of this instrument–without really even thinking about it?

It’s the same with speaking a language. You can learn all the rules but that’s not what makes you good at speaking that language. It takes practice and you’ve got to acquire a feel for it. You’re trying to learn something that doesn’t directly translate into your native tongue. It’s a brain trick. It takes letting go of or putting aside old ways of thinking.

Soon, you’ll be speaking a new language and wondering how it’s happening without translating in your head from your native tongue–without thinking back to the text books.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 28th, 2009 at 10:51 am and is filed under language. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.