Growing up in Israel with Russian immigrant parents, Noa Miller was surrounded by and learned Hebrew and Russian simultaneously. As soon as she entered elementary school, Miller was required to learn English; but when she moved to the United States in 2003, she needed to take intensive English as a second language classes to get a better grasp on the linguistics.
Ten years later, Miller, a senior studying trumpet performance, speaks English at school and switches between Hebrew and Russian when speaking to her parents.
In the United States, Miller is in the minority when it comes to multilingualism. According to the 2011 government census, only 20.8 percent of families speak a language other than English at home, though the number has risen from 19.7 percent in 2007.
Europe vs. America
The 2012 Eurobarometer Report found that 54 percent of Europeans speak more than one language, with 25 percent being trilingual.
Understanding more than one language is a necessity when growing up in Europe, said Francesca Colloredo, professor of Italian at Ohio University.
“In Italy, as in most European countries, you start learning another language very early on, so by the time you get to college you have opened up more doors to learn more languages,” she said. “Being from a European nation, you travel on a more regular basis and need to understand different cultures.”
Colloredo was raised in Milan, where she learned how to speak Italian and French. She chose to learn English as a third language when she enrolled in college.
“English is an international language, and I realized how important it was going to be to know it,” Colloredo said. “There is more of an incentive to learn another language when you are from a small country, and I knew English would help me.”
Because America is a large country, there is often a narrow view when it comes to learning foreign languages, said Hannah Abrahamson, a junior studying Spanish.
“I think that America is often times focused on just America,” she said. “Learning a language broadens cultural horizons and you are forced to understand how people communicate about different things.”
Even though foreign language courses may be required for a few years, there is no guarantee that people will learn the languages, said Daniel Torres, professor of Spanish.
“I was required to learn English in Puerto Rico at my elementary school and I did the work I had to do to pass the class,” he said. “When I came to the U.S. in 1984, I was unprepared and I had to re-learn the language and I think the same can apply to students learning Spanish.”
Taking the Challenge
Each language has its own set of challenges, but phonetics is one of the most important aspects to tackle, Colloredo said.
“Before grammar, there is sound,” she said. “Every language has different sounds, and your mouth develops to learn your own, so when you take on a new language you have to reproduce a new sound.”
There are different ways to make a language easier to learn, but learning at a younger age helps people absorb faster and become fluent, said Amado Lascar, associate professor of Spanish.
“Learning a language is like learning an instrument,” Lascar said. “The younger you are, the faster you pick it up and the more fluent you’ll sound.”
Once someone learns two languages, it becomes easier to learn more and more, Miller said.
“I have a bucket list of languages that I want to become fluent in, and I’ve already started adding French and German to that list,” Miller said. “Eventually I would like to learn Italian and Arabic because it would be incredibly useful, and I kind of look towards an Asian language because that is where the future is.”
Knowing multiple languages can give someone a sense of power, Miller said.
“Having all of the other languages in my mind creates kind of a backbone, and it’s much easier to learn them when the basic concepts already exist in my head,” Miller said.
Regardless of age, however, practice is necessary to keep the language fresh because it is very easy to forget, she added.
Sticking With It
The best way to keep students interested in a language is to be stimulating, Abrahamson said.
“There is nothing more boring than having a professor just give you vocab,” she said. “You want them to engage with you about the culture and work with you on the vocab to make sure you understand and are able to have a conversation with someone.”
To keep students interested in language, Torres likes to incorporate Spanish songs, television shows and movies into his curriculum.
“One of my favorite things to show are soap operas,” Torres said. “Even though students might not understand all of the words, they can grasp the main concepts right away and use subtitles to help them pick up on words.”
Torres used television and film to practice his English after coming to the U.S. from Puerto Rico in 1994.
“As an ESL student, I learned that when you watch an American sitcom, you learn a lot of vocabulary,” Torres said. “You also learn about the way they talk and how social classes and society work.”
An instructor’s job is to motivate the students and participate with them, Lascar said.
“If professors aren’t engaging the students, they’ll do the minimum and then move on,” he said. “If you stop the desire for knowledge, you’re essentially an anti-teacher.”
When a student decides to stick with a language, they’ve opened themselves up to a different world, Colloredo said.
“It’s important for your growth as a person because the world is becoming smaller, and you’re in contact with people all over the world,” she said. “You’ll understand a culture superficially, but you’ll never learn a culture unless you speak the language.”
ao007510@ohiou.edu
@thisisjelli
