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Your earliest foreign language memory | ||
Tags: Children | Foreign Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5589 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 65 of 98 19 March 2010 at 1:58am | IP Logged | |||||
Laughing uncontrollably :D I was so serious too. :P 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| global_gizzy Senior Member United States maxcollege.blogspot. Joined 5707 days ago 275 posts - 310 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 66 of 98 19 March 2010 at 1:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Growing up an American Muslim, there was always good bit of Arabic in my environment, but the majority of it lacked real concrete meaning to me, because it was the language I used "with God". (seriously, even though my parents used a few keys phrases to scold us. I never really saw Arabic as 'seperate'. We used it every day to pray or say some religious phrases but it wasn't seperate to me. Even though I knew it was written different' and read backwards from English.)
However, when I was about 4 or 5 years old, I was learning to read English and I came across something on a package that didn't make any sense no matter how I tried to sound it out. This really frustrated me because most of the words were short. I took it to my dad and asked him what it said and he told me he didn't know, that I'd have to ask my mom. This perturbed me because, well, like most little girls I was in love with my daddy (Or Abu, as I call him) and he was my teacher (I was homeschooled) so I just always assumed that he knew EVERYTHING. I was used to my mom telling me to ask my dad about academic things, and my dad only told me to ask my mom about domestic things. Anyway, I took the package to my mom and asked her what it said and she read the package but the words were....foreign! I was shocked, really shocked because I'd never heard Spanish before and I certainly hadn't expected it to come out of my moms mouth. She tried to explain to me that she minored in Spanish in college but I didn't know what a "major/minor" was and I didn't care. It was the coolest thing in the world to me and I began begging my mom to teach me Spanish. She never did, but she'd tell me how to say something if I asked (read: Whined long enough). She was scared that she would teach me her habitual imperfections and stuff like that because she hadn't practiced Spanish in like 7 years or something. When she asked me why I was so stuck on Spanish I told her I wanted to talk to her (I meant in Spanish) and that I'd never know another language if she didn't teach me. She pointed out that my dad could/did speak Arabic often but that was lost on me at that point. In my view of the world, Arabic was "God language" that EVERYONE used, not just my dad, when we prayed. (Because men lead communal prayer aloud in Arabic, I just assumed that was what she meant when she said my dad could Speak Arabic.) A while later I realised that my dad could speak speak** Arabic, not just pray in it. Anyway, we were at the mosque for a religious festival and so naturally the place was in chaos the moment the "boring" part was over. Women handed out gifts, really nice ones, after the sermon to all the kids so the place was crawling with screaming, hyper kids who were pumped on coffee and donuts and ready to wage war, if needed, to get a new super soaker. Or if you were REALLY lucky, a Game Boy. I had lost my shoes and ruined my stockings, I was scared to face my mom and aunt (who were sure to kill me) so I ran to the mens side. (men and women are always separate in the place of worship, which is probably why I'd never heard my dad speak Arabic as a modern language before now that I think about it) and ran to my dad. I was standing by his legs (I was like 5 years old) and was trying to get his attention when I heard him laugh and say something to someone. I was startled, I stepped back to make sure I had the right pair of legs and still was doubtful for a few minutes, thinking maybe it was the wrong bearded chin I was looking at, but he smelled like my dad. I called out to him and he turned around, greeted me and picked me up. Which is what I wanted and I kept staring in his mouth, watching his mouth as the Arabic rolled off his tongue. I remember thinking that maybe God was somewhere around because suddenly I noticed ALOT of people speaking Arabic and since it WAS a religious holiday, I put 2 and 2 together using every ounce of logic a 5 year old has. That night, when my siblings laughed me to scorn I had an "aha" moment that Arabic was a language that people could use anyway. For me, even though it had been around me since I was born, I had never thought of Arabic as a language before that. NOTE: I was used to different people speaking their own languages at the mosque because most of the people there were foreigners but I never registered it as multiple languages. (I dont know what I thought they were speaking, probably some sneaky dialect of adult or something, or maybe I'd never paid them any attention before, but these never counted as foreign languagee to my kid mind either.) **Check out this thread by Ironfist. Its interesting. 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ManicGenius Senior Member United States Joined 5485 days ago 288 posts - 420 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese | Message 67 of 98 19 March 2010 at 8:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
At least the language you use to speak with God is a modern language... Well... I'm thinking MSA but I know the القرآن has an antiquated version. But people at least still speak it! Mine was Latin. Lot a good a dead language does you outside of religous places... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Quabazaa Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5613 days ago 414 posts - 543 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Japanese, Korean, Maori, Scottish Gaelic, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Written) | Message 68 of 98 19 March 2010 at 9:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hmm it's hard to pin down my earliest memory of foreign language! I never remember having an epiphany, although as a child I was monolingual, languages were always around.
It might be in school, I distinctly remember the day when we learnt a song of Maori greetings. I'm not sure there's a single kiwi kid who doesn't know how to sing "Tena koe hello to one!" :) Oooh it's even on Youtube My mum was also a German and French teacher, and she had this cool book of silly French with great pictures and phrases like "There's a dragon on my bed!" I tried to memorise them in case one day they might come in handy. You just never know when dragons will appear! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ManicGenius Senior Member United States Joined 5485 days ago 288 posts - 420 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese | Message 69 of 98 19 March 2010 at 9:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Maori is friggin awesome.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Quabazaa Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5613 days ago 414 posts - 543 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Japanese, Korean, Maori, Scottish Gaelic, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Written) | Message 70 of 98 19 March 2010 at 10:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If you want to say that in Maori I think it would be:
He tumeke te korero Maori! (or just simply He tumeke te reo) :D And I totally agree! Edited by Quabazaa on 19 March 2010 at 10:33pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5560 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 71 of 98 21 March 2010 at 2:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
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My earliest memory is the word "musha" in Irish, a soothing term of affection whispered to me by my mother as a baby. Funnily enough I used this word subconsciously with my pet dog later as a young child too to mean pretty much the same :) Edited by Teango on 21 March 2010 at 2:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kyssäkaali Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5557 days ago 203 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish | Message 72 of 98 21 March 2010 at 2:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
Cute story!! n_n I really enjoyed reading it. @ManicGenius: At least the two of you got to use some other language in church! All my sermons were in boring ol' English. I remember one time my dad heard an advertisement for a mass that would be entirely in Latin. We went and it turned out he'd heard wrong because it was all in English. I asked one old dude if the sermon was in English or Latin and he gave me the most bewildered look. Yeah, we didn't stay long. Maybe if mass was held in a cooler language, I wouldn't be an atheist now. ;) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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