Learning a New Language

I think that it is critical that as teachers we also have to be learners to better understand the learning process. Secondly, it is also important from the point of view of learning a different culture. Thirdly, it allows us to better communicate with the indigenous population who will appreciate the fact that we are trying as foreigners to better understand the culture we are living in.

I am in Thailand at the moment and I am trying to learn to read and write. Somehow, I have to memorize the alphabet which is completely foreign to me. I even have trouble writing the letters and I have no idea how a five year old Thai child can do it. Amazing. The problem for me, I realize, is that I am trying to learn out of context which clues me in on how to teach contextually. Trying to memorize letters and sounds out of context is difficult. Everything we teach has to be in some format where the child can link things to a deeper meaning.

It is also important in learning a language to understand that language reflects the culture. We learn, for example, in Thai that men say "kup" and women say "ka" at the end of the sentence. Even though someone might look like a man, if they end the sentence with a "ka" they feel like a woman. 


We have the same sorts of things in English. For example, Eskimos have multiple names for snow and city dwellers have multiple names for couches like sofas, love seats and so on. It tells us about the English culture in which most of the readers of this blog use. 

Do you want to talk to these people and ask them what they are looking at? Most of them probably speak enough English to tell you, but if you start by asking them in English you just might get these stares. Try saying hello and asking them how they are in Thai and you might be able to find out that they are listening to a bird competition. 
If you live in foreign environment spend time talking with the indigenous population. If you wanted to hang out with English speaking people why leave home?