I think most people have learned a foreign language to some extent. Beginning with studying grammars, words and phrases, I think you had sort of fun. But you also had difficulties, don’t you?
As you proceeded with learning languages and the education materials for reading, listening, writing, and speaking grow difficult, the first impression you experienced at the beginning of studying fainted. And the dreadful wall separating your mother tongue and the language you were learning grew higher and higher.
This is the point where you lose the willingness to study foreign language. And after getting the credits or enough score in schools an universities, in most cases, you quit studying the languages you had invested long time and some amount of money. Why? The answer was easy. Because you didn’t have to study foreign languages anymore.
But this leads to the partial or complete loss of opportunity in which you can enjoy the encounters with other cultures different from yours. Please imagine, for example, the case in which you go to Japan. In this country, what you can see are Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. And you can eat ramen and sushi. And I would like you to know language is one of those constituents forming foreign cultures and customs.
Which means, the gist of this article is the following: You will have fun from the encounters with other cultures different from yours by learning other languages.
Most of you like sightseeing, but dislike studying in schools, at home, in libraries, and in cafes. Wherever you study something, the action “study” has an implication of tough works and obligations to accomplish something like tests and examinations. As long as you think the acquisition process of foreign languages is a type of studying written above, you lose an immense opportunity to enjoy the juice of acquiring other languages.
So, what should you do? It’s up to how you find the encounter with other languages, just like meeting other cultures. If you find foreign cultures interesting, enticing, and intriguing, you have an enough potential to enjoy the process to acquire the languages related to them. Although sort of studying is necessary, like fundamental grammatical rules and elementary vocabularies necessary for daily conversations, you can shift such a textbook studying to a hard but exciting training through pragmatic communications in real world. Such situations where you communicate with the local people using the languages you are learning give you fruitful experiences of cultures different from the one you are in everyday.
In the sense introduced above, you can make the most of the entertainment called “the encounters with other cultures, customs and traditions”. Language learning is another aspect of encounter with another world. To enjoy such wonderful encounters, it is good to immerse yourselves into other linguistic worlds!