Watch Your Language Blog

Starting Out By Listening Up

Every once in a while, when the work day is slow (a seemingly rare occurrence these days), my colleagues and I enjoy talking about different aspects of language. One topic that has come up before is how it sometimes feels as if our personalities alter a bit when we switch to a different language. I swear that whenever I start speaking Latvian or Russian I become a feisty teenager, instead of a lackadaisical thirty-something. But it's also fascinating to experience not just how we change, but how the world around us changes when we hear it through the ears of a different language.

We recently completed work on a new project, the Starting Out series. This particular course is an audio-only course, which means that as part of the editing process, we spend several days cooped up in our offices listening to the audio.

It's interesting to see what happens when you suddenly find yourself surrounded for hours on end by just one language. For this series, I happened to be working on Chinese and Italian, and on the days I listened only to the Chinese audio, I suddenly became more aware of anyone speaking Mandarin in my vicinity. Conversations leaped out at me on the subway, almost as if all other languages were silenced on that particular day. On Italian audio days, it suddenly seemed as if the world was filled with Italians.

These observations were completely unscientific, but they reminded me of an important aspect of language learning: how we tune our ears to the world around us. How well we listen and how well we absorb is indicated by how well our ears are tuned. Like fine instruments: you have to hear Bach in order to play his music.

"Listen and repeat" is the mantra of so many language courses. And we're not kidding. Because once you start listening, hearing absolutely becomes second nature. (SUZANNE)

Tags: Chinese, Italian, language learning
April 18, 2008