Language Learning

Here's a joke about learning languages:

What do you call someone who speaks two languages?
Answer: A bilingual
What do you call someone who speaks three languages?
Answer: A trilingual
What do you call someone who speaks only one language?
Answer: An American.

 I apologize if you have heard it before. Monolingualism is rooted in the American psyche.  Because our nation is an amalgam of people from all over the world, the maintenance and early acquisition of languages other than English was been historically discouraged in the U.S. As a result, lots of  otherwise well educated Americans believe it takes special mental ability to acquire a second language. What it actually takes is patience, exposure, and humility... LOTS of humility.

The point is relevant to any native speaker going overseas to teach English. Ours is the international language. All over the world, people speak this language, and welcome us to come to their countries and teach them, whether we know theirs or not.  But it seems to me that it's much better manners to make the attempt to learn theirs.

I used to think people who walked around with earbuds attached to their heads looked silly. Six weeks ago, I purchased an Ipod shuffle, and since then I've been walking to the university mumbling statements like prosim to opakovat pomaleji. (Please repeat that slowly.)  I thought I'd look pretty eccentric doing this, but so many people use Ipods these days that it's nothing unusual.

Czech is a minority language with only 12 million native speakers. Rosetta Stone does not have a Czech edition-- they would not make enough money. Instead, I purchased the Pimsleur program. Based on the "audiolingual" method, it involves listening and repetition.  When I tried to work with it at my desk, I found it unutterably boring, but when I'm walking around it isn't bad, and it's good for promoting quick recall.