Language

„A language is something infinitely greater than grammar and philology. It is the poetic testament of the genius of a race and a culture, and the living embodiment of the thoughts and fancies that have moulded them. “ (Jawaharlal Nehru)

Why am I throwing this quote by Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, into my blog? Well, it is because I am reading his book “The Discovery of India” at the moment and this quotation stroke me as I have been thinking myself a lot about language and its meaning lately. I think these words portray the complexity of language and how difficult it is to master a second language. From these words I assume that it might even be impossible to master a second language more or less perfectly if there is so much to consider! Looking at all these components, meaning not just linguistics but above all that culture it really takes a lot of effort to learn another language.
Of course I have been thinking about this because I am right now trying to learn Spanish. I am sure I’ve already learned a lot during my first months in Spain and already back in Bolivia, but every day I find new words, new phrases which I cannot understand yet. It is quite frustrating as I am trying really hard to keep up my vocabulary notebook and to memorize the new vocabulary more or less daily. But then it is not just the vocabulary. There also comes the sentence structure, the idioms, the cultural connotations, all these aspects which make this objective so difficult to achieve!
Oh no, I am not saying I want to give up. Rather I want to show that language is basically a multifaceted discipline with reference to many others. That makes it really difficult but also exiting to learn as one does not only gets to know words but also gets to learn about another society, another way of life, another history and about so many other things which culture encloses. Language learning is certainly fascinating and I think if you have the chance to study another language, take this opportunity as you will discover a whole new world!

Yours,
Conny