I love languages because this type of knowledge allows me to communicate with people from different countries in their mother tongue. It is so rewarding to travel to a country and be able to speak the language which is spoken there. In fact, people appreciate when we make an effort to speak their language. We can learn so much about a new culture, new values, and about a new way of thinking by talking directly to people. We feel refreshed when we talk to people from a different nationality and exchange views on different matters.
I have learned five languages at school. I started with Portuguese, my mother tongue. The way we learn our native language is very different from the way we learn a foreign language. Firstly, I learned Portuguese by listening to the people around me and by repeating after them. Then, when I was six years old, I started my formal education. At that stage I learned to read and to write in Portuguese.
When I was ten years old, I started learning French, and I continued learning it during five years. At that time French was a very important language in Portugal and most children learned this language at school. Nowadays I don’t use this language a lot unless I travel to French or Switzerland, where I have relatives. Nevertheless, I can still understand when I listen to it or when I read it. Speaking and writing are more difficult ...
When I was twelve years old, I started learning English, and I have fallen in love with it since that moment. I like everything about the English language, except for phonetics.
When I was fifteen years old, I started my Secondary Education. At that time I chose to study humanities because I loved languages so much. I stopped learning French and I decided to start learning two other languages, German and Latin, besides the English language. I found German really fantastic and enjoyed every new lesson. I can’t say the same about Latin. In fact, I found it really difficult. We don’t use Latin for oral communication, so I have forgotten everything I learned then. However, Latin helped me to know my mother tongue better because Portuguese derives from Latin, as well as the other Romance languages: Spanish, French, Italian and Rumanian.
When I was eighteen, I decided to take an University degree in the teaching of English and German as foreign languages. At university the teachers who taught me English came from very different countries, such as: New Zealand, the United States of America and Britain. They had different accents; consequently my English accent has suffered the influence of all those varieties of English.
I have been a teacher for twenty years, and during this time I have taught English and German to Portuguese students. However, I haven’t taught German for seven years. French and German are losing importance in Portugal and Spanish has taken the place of these two languages. Spanish is very similar to Portuguese, so we can understand Spanish easily, even if we have never studied it. Writing in Spanish is another thing because we need to study grammar …
I love Portuguese because this language reflects the history and culture of my country. This is the language I use every day to communicate with my co-citizens. I also love English and this is the language I use every day as a teacher.
I have been telling my students that English can be an excellent medium of communication among people who do not have a language in common. Nevertheless, the more languages we know, the better for us.
Don’t you think so?
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