🇬🇧 One more foreign language

Shall we talk about learning languages? I commented on music as one of my first contacts with a country's culture in one of the last posts, with Finnish bands that I've heard in the last twenty-something years, and today I would also like to talk about the role of music in language learning, for me, as well as other important points that helped me to gain confidence in my knowledge of the languages I speak and to dialogue with people from all over the world.

I started studying English because I was encouraged by a colleague, but I always wanted to study the language to understand what the songs said, since at that time, in the mid-90s, I still didn't use the internet (I started using it in 99).

I always studied English at a language school, and I took some classes with a friend who was a language teacher at the time, the same who encouraged me to study. In addition to the classes, I kept reading the inserts of my music CDs, and trying to understand what each song said.

When I started using the Internet, I met a lot of people from other countries and practiced my English, still a bit lame, talking to these people. The internet helped me a lot. I was slow to consider myself fluent because I am a bit of a perfectionist, and even after completing the course and speaking to people from all over the world without any major problems I did not see myself as fluent.

Then a friend asked me to translate Buddhist texts, a professional translator proofread, and as the translations were good I gained confidence.

Having overcome the English stage, I embraced the study of Italian, which I had interrupted, in self-taught mode and songs and conversation, followed by films in Italian and some books in the language helped me a lot to gain some security in communicating in this language. I even tried to read “The Divine Comedy” in Italian, but it is very difficult. I shelved the project to resume in the future.

Excited with the text about Finland, and remembering so many positive associations with the country, in the past few days I am becoming familiar with the Finnish language. We can say that I am studying the language, but I have not yet developed a study plan because I have to find a good material to understand grammar, or a good teacher. I accept tips! 😁 It is the first time that I venture to study a language starting alone. And in Curitiba there’s no language schools teaching Finnish.

What has always helped me was curiosity, and my ease in talking to many people. I am a bit of a perfectionist, but not to the point of being afraid of exposing myself to error. I feel comfortable running the risk of communicating and making mistakes, because I create opportunities for other people to contribute positively to my learning by teaching me the right way or a better way. If you worry too much about your accent or pronunciation, you end up wasting precious energy that you could use to make communication simpler.

It is worth remembering that since I was 16 years old I have been aware of my interest in communication, which led me to study advertising, so, for me, it is worth expressing what I want, and if I need to use mimicry or emojis I do.

I believe that studying grammar well is very useful for any language. And using audiovisual resources, such as music and movies, to have contact with the language is going a step further. The other is to face the challenge of talking to speakers of the language studied. And it is essential to have an interest in the culture of places that speak that language for the learning process to be more pleasant.

How about we start this challenge of learning a new language together? I'm taking my first steps with Finnish, and what language are you going to start studying from today? Follow me here on the blog and on social media so that we can motivate each other in this challenge.

I suggest you to study portuguese, as in any social media brazilians usually become a large crowd quickly and many simply don’t speak english even in the content shared by foreigners.

Could you buy me a coffee? http://www.ko-fi.com/nycka

Nycka, the Nomad