{"id":19992,"date":"2019-04-12T10:55:47","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T10:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesojournseries.com\/bavaria\/?p=19992"},"modified":"2019-04-12T11:28:53","modified_gmt":"2019-04-12T11:28:53","slug":"why-you-should-continue-to-learn-a-language-when-you-move-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesojournseries.com\/bavaria\/why-you-should-continue-to-learn-a-language-when-you-move-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Why you should continue to learn a language when you move back home…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Good advice – especially when it comes to language learning!\u00a0 Image credit: Kyle Glenn<\/a>!)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When someone asks me my top moving abroad tips, my answers typically involve schooling, financial packages, and which language you would have to learn (if any).\u00a0 \u00a0You really should at least attempt<\/em> to learn the lingo wherever you end up.\u00a0 It’s not just a question of getting by, it’s about quality of life whilst you live somewhere, and your confidence too.<\/p>\n

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Image credit – Chuttersnap<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Granted that it’s not always easy, even more so in countries where the language can be sooo difficult to pronounce and where the people take one look at you in your attempt, smile sweetly and answer you in perfect (usually accent-less) English (yes Denmark I am looking at you)…<\/p>\n

Whilst this made it all quite effortless for me to “survive” in my first country abroad, our small people were exposed to a lot more Danish thanks to school, and can still remember a fair bit.\u00a0 Yes, a lot of it seems to involve their favourite Dansk foods, but I am happy at least they won’t starve if everyone suddenly refused to speak English there (even though their teeth might fall out of their heads eventually, it seems to be all sweet stuff!)!<\/p>\n

Fast forward to a couple of years later, when Mr R (the only person in our family who had succeeded in learning a decent amount of Danish!), suddenly announced he had a new job in a new country with yet another new language! Only this time, the population in the part of Germany we now lived in didn’t speak much English at all, or if they did, they weren’t about to let us know…<\/p>\n

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Image Credit Waldemar Brandt<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whilst my children quickly began to overtake me in their Deutsche lernen (they must learn several hours of German a week by law at school), there was nothing for it but for me to head to the local Volkkschule for a few classes.\u00a0 The upside to this (despite never having envisioned finding myself in this kind of classroom environment again), was that apart from expanding my grey matter, it helped expand my social circle too.\u00a0 \u00a0It also provided many a belly laugh at some of the role plays and odd translations that we came up with during the lessons.\u00a0 \u00a0One of my favourites involved us acting out “einkaufen” (shopping) scenarios.\u00a0 My friend Linda was the shop assistant, and I was on the lookout for a winter coat.\u00a0 I thought we did pretty well struggling through which colour I wanted (Schwarz), which style (warm – same word just said differently!) and whether I would be wearing it in the snow (it was Bavaria, stupid question!) – right up until I asked to buy a particular coat, and she shouted back in broad Liverpudlian “not without trying it on your not”.\u00a0 Still makes me laugh now…<\/p>\n

Anyway, a polyglot I’m most definitely not, but I was adamant that we would all continue to learn German once we moved back to the UK.\u00a0 It would be a huge waste of time to just suddenly give up learning a language we had once slaved over in order to experience a more integrated life in Bavaria.\u00a0 \u00a0 Plus it’s great for our return visits and is a kind of insurance policy in case we end up living there again one day. \u00a0 \u00a0It’s also great for the small people to have another language for whatever they choose to do in the future.\u00a0 To just forget it all would just be really sad (children can learn new languages quickly, but it’s just as easy for them to forget if they don’t continue!)…<\/p>\n

And so, whilst we have a lovely tutor who comes to the house to help my older two get their GCSE’s out of the way early, I still watch a lot of German TV (with subtitles – it’s one of the best ways to learn!).\u00a0 \u00a0We also use brilliant sites and apps such as LanguageTrainers<\/a> (really helpful thanks to the native tutor aspect), Duolingo<\/a> and Babbel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Image credit – Debby Hudson<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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It’s not just the fact that I think it would be a shame not to continue, learning a second language has been proven to be good for memory, for critical thinking, concentration and problem solving, and quite frankly I need all the help I can get in nearly all of those departments.<\/p>\n

And whilst they might not always be over the moon about the extra lessons I force upon them, having read in the news that German has now overtaken French<\/a> as the employers language of choice (apparently vacancies specifying German Language Skills have increased by a tenth in the past three years…), my children may well thank me one day…<\/p>\n

As for me, my shopping German is especially good, and if you need a new coat I’m definitely your girl…<\/p>\n

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