Speak to me!

Motivating oneself
SPEAK TO ME! Nina MK, Ph.D. Having read my colleagues’ posts on Motivation, I more or less carried the topic with me when we went to Germany for the New Year. Like Rachel, I’m teaching myself German. I had had it as my third foreign language at Moscow University many years ago. I confess at the time, we students were not greatly motivated for several reasons. First of all, our teacher announced during the very first meeting that we were all Dummkopfe, or dumbheads, which naturally led to our intensely disliking her. Secondly, she proceeded to “teach” us by giving us 50 words a week to learn by heart, a few grammar rules to do same, and then she would dictate those same words to us and make us write down a grammar rule du jour to demonstrate that we had indeed learned everything by heart. NOT a very productive way of teaching, and definitely NOT very motivating. Exam time came. We were to translate a short text which was called “Engels Gesicht”, “The Face of an Angel”. Well, we lived at a certain time in a certain state, and we had this unique teacher. So we all translated it as “The Face of (Friedrich) Engels”, who as we all knew was a well-known German philosopher and the close friend of Karl Marx. The examination board collapsed with laughter. We got our “Passed” marks; the teacher was sent away. No, I would not have any idea of the German language today were it not for my father. He gave me a mystery novel in German and a dictionary and told me to read it in summer, which I did. That is how I compiled a few Golden Rules for Reading: page 1 in any new language is a nightmare; by page 10 you may notice that a sentence here and there suddenly makes sense; by page 50, you discover that you are actually reading! Through the years, I would return to German, that is read a novel with a dictionary diligently checking the meaning of every unfamiliar or forgotten word, and also brush up my grammar, or pretend to do it. In German, even the articles are conjugated, not to mention that one has to correctly use the male, female, neutral and plural forms, which is totally unfair. Thus whenever I have to speak the language, it takes me a few seconds to formulate a sentence in my head prior to producing it aloud. So I went into a bakery in Hamburg, looked at the huge selection of mouth-watering baked goods, read their names, and carefully began to construct my request. “Zwei weisse Brotchen, funf Quarkballchen, drei Apfeltasche bitte…” I was almost done, in my mind, when a sudden interruption came. A plump shop clerk who was patiently waiting behind the counter exclaimed loudly, “Deutsch? English?” It was not the usual polite way of addressing a customer, so I was a bit thrown, but then rallied enough to reply, “Er… English”. “Well, speak to me!” she said forcefully. “I’m ready to help you!” I blurted out, “Your English is very good, where did you study it?” “At school”, she said, mollified. I told her I was studying German, and then produced my halting request in the language. While picking out my selection and wrapping it up, she told me she wanted to communicate with visitors to her lovely city of Hamburg, and eventually to open up her own bakery. I think it is as good a motivation for studying a foreign language as any. Communication is key. In any country, English is the main communication tool regardless of the speakers’ nationality. Not everybody is ready and willing to speak it, yet there is always somebody around trying to help a lost tourist. Learning at least a few phrases and common words before you visit any country is always helpful. The locals react well to your attempts at speaking their language, and come up with their half-forgotten school English in return. It is also very important to learn at least some of the customs and traditions of the country you are visiting, and to acquaint oneself with its laws and cultural mores. With the huge migration we are watching today, it is necessary to be vigilant, and to pay attention to what is happening around you, especially in places where large crowds gather for whatever reason. Thus we went outside on the New Year’s Eve, looked around – and went back inside the hotel. Now that I am back home and it is -34C outside, I look at the numerous photos of all the lovely places we have seen, and think of all the encounters with people from around the globe. Though my fluent English is enough for communication purposes, I am ready to begin reading yet another book in German, and to talk to my interactive DVD. My motivation is simple: I want to communicate with people. If I can motivate myself, I can better motivate my colleagues and my students.
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