Tuesday, April 19, 2022

24 languages! / Cloud language / Speaking without words

24 languages!

Today a friend emailed me an article about a dear man who speaks 24 languages fluently and can converse in many more.  This man and his story delight me.  I am still working on learning Spanish as a second language on Duolingo.  I feel that I know some of the happiness that Vaughn Smith experiences each time he learns a new language.

Attempting to learn Spanish has brought me unexpected joy every day since I began the free Duolingo lessons in the fall of 2019.  This year I decided use some of my limited income to pay for more thorough lessons on Duolingo.  In addition to that, I listen to books on tape in Spanish whenever I am in my car.  Although I had two years of Spanish in high school, I never learned as much as I have learned on Duolingo.  It was only since 2019 that I learned to roll my R's! 

I love the sound of language whether I understand it or not.  I love the numerous ways that English is spoken in the United States and throughout the world.  I love all the ways people speak English as a second language.  I love seeing people speak in sign language.  Music is a language understood all over the world.  And everything has its language.  Birds.  The sky,  Trees.  You name it and it speaks with or without sound.   

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5 comments:

ellen abbott said...

Beautiful clouds. I like listening to music in Spanish.

ellen abbott said...

Oh, I have, or had, one of those little blue glass birds in the corner of the picture of your mandala in progress. I don't know where it is or what happened to it but it arrived in the mail unbidden as some sort of promo as I recall but the details are gone.

Sabine said...

I love your clouds! And I admire your persistence in learning Spanish.
Although I can speak two languages, German and English, fluently and manage to get around in Dutch and Flemish, I still consider myself not talented in language learning. English was an emotional necessity after I met R who had not a word of German and reading English novels and newspapers helped, still does.

We have a friend, linguist and researcher in endangered languages, who travels to places like Papua New Guinea, lives in the jungle for a couple of months and comes back with a rudimentary dictionary of a previously unknown complex language. He then returns regularly, often with his students, to add to the dictionary. I have no idea how many of these endangered languages he can speak, our European indo-germanic languages are just playful exercises for him.

My grandchild is growing up with three languages, English, German and Maori, and in pre-school, is now adding sign language to their skill set as there are two children in their group who are deaf.

NewRobin13 said...

I would love to understand and speak many languages. It would be such an interesting way to truly understand the world of humans.
Your skies there are so beautiful. Love the photos of the clouds.

37paddington said...

One person speaking 24 languages makes me believe in past lives, and this gifted soul has unusual access to his memories from other incarnations. Fascinating!