Thursday, October 27, 2011

Languages

I always say that my biggest dream is to travel the world, learn languages, cultures, meet people, etc. In fact, I've already started living my dream. I am from Argentina, and I'm currently living in America.

I've started learning English when I was 9 years old, and now I'm 16, and I can still say that I haven't completely learned the language. It's an experience that takes time. Learning a language is like getting to know a new person; you don't know them for sure until you go through different experiences with them. When I was living in Argentina, I used to go to a private English Institution, I used to practice in school, watch movies in English, read English books, and listen to American music. then I moved here, and I have to speak it everyday. And after all of that, I'm still learning.

Many people say they speak a language just because they learn it in school, or in another words, they are pushed to learn it. I believe that you do not speak a language until you speak it with native speakers, until you have to use it everyday, until you speak slang, until you know the culture of the language...

You just do not speak a language until you live within it. It is like saying you went to a city just because you saw pictures of it, or saw it in a movie. No; you don't know a city until you went to that city, walked in those streets, felt the culture, ate the food, etc etc etc. Same with a language. You don't know it til its running through your veins. 

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