LEARNING A SECOND LANGUAGE: My Story To Becoming Bilingual

👉下边有点儿学语音的忠告👇

I didn't always speak another language

4 years ago I only spoke English. I couldnt even comprehend the concept of me speaking a second language nor did I have any faith that it was even possible. I mean I couldn't learn spanish after 3 years of taking high school language classes. All I could remember was "yo no hablo espanol".

How a second language entered my life:

(Left, Twin Brother Josh; Middle, High School Girlfriend Tori; Right, That would be me)

Well as a 19 year old, heading off to university, I knew very well what I wanted, that being money, and the business school seemed to be the most sure route. Well my shallow dreams were brought into check when my first semester I failed two of the pre-req. courses required to get into any of the business programs. My life was over... I had no interest in science courses or engineering; I didn't want to take hummanities or the arts, because how is someone supposed to make money with that kind of a degree (I was ignorant at the time)... So I did the only reasonable thing a conservative American teenage boy would do in this situation, and that was to join the military.

What I thought I was getting into

What I was really doing

Well funny enough apparently when you take ROTC(Reserve Officer Training Corps) you need to have an assigned degree. This was a surprise to me, I only wanted to join the Air Force to jump out of planes and most of all avoid the dreadful process of choosing a degree. Well luckily they made it easy on me and said if you wanna join the Air Force there is only a handful of degrees you can pick from, there is engineering, sciences and languages(but only the hard ones). Well that was it I was David facing Galaith, but I thought one of these has gotta be it. Well I quickly wrote off everything but languages, because they didnt require me taking math classes. All they had was Russian, Arabic, Chinese, you know all the really tough ones. Well I decided on Russian because it seemed the easiest and Russia is famous for beautiful women... I was confident, and I thought "you know what, I can do anything I put my mind to". So I began learning the alphabet online. But a few days later I was speaking with my Brother and I told him my plan. He wisely pointed out "brother you know if you learn Russian you'll probably be sent to Russia, and its freezing there, you would be miserable". Hmm.. He had sound advice and now I wasnt so sure of my decision.

I`ll pass

He suggested I find a language from somewhere tropical. He had just gone to Thailand and loved it there. So the closest language I could find was Chinese. But to me this seemed impossible to learn so I really needed to think about it first. Well from that point forward it seemed as if everything was pointing in that direction. I ran into info about China everywhere I looked and went I even began making a lot of Chinese friends. the longer time went on the more sure I was that this must be it.

Off To Serve

At this point in my life I had decided that leaving school for 2 years and volunteering for my church would be a good idea (I was one of those Mormon Missionaries you might have seen or heard of). I didnt get to pick where I would go I just saved $9,000.00 and sent an application in the mail and then a few weeks later I would get a letter back stating my assigned Ares of labour.

(left, Twin Brother Josh; Right, This cat here)

The Prayer

Looking for verification that Chinese really was something I could do, I decided to pray and seek an answer. I didnt know what I woud say but I just went for it. Kneeling on my bed I said "Dear Father if learning chinese is what you would like me to do with my life then send me to Hong Kong on my mission. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."
Immidiately I was filled with two feelings one of complete certainty that I was going to be called to Hong Kong and the other of surprise in what I had just said, "how could I challenge the lord like that I thought". Well I learned two amazing things that day. Yes I was going to learn chinese and be sent to Hong Kong and the other is "ask and ye shall recieve".
So now I was filled with the confidence I was lacking and I straight away went and bought some CD's to start learning chinese. 3 weeks later I received my letter in the mail and sure enough I was being sent to Hong Kong speaking Cantonese. Wait a second.. Cantonese?!?! Whats cantonese? I was supposed to be learning chinese. Haha well my ignorance was slowly replaced with understanding.
From these different experiences I learned that having a clearer vision is a blessing and a curse. Its an amazing thing but it also means that I am going to have to now put in a lot of effort in bringing it to pass.

Some Mission pics

Cantonese destroyed me and it was very difficult for me and very discouraging at times. I remember so many times thinking "this is a dumb language, most of these people speak english" or "why dont I learn mandarin its more useful..." bla blah bla blah... In that mindset I improved very little despite a lot of hard and tiring work. But one day I was talking to one man I had met a few times. He was dealing with some tough stuff and he had no one else to turn to but me. I remember him spilling his heart out to me while sobbing, I felt so helpless not being able to understand what he was saying. I tried my best to comfort him, he was extremely patient with my language and grateful for me being there for him.
This experience taught me why I was learning this language. I was learning it to be able to communicate with other people, people that I now had come to love. I first saw it as some skill or title I could claim but that was getting me nowhere. From then I saw it as amazing joy and opportunity to learn from people and better connect with them no matter my level of ability. it was no longer hard work but it became play and the people who spoke it were my playmates.

Much better than high school classes

The REAL TRUTH about learning a language

Learning a language does one thing for you and that is to help you communicate with the people who speak in a whole new way. It unlocks for you their mindset and culture, their habits and traditions. If you love a people you can learn their language if you dont you never will despite all the egotistic reasoning you can think of. Learning languages is one thing all humans are capable of for we all speak at least one language perfectly, therefore we know the ability is there. If you are struggling to learn a language change your relationship with it and let the fun begin.

对我来说学习语言有一最大的效益，那就是帮助你与其他的人一起无遗交流。它为你开通思想和文化，他们的习惯和传统。如果你爱某个人，你就能学习他的语言，如果你不爱他你永远不会学习，尽管所有的自想到的概念。因为学语言是人性本能，每个人都学了一种语言，他们的母语，所以大家都能学更多语言。如果你正在努力学习一种语言，把你与它的关系改变有爱的重点，让乐趣开始。

I went on to learn Cantonese quite fleuntly and now im learning Mandarin at an even faster pace as well as Indonesian and Balinese. Its very possible and oh soo worth the effort.

Jared Cordon.