Friday 11 March 2011

Die Frage des Tages– [or the question of the day]

Do you know a language if you can read books, follow conversations and make yourself understood in that specific language? Someone please enlighten the perfectionist and passionate language lover who thinks that the following quote fits perfectly to language learning…

…“When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.” (John Ruskin)

I’ve written about it before and I’ll write it again: to know a language has nothing to do with the ability to count to ten, or to talk about the weather. Geez, if it were that easy I’d be almost fluent in French.

But maybe you disagree?

3 comments:

Jessica said...

I agree with you. It's one thing to speak a language, another to know a language.

Riikka said...

I like Mr. Ruskin's thought. All I can say is that even though my English is far better than my French, I feel like I somewhat know French but only speak English. That's because for two years I've lived in French, in incomplete and clumsy French but still. English I've only learned from books and TV series.

Zsuzsi said...

Jessica, thanks for the comment :)

Riikka: maybe it's easier to feel connected to a language when you've lived in the country?