Real Conversation #1 - Learning Languages (Gabriel & Brian)
GABRIEL: Alright Brian, let's talk about your experience learning languages.
BRIAN: Sure, yeah.
GABRIEL: And... So your first language is German?
BRIAN: It's actually English.
GABRIEL: It's actually English? But you were born in Stuttgart in Germany?
BRIAN: Born in Germany yeah. My dad is... Both of my parents are German, but my dad is similar to me, he came over to Canada when he was a kid, and then he went back to Germany when he was an adult. He studied there, met my mom there and that's where I was born and grew up for the first part, but he wanted to make sure I knew English. So right from the get go, he only spoke English to me, and my mum could speak English somewhat well, so then she only spoke English with me as well, just so I could know that. And it was until 3 years old or so and then they put me in the kindergarten, like they start really early there, and then that's where I learned German. I still remember till this day like crying and not wanting to go, because I used to be there and I dont know what anyone is saying, I was just this little kid, my parents dropped me off and I'm just like an alien.
GABRIEL: And you had to basically figure out how to speak German on your own.
BRIAN: Exactly, and at first my mum thought it was such a good idea, he's always crying, he doesn't like it, and the teachers kind of just re-assured that we should give him time. And honestly she said it was about 3 months. I don't remember much about it, and she came to the school one day and I was already speaking German.
GABRIEL: Nice, that's pretty cool. And I think that, that will happen really pretty quickly with a child just because they are so immerse in their environment, and they are also being exposed to simple language, and so you weren't really been exposed to that if, basically harder concepts, so at first the rest is really impressive though, three months and a child basically picks up the German language, because personally I took four years to become fluent in German, and of course as an adult, and I was also kind of lazy learning the language. And I was still essentially figuring out how to learn a language at a time, and I was learning it simultaneously with French. German for Portuguese speaker is not that easy a language, and I think that for English speakers as well just because of the fact that, the articles change according to the case, and basically we are not very cautious of the different cases of the language in Portuguese and English, so it's so strict.
BRIAN: Absolutely it is.
GABRIEL: But that's pretty cool. So right now you were telling beforehand that your German is a little bit rusty, because you don't practice that often?
BRIAN: Exactly, I used to be fluent in it, but once we moved over here.
GABRIEL: And when was that, how old were you?
BRIAN: I was 10 years old, and at the time my parents were going through divorce, so they were probably like, we better keep speaking German with him, like once we came here they never changed anything, they kept speaking English. I lost it really quick, I lost the language within months, I can't remember, it wasn't till I became an adult that I started studying it at college, at university, and I went over to Germany for a year where I actually studied there and came back. I really need consistent practice, it slips so easily.
GABRIEL: I think it slips from our minds really when we are not really practicing it. I think there is something we can do together, we can speak German together, because I'm also getting a bit rusty, but I think that's something really interesting to note, but you know what I bet, I bet that it won't take that long or that much for everything to just simply come back to you.
