RE: Learn a new language?

[Rose -dot- Wilcox -at- pinnaclewest -dot- com]

I traveled once to France for a contract.  My coworker taught me several phrases of French, concentrating on perfecting my accent. If I had to do it over again, I would concentrate more on learning more phrases and words, but with less time spent on the accent.  Although the French seem to value having their language well-spoken, I was at a loss in any conversation because my well-accented phrases would evoke a deluge of French, whereas halting efforts might've helped me garner more gestures, pictures, and other attempts that I might've understood as answers.  Plus I might've had a bigger vocabulary to pick some meaning out of the French answers.

However, I will also agree that learning culture and politeness rules may be as important as learning the language.  I learned that making comments about salaries was considered rude for instance.  I winced inwardly when one of my American coworkers joked with a developer about his salary, noticing the pained look on the developer's face.  Even when speaking to English-speakers in that country, having some knowledge of the differing manners helped.

I have also learned a smattering of Spanish but I didn't travel to Mexico for business, just pleasure.  However, I will add that I have read that learning languages (and learning to play musical instruments) correlates well for people keeping more mentally alert and active while aging, which I hope to do... I mean I would rather continue to age than to pop off the planet.  I also intend to write for the rest of my life if at all possible, so that's my tech writing tie-in for that comment.



Rose A. Wilcox
CHQ, 17th Floor
Tranz1 QA/Documentation
602-250-2435
Rose -dot- Wilcox -at- PinnacleWest -dot- com

Maggie Secara: "It's really sad when someone can't even get a cliche right." 
Arthur Hlavaty: "They say that when you get older, you lose your allusions."
- From the Copyedit-L




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