On-Time Updates

Osmosis

Moderating my forum at Translators Cafe is turning out to be quite an adventure. There's a lot more going on behind the scenes at that site than I had ever really expected. I also get a ton of emails telling me when certain forums and threads have been updated. It's a bit overwhelming at first, but I think I'm getting the hang of managing it.

I was in Montreal over the weekend and noticed once again how I seem to have developed a minor, almost subconscious ability to read French. It's not much more than Survival French, but I find that I can pretty much understand most of what I see when I walk around town. This surprises me because I only "studied" French for two years in junior high school - ages ago.

It must come from having lived 3 miles from the Canadian border for most of my life. I've been to Canada many times. When I was younger it was so much more convenient to cross the border. Most of the time when we came back to the USA, the border agents wouldn't even stop us. They would just wave us through. In high school, one of my teachers worked for the Border Patrol during the Summer. Driving back through his station just meant a friendly conversation before continuing on our way.

I wonder if there's a level of language-learning that is below the surface, that you don't do consciously. I don't mean just the normal way you "pick things up" from a language when you're learning it - I mean more like an osmosis effect. If you live close enough to it, it just seeps into your skin.

Guess that would give credibility to those "Learn German While You Sleep!" cassette tapes you always see in stores...

Posted by steve at June 2, 2004 08:51 AM