At the tender age of 9, my son has put together a fairly aggressive plan for expanding his knowledge of languages.
It all started during third grade, when he learned about his ancestry and found his family had links to Germany and Sweden, as well as a Native American influence from his great, great grandmother, who was Cherokee.
As a result, last week he decided to begin learning each language as a tribute to his roots.
First, he asked me for help.
“Dad, do you know any German?” he asked one night during supper, apparently after deciding I was closer related to his ancestors, due to being a generation ahead of him and my age.
I recalled the many times I attended Oktoberfest while in college, but couldn’t think of any German words, other than “beer.”
That one didn’t seem appropriate to share with a 9-year-old so I replied, “nope.”
Not distracted from his mission, he asked his mom the same question.
“No,” she said.
Nevertheless, the dinner conversation helped him identify and pursue alternate means for studying languages — the Internet.
There are actually several sites dedicated to those people who want to learn languages.
Looking through some of them, I was reminded how I couldn’t rely on the Internet when I attended school because it hadn’t been invented.
Luckily, foreign languages also were electives, so I concentrated on English throughout my high school and college careers.
While the United States is becoming more diverse, I still cling to my ability to diagram sentences in English — although I am self-taught in the pronunciation of words and phrases for certain menu items in various languages.
One morning a few days later, my son and his mother made an effort to begin his quest for becoming capable of speaking multiple languages.
After the first lesson, he called me at the office to share his new ability.
“Dad, I learned a bunch of words in German,” he said with the same excitement one might garner after winning the lottery.
Slowly, he repeated several sentences as I listened intently, although I was not sure if he was actually speaking German, or had simply ingested a large piece of beef jerky and was chewing while speaking in English.
When he finished, I congratulated him on his effort. By then, he was already distracted as the online tutorial pitched the next word or phrase.
