48 Opinion
Language Learning and Associated Bias
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
November 2020
THOUGHTS & OPINION
Written by Harsh Kumar Mishra
B
eing a linguist (that is what I obsessively call myself), I often get questions from people that are quite funny. One being, how long do you think it will take for me to learn this language (mostly in reference to Korean). Now, you might be thinking, what is funny about this question? Language is something you keep acquiring until your last breath because it is everchanging. You do not actually learn a language completely. You just reach a level where you start acquiring it naturally; and to reach that level, a different amount of effort and time is required for each person. The answer to this question is impossible if you actually consider the nature of language. We always make mistakes when thinking of the learning process for a mother tongue and a foreign language as being the same. Learning a foreign language is very different from acquiring your first language. For a foreign language, you “learn” first and then “acquire” later, and for the other, you acquire from birth. Another big difference is that with foreign languages, you also need to learn the culture(s) associated with the language, which is mostly omitted while acquiring your first language because you are raised in that culture.
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A language is not just a set of words, grammar, and texts; it is the representation of the culture in which it is spoken. Every expression of a language is filled with cultural context. To learn a language, one will also need to get familiar with the relevant history and cultural background. This is because, if you learn a foreign language without knowing the culture, you will end up replying “아니요, 안 먹었어요” (No, I haven’t) or “아니요, 빵 먹었어요” (No, I had bread) to a Korean person asking “밥 먹었어요?” (Have you eaten?), because you’re not aware that “밥 먹었어요?” is actually a greeting, and 밥 simply means “a meal” in this context rather than its more basic meaning of “rice.” Culture becomes more important when you are learning a language that is very alien to your language or culture. The reason is obvious: Knowing the culture will ease your language learning and you will not get frustrated about why 밥 has different meanings (rice, a meal) and functions (greeting). This leads to another important aspect of language learning: bias. I will mention again some of the questions I get as a linguist, but more meaningful ones. Some examples are what is most important while learning a foreign language and how
10/28/2020 10:50:13 AM
