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Opinion Does learning a second language lead to a new identity?

Speakers can feel liberated by the ‘voice’ they discover in a new language.

EVERY DAY I get asked why second language learning is so hard and what can be done to make it easier. One day a student came up to me after class and asked me how his mother could learn to speak English better – she did not seem to be able to break through and start speaking. Perhaps you or someone you know has found learning another language difficult.

So why is it so hard?

There are a lot of explanations. Some have to do with biology and the closing of a sensitive period for language. Others have to do with how hard grammar is. People still take English classes in US high schools up to senior year. If a language were easy, then native speakers of a language would not have to continue studying it to the dawn of adulthood.

But what if we took a different approach. Rather than ask what makes learning a second language so hard, let’s ask what makes it easier.

One group of successful language learners includes those who write in a second language. For example, Joseph Conrad, born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, wrote Heart of Darkness in English, a language he spoke with a very strong accent. He was of Polish origin and considered himself to be of Polish origin his entire life. Despite his heavy accent, he is regarded by many as one of the greatest English writers. Interestingly, English was his third language. Before moving to England, he lived in France and was known to have a very good accent in his second language. Hence, success came to Conrad in a language he spoke less than perfectly.

Liberated by the ‘voice’ they discover

The use of English as a literary language has gained popularity in recent years. William Grimes, in a New York Times piece, describes a new breed of writers that are embracing a second language in literary spirit. Grimes describes the prototypical story that captures the essence of language learning, The Other Language from Francesca Marciano; it’s the story of a teenager who falls in love with the English language tugged by her fascination with an English-speaking boy. Interestingly, it turns out there is a whole host of writers who do so in their second language.

Grimes also considers the effects that writing in a second language has on the authors themselves. Some writers find that as time passes in the host country they begin to take on a new persona, a new identity. Their native land grows more and more distant in time and they begin to feel less like the person they were when they initially immigrated. Marciano feels that English allows her to explore parts of her that she did not know existed. Others feel liberated by the voice they discover in another language.

The literary phenomenon that writers describe is one that has been discussed at length by Robert Schrauf of Penn State University as a form of state-dependent learning. In one classic study of state-dependent learning, a group of participants was asked to learn a set of words below or above water and then tested either above or below water.

Memory and language 

Interestingly, memory was better when the location of the learning matched the testing, even when that was underwater, a particularly uncomfortable situation relative to above water. Similar explanations can be used to describe how emotional states can lead to retrieval of memories that are seemingly unrelated. For example, anger at a driver who cuts you off might lead to memories of the last time you had a fight with a loved one.

Schrauf reviews evidence that is consistent with this hypothesis. For example, choosing the same word in a first or second language will lead people to remember events at different times in their lives. Words in the first language lead to remembering things earlier in life whereas viewing a translation in a second language leads to memories that occurred later in life.

The reports of writers and the research done by Robert Schrauf and his colleagues help point to a key aspect that might help people learn their second language. Every time someone learns a new language they begin to associate this language with a set of new experiences that are partially disconnected from those earlier in life. For many this experience is very disconcerting. They may no longer feel like themselves. Where they were once fluent and all knowing, now they are like novices who are trying desperately to find their bearings. For others like Yoko Tawada, a Japanese native who now lives in Berlin and writes in German, it is the very act of being disconnected that leads to creativity.

Creating emotional distance

Interestingly, the use of two languages has also served as a vehicle for psychotherapists. Patients that undergo traumatic experiences often report the ability to discuss them in a second language. Avoidance of the native language helps to create a distance from the emotional content experienced in the first language.

The case of those who write in their second language as well as those in therapy suggests that our identity may play a key role in the ability to learn a second language. As we get older new experiences begin to incorporate themselves into our conscious memory. Learning a second language as an adult may serve to make the differences between distinct periods in our lives much more salient.

Thus, the report of writers and the science of autobiographical memory may hold the key to successful language learning. It may involve a form of personal transformation. For those that are unsuccessful it may involve an inability to let go of their old selves. However, for those who embrace their new identity it can be liberating.

It was precisely this point that I raised with the student in my class who sought advice for his mother. I explained that learning a second language will often involve letting go of our identities in order to embrace something new. But how do you get someone to let go of himself or herself? One way to achieve this is to start keeping a diary in an unfamiliar language. It is probable that writing may not only lead a person to develop better language skills but also carry other deeper consequences… writing in a non-native language may lead someone to develop a new identity.

Arturo Hernandez is currently Professor of Psychology and Director of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience graduate program at the University of Houston. He is the author of The Bilingual Brain. His major research interest is in the neural underpinnings of bilingual language processing and second language acquisition in children and adults. You can follow him on Twitter @DrAEHernandez. Read his previous blog posts.

Read: This college appeal for language experts is littered with language errors

Read: 13 of the English language’s most delightful collective nouns

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21 Comments
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    Mute SeekingUniverslTruth
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 8:41 AM

    ” People still take English classes in US high schools up to senior year”

    eh. don;t we do that here?

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    Mute Owen Slattery
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 9:33 AM

    Albeit with an emphasis on shite poetry

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    Mute Stephen Downey
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 10:50 AM

    Not really, by Leaving Cert you are not learning to speak and write English, you are studying the English language.
    In the US with huge diversity of cultures, English remains a barrier to some. In fact if I’m not mistaken, there are more people in the US who identify Spanish as their first language than any other language.

    Interesting article, might give some insight to those who think Irish is dead and why so many still support it.

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    Mute Paul FitzGerald
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 9:08 AM

    You never really “get” a language until you live in a country that speaks it. The grammatical nuances, the regional accents, but above all the slang.

    After 10 years learning classroom French, the first conversation I had in France started with “avez-vous du fue?” ….do I have fire? Am I on fire? I was utterly unable to figure out what was going on. (I was being asked for a light for a cigarette!)

    I think we place too much emphasis on the classroom environment, rather than just doing conversational stuff. I was fortunate enough to go to Italy for six months years ago and all I got was a few lessons before hand and was thrown into a working Italian environment. I learnt pretty quickly as I had to. My limited Italian mightn’t be grammatically perfect, but on a practical level it’s pretty good at a spoken level.

    I’m currently trying to learn Portuguese, but the area I go to in the Algarve has the Portuguese equivalent of a Kerry accent. You won’t find it in a book, you have to learn it the hard way with the locals pissing themselves laughing at your pronunciation.

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    Mute Conor Gallagher
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 8:58 AM

    Language as a part of one’s identity, that makes sense…Perhaps it properly explains why a minority of Irish people boast about knowing no Irish after 14 years of it being “rammed down their throats” but then correct a polish person who mispronounces a word when they learn a few phrases as gaeilge (many non Anglophones are multilingualists and enjoy learning a language for the sake of learning, even if it is outside the top 200 languages in the world.).

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    Mute john stewart
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 9:21 AM

    Tir gan teanga, Tir gan anam

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    Mute Chris Kubik
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 9:34 AM

    I’m native German but was always very good at English. I’ve been living in Ireland for 8 years now, married to an Irish woman. My second language has now become my first and I tend to struggle with my German these days.

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    Mute Niall O Dochartaigh
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 9:44 AM

    I can speak,Irish, English and Swedish,does this make me a Cunning Lingquist or is that just a slip of the tongue ?

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    Mute Lily Signoret
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 11:05 AM

    I’m French but speak English fluently, and have spent the last 10 years in different English-speaking countries (I’m 30). I always found English easy to learn and improve, easier to play around with than French. Speaking English has definitely helped built the person I am today. It just suits me as a language and I love writing in English. I’m ashamed to say I sometimes struggle finding my words in French… But French is such a beautiful language, the imagery can be breathtaking, and I still get moved listening to songs or readings books in my native language.

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    Mute Ciaran De Bhal
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 9:10 AM

    Many people would be better off learning their first language correctly before attempting a second.

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    Mute John O Sullivan
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 12:30 PM

    Maybe learn a 2nd language first, and then revisit your opinion.

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    Mute Ciaran De Bhal
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 1:15 PM

    Have done. Four languages in total. French, Spanish, Irish as well as English.

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    Mute Mark Sweetman
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 8:53 AM

    Ja naturlich!

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    Mute Catherine Sims
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 10:18 AM

    I have always thought I would be terrible at languages. Learning French at school was a nightmare. The teacher was either drunk or severely hung over. It wasn’t uncommon to get hit by the books she threw at the students when she wanted their attention. It’s soured me for sure. Then in her late thirties my sister decided to do a degree in German . She had no previous experience of the language and had the same teachers as I had in secondary school. I thought she was crazy but not only did she complete it she did fantastically well. I am actually thinking of trying to learn a language again now as a result. Maybe not French but Spanish or German.

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    Mute SeekingUniverslTruth
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 11:44 AM

    Sounds like the makings of a tribunal

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    Mute Michael Fagan
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 11:54 AM

    Learning a second language is easy, when your living in a country where the second language is all around you TV, radio, newspapers,public signposts, etc,
    just travel around Europe, almost everyone speaks English to visitors, and their own language among themselves,
    Businessmen say they get a great advantage in international negotiating, with side remarks in their own language
    Such a pity that the people of Ireland (in general) don’t know how to speak their own language

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    Mute Nibbler Dibbler
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 4:11 PM

    Met an elderly gentleman in Denmark suffering from dementia. In his native tongue he could not remember anything not even if I had said yes when he offered me tea or coffee. However, remembering that he could speak excellent English when I had first met him ten years earlier, I switched the conversation into English. Amazing to discover that the dementia was gone and he was completely normal when using his second language!

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    Mute John Stafford
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    Aug 3rd 2014, 3:42 PM

    Learning a language is all about repetition and trying not be lethargic. Simple

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    Mute Amy Wallis
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    Aug 6th 2014, 10:40 AM

    I don’t agree with learning a language changes you as a person, your identity. If you’re learning in the country of the language (ie a foreign country) then you most likely – hopefully! – will grow and change, but not because of the language itself, but because of the experiences you have, something which has been happening to is all our lives to make us who we are today. Those experiences of living in a different country (or even simply the experiences had in a language class in your own country) send you down a different path than not doing so would, because it’s something new and strange, and you do new and differen things, meet new and different people. I would be a completely different person today, and would think of myself in a different way had I never moved to Italy, and stayed in Ireland.

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    Mute Fatima Anwar
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    Oct 5th 2014, 2:48 PM

    English language learning classes or learn English as a second language is now easier for ESL students with the help of online integrated English course

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    Mute Konrad Bobrzecki
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    Dec 14th 2014, 10:42 AM

    Not that long time ago I’ve tried http://www.bellsenglishonline.com/ ,since I’m not a beginner I started with Intermidiate package of their process,just to see if it will give me anything.Whole course is very intuitive and enjoyable.I think Bellsenglishonline is a worthwhile addition to anything else you might be using for your English learning.

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