夢を見た

You know, there’s a turning point when learning languages. At least, it’s what we language learners like to tell ourselves. We like turning points. It makes us feel important and that we’re making progress. So this particular turning point has to do with dreaming. The talking cats, flying through the sky, Freud’s wet dream kind of dreams.


I had a dream. (no groaning, please) And the exciting part is that there was Japanese in the dream! The import of this very detail can be understood by our language learner’s self-serving explanation.

When a foreign language pops up in your dream and you understand said language, then you are unconsciously thinking in that language. It doesn’t matter where your yourself are speaking it or your pruney dream-conjured Aunty Maurice is, just that the language popped up shows how irrevocably deep it has sunk in. We tell ourselves this is a good thing, and it is seemingly something to show for the hours and hours we have spent not having a life.

You could liken it to losing your virginity. Well, without all the taboo, strong feelings and general messiness involved (note: this might depend on the details of said dream). But, it’s a point at which you can’t turn back from, where you’re committed and where you also have a lot of unknown territory ahead of you. Exciting, sometimes painful and well worth it.

Now, like I said, we language learners wear this “accomplishment” like a badge of honor. But really it just shows that you have finally begun to learn and aren’t just dabbling anymore. When the badge becomes all faded and finally falls off, then and only then have you really stepped in the deep end and begun to doggy paddle.

So, I have a shiny not-even-close-to-faded badge of Japanese language honor now. And in the spirit of getting the colors to fade, today I watched 千と千尋の神隠し (that’s Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited away) without subtitles and actually wasn’t completely, utterly lost. I got maybe 40 percent of what went on dialogue-wise. Forty percent is pretty damn low if you’ve ever had the experience of only understanding a measly forty percent (students of physics may be able to relate).

To illustrate this point, immagine only getting two out of every five words said.

“Japanese __ __ language spoken ___ over 130 million ______ in Japan and in Japanese _______ _______. It is a _____ __ __ _____ (or Japanese-_______) _____ family. ____ __ __ _____ __ ______...”

Kinda sucks, doesn’t it? Credit of above goes to Wikipedia, by the way. Maybe you got the general drift, and could fully understand a few of the details, but it’s still a long cry from comfortably understanding (either loosely or otherwise). But, hey, it’s also a far cry from complete what-the-hell-just-happened-I-feel-like-I’ve-been-hit-with-a-hammer non-understanding!

Which, incidentally, is a feeling I get a lot in this whole language learning process. “Hi, welcome to The Shop Down the Road, would you like to try the special today?” My general response to something like that is “...” (with wide eyes and a puzzled expression). But, occasionally, just occasionally, I can cooly, smoothly pull off a “No thanks, may I see the menu?” as if Japanese were the most natural language in the world for me to be speaking.

The danger of such a move is encouraging the other person to speak more, thus forcing that cool smoothness to once again become a “huh.” Interestingly, though, it’s amazing how much of an impression of fluency you can give without saying really anything. This is especially easy if the conversation partner is talkative and doesn’t ask many questions. Just nod and agree often, “mm, mm, really?, mm, mm,” and you’re speaking fluently! Japanese has some peculiarities in this regard.

Undoubtably, you will be told “日本語、上手ですね。” if you do such, which is like saying “You’re Japanese is pretty good, isn’t it.” Though, admittedly, you’ll be told this for absolutely no reason a lot in Japan, even if you say just the number one (ichi) or something. But, though this may seem a bit awkward or forced by American standards, it seems to me a Japanese way of acknowledging “hey, you’re actually trying and thank you for the effort; I know it’s difficult.”

The next turning point (see, I told you we like them), is when you get absolutely no comment on your Japanese. It’s kind of like how no one says routinely in a conversation, “hey, you know you speak really good English” to a native speaker. This is a point where the badge from before has become faded to the point of not being legible, but has yet to fall off.

I can’t really comment on the point of no-badge-ness, as I still wear a Spanish badge. But my inclination is to say that no-badge-ness is where there is absolutely nothing special about the language, where understanding, speaking and writing happen without thought or preconception. Just as, unless you’re two or caprophagic, there’s nothing special about using the toilet. You just do, when it’s appropriate.

So, if you’ve made it this far through the wildly divergent ramblings, please comment on your own experiences learning a language, whether it be just Spanish 101 or complete über-mastery of Russian. What’s it like?

Sincerely,
Nonsense