I had an epiphany today. I realized that I need to learn another language. I have taken 8 semesters of French and I do not know a lick of it. I also meddled with a little Italian, but only one semester of college worth. I feel like I, personally need to master a language and attain fluency. People all have certain necessities they must achieve to feel content in their intellectual standing. Right now I am lacking in the foreign language department. Having said this I enrolled in first semester French for next semester. Honestly, I don’t care how excruciating the class is I want to learn French. Some people have the drive to learn an instrument and some people like to be technologically aware, but everyone has something that they would like to improve upon. I play a lot of instruments and it would be nice to be better at each one, but for some reason that does not matter to me as much as learning a language. I play sports all the time, but again, I don’t want to put in the time, and devote years to getting slightly better. I play sports and music for my own enjoyment, so I am content with my ability levels. French is a whole different thing. I want to tie this into my non-textual reading, so food for thought: Do all people have one thing that they strive to master at all times? There are always things to improve upon, but do people all have a need to focus their energy on a specific topic? These secret desires could affect the way people act and think. I feel like the desire for personal improvement is a strong factor in guiding personalities and thought patterns.
Roger, this sounds like it would be very fun! I have always been intersested in learning French. The only foreign language I ever had was Spanish. So good luck! Let me know how it goes.
ReplyDeletei feel like everyone has at least one major goal. but i can't say everyone has one thing that they focus most of their energies on.. perhaps, but i am leaning towards no. i only say this because i've never been one of those people who is really good at one specific thing. people don't know me for artistic, musical, academic abilities - they know me probably most often just because my name is weird. that's how i stand out. but i really would love to have one concentrated thing that i can be proud to say i am very good at. something to come back to and be comfortable in.
ReplyDeletebut i guess you're not ever comfortable unless you let yourself.
PS good luck with the French! becoming fluent in a language is tres difficult if you're not conversing regularly with natives. i suggest a semester in france or southern belgium! :) i think french would be an awesome language to know though! or you could live in a french speaking african area, that'd be sweet. i think mozambique is french speaking..
I applaud your desire for wanting to master something and obtain personal growth in that area. Unfortunately not everyone is driven by the need to "grow". There are many reasons for that, I think the main one is that people are inherently afraid of change. That's why we stay in jobs we don't like, relationships that no longer fulfill us, and go to the same cosmetologist that no matter how many times we tell them to only "trim" our hair they take off an inch. It's good to sometimes step outside our comfort zone and strive to be better in some way. Good luck on your journey.
ReplyDeleteI think it is great that you want to become fluent in another language. However, I do not really think that all people have a desire to master something new all the time. I took two years of Spanish in high school. I remember a little bit of it, but not enough to have a conversation with someone in Spanish. I agree with Deb's comment. I think people are afraid of change and new things.
ReplyDeletedeb your comments are so great. just wanted to put that out there.
ReplyDeleteI took two years of German in high school and could not tell you how to say a single word of it. It was honestly the worst classes of my life. I think it would be cool to be able to speak another language though and be good at it. Especially french, ive always thought French sounded cool.
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