I began taking German classes in high school, and have continued into my sophomore year in college. I have been lucky enough to visit Germany, and I have learned so much from studying German for six years.
Of course, I learned a lot about the German language, culture, and country.
But the most important thing that I learned from studying this language was probably not what you would expect. Maybe you’re thinking, I learned to speak German. Or maybe I learned a lot about the specialty foods or the big cities in Germany. Yes, yes, and yes. But I learned a valuable lesson that I have carried with me for many years.
Through six years of German study, I have learned not to be afraid.
It’s true. I have learned more about not being afraid in my German classes than I have anywhere else. I am not saying that German is a language that teaches this. What I am saying is that learning a foreign language is a difficult task and it is something that teaches more than just vocabulary and grammar.
It has taught me the importance of not being afraid to make mistakes. I make them a part of my everyday life.
When we learn that it is okay to fail and fail again, we learn what it means to truly try. When you truly try to speak in a foreign language, you are guaranteed to make mistakes.
No matter how often I study, no matter how much time I put into it, I am going to make mistakes. Learning a foreign language is one of life’s greatest challenges because it is not only learning how to speak with a new group of people, but to actually communicate with them.
This includes reading, writing, and speaking. But within speaking comes slang, colloquial language, but also phrases and sayings that might literally mean one thing, but actually mean another.
For instance, In English, we say, “I had fun” or “it was fun”. In German, “Es macht Spass”. In English, this roughly means “to make fun” or “to do fun”.
So these are challenges when learning a new language. But I have learned to embrace them with open arms. Every time I begin to speak in my German class, I do not refrain from saying what I think is right. I do my best to complete as many sentences as I can. I’ve been enrolled in German courses for six years and sometimes I can’t make a sentence. Sometimes I forget grammar and I translate directly from English. Sometimes I forget what verb I need so I attempt with another one.
Getting these things incorrect time and time again has kept me coming back. I had fulfilled my language requirements(for my degree) last year, but I continued into Advanced German I and II. I continued because keeping a foreign language around forces my brain to use parts that are often kept quiet. It forces me to do something that has not been embedded in me.
I knew it would benefit me to keep going, and it certainly has.
If you have the opportunity to, take a foreign language.
You will earn one of life’s greatest gifts: not being afraid of making mistakes.
