uTalk Challenger Katherine looks back on a year of language dabbling
Katherine, a self-professed “language dabbler”, is one of the uTalk Challengers who has completed 12 languages this year, including German, Spanish, Arabic and Russian. Now she’s looking back on the past 12 months and reflecting on why uTalk works for her.
I’ve always been a bit of a “dabbler” when it comes to languages, being fascinated by how to express oneself in different ways, and by the similarities within “families” of languages, finding patterns and seeing them almost like a code or a puzzle to solve. As a youngster I would have a go at whichever language the BBC was offering at the time, buying the accompanying vinyl records (yes, really!) to listen again – I remember Serbo-Croat being one I learned a few words of! Having now well and truly given my age away, I then diverted professionally towards a different kind of language, those used in computer programming; Cobol and so on. Later on came evening classes in beginners’ Spanish etc, geared towards holidays.
So really, the uTalk Go app could have been made for me! The allure of being able to learn a few words in over 100 languages really drew me to it, and for the first Challenge in January 2015 I chose Czech, completely new to me. I knew one couple in Czech Republic, and that was enough justification for me to learn some (and when I met them later in the year they said my pronunciation was fantastic!).
However, it was then that I realised I don’t need to travel far to be able to use foreign languages now, because I live in Reading and it seems all the world has come to Reading! Through my church I help with English language classes, at a café, and run a Toddler group, and in all of these many different nationalities are represented. Soon after I’d started learning Czech, a lonely young Czech woman came into our café; her English was very poor and she was amazed to find me able to greet her with a few Czech words and phrases.
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In 2016 I was determined to have a go at the full challenge, a different language each month. I chose them either for my use in holiday destinations or for talking to people I might potentially meet here from those countries. We do meet a lot of Chinese and Japanese people in Reading, but I’m afraid I drew the line there; Russian and Arabic were the two hardest I attempted. I do have to admit to quite a degree of confusion- when there are so many ways of saying “Welcome” whirring around somewhere in the brain, it is quite hard to delve down and retrieve the right one at the right time; bang in the middle of my Arabic month, a new lady came to Toddler group with her grandchild – she was from Brazil and spoke no English, but my Portuguese remained stubbornly buried and I couldn’t find a single word for her!
Three of the languages I’ve done this year for holidays were really not at all necessary – Maltese, Swiss German and Catalan, but even so I feel more in touch with the local culture when I have a few words tucked away, and I love reading signposts and shop fronts etc, searching for words I understand.
Another great thing is that you can dip into whichever topics you like. Next month I have a Bulgarian couple coming to stay for a few days, who I believe will speak good English, but as part of my hospitality I can learn the First Words, and as they are teachers I downloaded the School topic, just to learn a few of those words. Next year my son is getting married in San Sebastián and I look forward to packing a few words of Basque in, along with my outfit!
Now it’s your turn! The uTalk Challenge 2017 is open and you can find out more and sign up for free at utalk.com/challenge. This time next year, we could be sharing your story…
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