A Foreign Language Learning Journey

From Prussia, to Rome and Beijing, and back to Germany.

Teacher: “A what?”

Me, replying in frustrated annoyance: “A lep shun.”

Teacher: “…what?”

When I was in elementary school, my teacher had no idea my grandmother is German, and I grew up thinking what was commonly pronounced in our house as “lep shun” is what my grandmother, Omi, and my mom called (still call) a washcloth. The “real” word, fully, is Läppchen, from “Lappen,” meaning (contextually dependent) washcloth, and the diminutive ending “-chen,” meaning something small (again, contextually dependent). If you say “Läppchen” quickly and how one speaks to a child, you get “lep shun.”

Fast forward to learning German as an 8th grader so committed to learning the language, over the more commonly learned Spanish or French, that I agreed to earlier morning classes at the high school before having to be bussed back to my middle school for the rest of each day’s classes. Here’s what I remember from that one year: I live around the corner is “Ich wohne um die Ecke,” what time is it is “Wie viel Uhr ist es,” and being able to read a language does not mean you can speak it or understand it when heard, even at a slow conversational pace.

I know! I’ll learn a language I’ll never have to hear!

That wasn’t my plan, but that’s exactly what happened. I moved to a different county whose high school did not offer German… it offered Latin, however. 3 years of Latin between two counties’ high schools later, I could definitely… not read any real classic text in Latin. At best, the language gave me a leg up in the vocabulary section of the SATs.

That’s it… I’m joining the Marines so I don’t have to do any academic crap like learn languages!

The joke was on me, again. Apparently, if you take a test called the defense language aptitude battery (DLAB) and score well, recruiters want you to fill their quota for military linguists. I wanted to stop thinking and just play Army guy; the Marines sent me to the Defense Language Institute – Foreign Language Center. We were at war with some Middle Eastern countries then, so obviously they were going to teach me Arabic or Farsi or something. Nope! In retrospect, I should have been used to being thrown curveballs at this point.

“Write 3 languages you would want to learn.” That was pretty much the essence of the paperwork when I showed up to the language center.

Ok, what makes sense for me to learn? Russian. Solid choice. Arabic. Sure, I want to help the war effort. Aaand… the attractive girl next to me put down Chinese-Mandarin… so Chinese-Mandarin as my third choice. I’ll almost certainly get Russian, given my complexion. The magic, choosing hand of the Marine Corps says, “you will learn Chinese.”

2.5 years later, averaging about 7 hours every workday, I was a bona fide cryptologic linguist certified for Chinese-Mandarin translation and transcription.

To recap, we started in Germany, traveled through Rome, and landed in Beijing. At least I got to use my linguist skills for a few years thereafter, and I got to do it all on Oahu, Hawaii. Yes, I was spoiled.

I got out of the Marines dead set on never even eating at a Chinese restaurant again. In college, one requirement was a couple of language courses. Sigh… Okay, I’ll just breeze through some Chinese credits. This I did, but I only put in enough effort to get a C+. You can probably relate to my reluctance: imagine having to sit through driver's ed. again (assuming you’re 5 or 10 years past your days of parallel parking test anxiety).

When I re-enlisted, after being out of the Marines for a couple of years, I assumed they’d want my linguist skills still. They did not, which was weird because why would they not want to keep cashing in on a trained asset (but whatever, I guess). Instead, I got to go through other cool training that led to my current career. While doing stuff for that skill and job, which was geospatial things (think “maps and stuff”), I discovered I really, really enjoy studying foreign languages.

Before I was out of the Marines for the second time, I secured a job translating written Chinese that landed me in San Antonio, Texas. That lasted for a solid 2 months, and I’ve been back to doing map things ever since. BUT… that freed me to learn the language I really wanted to learn all along, and am still learning today – German. Making my Omi happy to hear her grandson speak her mother tongue isn’t the main reason for this pursuit, but it makes me happy that it makes her happy.

Duolingo and Pimsleur courses are my main learning platforms for German. Admittedly, I’m not going through Pimsleur per se, rather through Audible to listen to Pimsleur units. I’m about to start the last set of units in the Pimsleur course, and I need to find a way to stay up on my listening and speaking thereafter because Duolingo is not that great for those. Maybe I should run through the Pimsleur course again at something like 1.5x sped up. If you have any recommendations, besides moving to Germany (which I would love), let me know!