Welcome to the fourteenth post of the Great Writing Challenge of 2012.
Five days a week for six months, I will be given a topic to write about. The stipulation: it must be 250 words (or more), and positive in tone.
Thanks to Rai for today’s topic. If you would like to suggest topics for me to write about, please email me at TheRebeccaProject [at] gmail [dot] com.

Post #14: Learning a Second Language

Taking language classes is difficult. I have had about a month off since my last class ended and already, I feel as though I’m starting right back at the beginning. Ah, shade. I find that I’m just not able to retain the words as easily as I used to. Perhaps this is what they mean about getting old…

But with the difficulty comes reward. It’s rewarding to learn new things, meet new people and string it all together. Eventually, I want to be able to converse in German. Why? Just cos. Learning another language and being bilingual is something that I have always wanted for myself.

I enjoy the structure, the sounds I am able to make. I get a real kick out of seeing German word constructions and in seeing what they call things, like die Fledermaus (the literal translation is a flying mouse → a bat). That’s just cool.

One of my favourite things when I meet people who speak other languages is to find out what their animals say: phonetically, English dogs say “woof!”, but German dogs say “Vof!” (and dear friends of mine who actually know how to speak German – please correct me if I am wrong!). It’s the small things like that I find interesting, and I think by being inquisitive, you gain so much. Plus, you look at things with a fresh (and different) perspective.

Do you speak a second language?
Do you have any tips you use to retain the information?