Tuesday, June 9, 2009

27 Things: Mango

27 Things wants us to learn another language using Mango.

Therein we find a story.

I was born in Brazil. So was my older brother. When we were young we had a Nanny who spoke Portuguese. My parents spoke English. My brother grew up bi-lingual. We left Brazil when I was 6 months old. I had no vocabulary but I had heard a lot of English and Portuguese. My brother, on the other hand, was speaking English and Portuguese. He has grown up a linguist, fluent in French and Welsh, with great knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, Latin, Gaelic, Hot'n-tot (used to drive me nuts clicking and clacking around the house), and some of many other languages, including Klingon. He's a Librarian, too.

After we left Brazil, where I was surrounded by English and Portuguese, we landed in New Orleans, and then moved to Dallas. In Texas. At six months old I think the many English dialects confused me. I knew it wasn't Portuguese I was hearing. It didn't sound like English, either. Southern accents are thick. Apparently, I was a pretty thick baby, too.

We lived in Europe for six years. While there I took three years of German -- One. I also took three years of French -- One. Back in California, I took two years of Spanish -- One. From experience, I know my limitations with other languages.

So I tried Spanish using Mango. Easy to get to the lessons. The audio is great. I've also been going through Spanish using Rosetta Stone at home. I am not comfortable with other languages so this is a stretch.

1 comment:

  1. Trying new things can be challenging, good to see you're up for it.

    ReplyDelete