The Diary
of
Anne Ku

20 December 2000 Wednesday

A SECOND TONGUE

Don't let multi-linguists overwhelm you. I sincerely believe that a jack of all trades cannot also be a master of all. However, it is true that the more languages you know, the easier it is to learn a new language.

So I've met monolinguists (monoglots) - those who speak only one language. There's a saying that the English do speak another language when they are abroad. They speak more slowly and loudly. But ah! they are so articulate in their native tongue.

I would consider myself bilingual as I still count in Chinese. Despite having studied other languages, I am only really comfortable in Chinese and English. I'm sure there are many others in my category.

Finally there are those truly enviable ones - the multi-linguists. Or are they merely cunning? the Dutch. the Scandinavians. the Swiss. Are they truly polyglots, or are they closet bilinguals?

I once arrogantly asked my monolingual friends,"Doesn't your tongue get tired from speaking the same language?" That was before I moved to London - which is still technically not part of Europe. I suppose if I were living on the continent, my tongue would be doing gymnastics everyday.

Yesterday

Tomorrow

Useful foreign language sites:

Mini-tutorials from Fodor's

Dr Michael C. Martin's language tutorials

French

Spanish

Italian

Dutch

Russian

Chinese

Translating dictionaries

English-German

English-Spanish

English-Chinese

All Words multilingual dictionary

Foreign Word free translation tools

Word Reference