The other day I came accross an old, snotty college paper I'd written about fluency and reading in foreign languages. For all my research, and for all my interest in German I've sorely neglected a tiny, lovely German New Testament that has been gathering dust on my headboard. So last night I actually opened it.
And this led to a small triumph: I made sense of a German phrase on my own. I learned about 5 words (or less) on my trip to Germany in '99. I hadn't yet discovered that my love for reading would lead me to love foreign language.
I started by reading Matthew 1, and had zero comprehension. (The gothic script is eye-crossing.) Then all of a sudden, I saw "Gott mit uns." I read that, and remembered Gott is God. Mit, I learned in a German Burger King, to order a hamburger mit or not mit cheese. Since I know the English translation, uns must be us. God with us. Dios con nosotros. Gott mit uns. I had 100% comprehension the instant I read it, and it was an amazing feeling. Not just any words, but those words in particular. I've heard them at every Christmas of my life, and sometimes in between.
They were too familiar to catch my attention. Now they are new again.
I haven't had a moment like that since the beginning of my Spanish studies, and I realized how much I miss the first stages of a new language. At first it feels like you're drowning in meaningless, garbled nonsense. Then a connection snaps together, and you understand. Maybe not everything, but something. And you hang all your hope on that one enlightened moment, and dive deeply into more garbled nonsense. And after thousands more moments like that, you realize that the unfamiliarity isn't gone, but it is slipping away.
After a weekend with my Grandparents, who still tease each other in German...after reading a bit myself...after a moment of comprehension...well, they do say the 3rd language comes easier...
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