Defeating foreign languages before they defeat you

One of the worst aspects of relocation overseas for expats is the necessity to learn another language well enough for business as well as personal use.

Even at school, foreign language-learning at the basic secondary school level is a chore for many young people who take the exam, pass it by the skins of their teeth and promptly forget all they’ve learned! In the real world, especially in business, language-learning in the vast majority of postings is essential, and is an unwelcome challenge for many expatriates. As it was with learning your native language when you were a child, it’s all about confidence, a quality which become more fragile every time you get something wrong or are fully aware you’re doing your best but no-one understands a word you’re saying.

A lot depends on the difficulty quotient of the language itself, with Standard Chinese and Japanese high on the list of the hardest languages in the world to learn. For British expats, the common roots of many European languages help a lot, but when every word is unfamiliar, the grammar is incomprehensible or non-existent and the alphabet is a series of undecipherable squiggles with no punctuation, you’re lost. For expats who’ve relocated overseas to further their careers and earn high salaries, there are only two choices – give up and go home or study as if your life depends on it as, in a way, it might well!

In most countries, that quizzical look you’ll get if you’re not making any sense isn’t meant to be insulting, it’s simply the person is trying to get what you meant as well as responding in a way you’ll understand. Having a phrase which means ‘how should I be saying this?’ can help you get it right and causes no embarrassment. Basically, whichever language you’re attempting to learn takes perseverance, learning from your mistakes and trying, again, again and again until the day when you can actually hold a meaningful conversation. One trick is to repeat yourself, as it’s believed saying the same phrase three times in practice to a native speaker is necessary before it will stick in your memory. Learning any language takes a marathon of effort, and it’s always better to try, even if you make mistakes, than not to try at all.