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Basically every human in the world learns a first language, with only a few exceptions due to physical or developmental challenges. But how do we go about learning a second language? A few years ago a friend of mine, who had lived abroad for many years, said something that really impressed me. He said, “You have to be willing to become a baby again.” Babies are great natural learners. They seem to be like sponges and we all envy their ability to rapidly grow in their ability to use language. But rather than envy, perhaps we should focus on imitating the principles that make babies such fantastic learners. Babies want to learn how to speak. They are always listening. In fact, they are notorious for being such good listeners that they can pick up swear words after hearing them only once or twice! But broadly, they use their listening to good effect because they rapidly begin to understand what is said to them. They also quickly show a desire to be able to express ideas and to be understood. They set about this task with great determination and they are delighted when their words are received with understanding and affirmation. Babies relentlessly pursue the ability to pronounce every sound they hear in the language they are learning. They will spend hours making noises and experimenting with how to shape the lips or how to move the tongue to make the sounds perfectly. They will even just play with their mouths and vocal cords to see what sounds they are capable of making, and when they hear a new sound, they imitate it. They are willing to get language sounds wrong many times before they begin to do it correctly. Many times they will even repeat the same word or phrase over and over to play with it and enjoy it. Babies enjoy rhymes, repetition, alliteration, and stories that are playful with language. Babies seem to have no sense of embarrassment when it comes to language. It can seem that they are just naturally this way, but another explanation could be that babies allow their desire to communicate and to belong within the community to supersede any possible reluctance. For them, the reward of belonging to the community and of being understood outweighs the difficulties they need to endure and the effort they must exert to mature and become competent in the language. So how does all this apply to learning a second language? Well, we need to begin applying the same principles used in acquiring the first language so effectively. We need to let our desire to learn motivate us to deeply listen so we can begin to understand what people say to us. We need to relentlessly pursue correct pronunciation and grammar. If a baby or young child can practice pronunciation and sentence drills for hours, maybe we can do a little bit too! We need to enjoy exploring with and playing with the language. And we need to push past any reluctance or embarrassment we feel about learning that second language because of the rewards of connection and community that we will experience. If our goal is to communicate well and to be truly competent in the second language, we first need to be willing to become babies again.
