First Post

So, my first blog, my first post. Quite poetic. I hope to interest you with my thoughts on language and to hear your thoughts too. We might agree, we might disagree. But I hope it'll be fun and thought provoking. I've been learning other languages for 22 years, and I'm still not perfect. During that time I've lost and gained. When I lived in Germany I began to think in German. I arrived home to England and as I was hurrying to catch a train, lugging a huge suitcase, I could see the train was about to leave and if I'd missed it I would've had to wait another 2 hours. I was then stopped and asked to show my ticket before I got on. I was in such a hurry and I could not find the ticket - but I knew I had it. I was speaking without thinking, explaining to the guard that I had the ticket and I really needed to make the train. Suddenly I found the ticket, I relaxed, and at that moment I realised I had been speaking German. What does that tell me? When we're emotional we speak in the language that is most natural. It's usually harder to speak in a foreign language at those times. As I'd been living in Germany for the last 10 months, It had become almost as natural as my first language - English. Although it was embarrassing, I felt proud of myself. It showed me how much I'd learned and improved during that year. I'm a bit rusty now. I'd need to go back and live there to become fluent again. I speak German but I stumble a bit and forget vocabulary. So the process of learning and knowing a language is up and then down. And hopefully up again.