This is the
answer to a question from my new friend from Arizona
The languages I tried to
learn and the languages I’ll never learn
My sister
is three years my senior. When she began to learn English, I was doing my second
year in the elementary school. I took her textbook of English and read the
first sentence on the first page: “In English there are 24 letters and 44
sounds.” I was perplexed. Why this difference? Is not a letter the same as a
sound? I don’t remember why I didn’t ask my sister to explain to me this
problem. In any case, I concluded that I was not able to learn a foreign
language by my own and put the textbook away. When I began to learn English in
the fifth grade, I understood that languages are what I need. The problem was
that I had two obstacles. The first one is my poor memory. The second one is my
misanthropy. That is why, after 57 years of learning, I can’t say I am fluent
in English.
To be
continued.
