Some Pressure

The myth states that some have a gift for foreign languages and can pick them up without much effort. The rest of us (most of the population) are destined to never be able to become fluent in a second language.

According to the myth, I must be one of those few gifted to learn languages, since I became fluent in Spanish as an adult and am threatening to do so with Dari.

Yet the one thing that puts pressure on our young marriage, more than finances, more than the Taliban, more than the explosions and threats that are in our neighborhood, is all that time I spend focusing on language acquisition. If I’m so, “gifted” why is the sustained effort so costly? The fact is, I am one of the many who must struggle for thousands of hours with a new language before my brain will function in it, and one of the few who persevere in the struggle.

In Costa Rica, I was able to focus an incredible 15-20 hours per day in functional Spanish (feat that there is no hope of matching in Afghanistan). Inside the University as an economics student in an astounding year and a half, progress was according to the effort.

I can recall, before leaving the US, spending several hours daily learning with Dari materials, and spending some time with Persian speaking people as well. My arrival in Kabul in 2005 happened a month early – so some extra time could be devoted to language learning. For the same reason, I remained in Kabul Christmas 2005 and again summer 2006 and again… and again. There would be no returning to the US for three years. After work I would take tutoring or spend time with friends speaking Dari. By the second year in Kabul, I was able to participate, in a limited fashion, in many Dari conversations. Was this because of an ability to pick up languages without much effort, or because of a dogged perseverance to focus on the task?

Now in our fourth year in country, my wife is entering into the reality that she is in the struggle together with me - the struggle to learn a new language. Again, progress matches the effort.