Spoken versus written language.




      I  have  had  people  come  over  to  me  and  tell  me  that  they’re  interested  in  learning  a  foreign  language. They  go  on  to  say  that  they’re  only  interested  in  learning  for  example, the  spoken  version  of  Spanish  or  French  only. This  makes  sense  and  seems  straight  forward  because  languages  exist  at  the  written  and  spoken  levels. However, a  closer  analysis  of  their  intention  reveals  a  totally  different  perspective. Usually, what  these  prospective  language  students  mean  is  that  they  intend  to  discard  the  written  part  of  their  target  language  in  their  studies. And, here  lies  the  problem. One  can  never  divorce  the  written/spoken  or  spoken/written  aspects  of  language  from  each  other. The  insistence  on  doing  so  would  be  like  demanding  to  have  a  glass  of  wine  made  without  squeezing  the  grapes. Impossible  to  do  so.

   Let  me  illustrate  why  the  two  are  inseparable. Consider  the  accents  that  exist  in  languages, for  example  the  ñ (Spanish), ú (Spanish), ç (French), é (French). These  accents  signal  that  these  words  have  to  be  pronounced  a  certain  way. And  the  best  way  to  demonstrate  and  explain  them  to  any  student  is  by  having  them  study  and  understand  the  written  version  of  a  language. Otherwise, how  would  one  clearly  explain  the  concept  to  a  student  without  referring  to  the  written  version  of  the  language?. Now, after  one  becomes  proficient  with  the  language  they  can  ditch  the  written  part  of  it (though I personally wonder how). So, if  you  are  a  prospective  student  who  was  leaning  towards  the  above  approach, you  will  have  to  reconsider  your  perspective. But  the  broader  takeaway  message  from  this  essay  should  be  that  the  outlined  approach  of  thoroughly  studying  both  concepts  of  a  language  is  to  the  student’s  advantage. It  produces  a  well  rounded  individual. Regardless  of  whether  one’s  final  objective  is  to  work  as  a  translator  or  interpreter, having  a  good  grasp  of  both  written  and  verbal  dimensions  of  a  language  is  invaluable. 

    Before  concluding  here, I  would  like  to  make  a  disclaimer. I’m  not  saying  that  it’s  not  possible  to  learn  a  language  through  verbal  interactions  only. No, there  are  numerous  people  who  have  picked  a  language  by  simply  being  exposed  to  it  in  informal  situations/settings. What  I’m  saying  is  that  the  formal  classroom  approach  is  more  effective  when  learning  a  language  with  the  end  goal  of  applying  the  knowledge  in  a  professional  environment.


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