Learning a new language

I want to learn another language aside from English and Indonesia. So far, English is the only language where I experienced from not knowing to knowing and able to use it. It was possible due to a structured way of learning from the subject in school from primary 5 to some additional tuitions.

I often forget that a similar amount of time investment may be required to learn a new language especially if we do not sign up for any course. That means we need spend regular time to study, to listen, and to practice the language. Another word, it cannot come naturally. We need to create our own discipline. And then are we willing to track the progress?

So it is challenging to learn new languages, be it verbal languages or programming languages. We need to practise. It is not something we can study over a night or even over a full week. It needs to be repeated, it needs to be refreshed as we often forget. Just like when I write about this, I remember that I have not practiced learning R Programming even though there is already an automated instructor in form of the swirl program.

It is even more challenging to learn a language that there is no clear grammar or syntax with well-defined vocabularies. Body language is hard to learn. Even harder is love language. We already know that at least there are five love languages: Words of affirmation, gifts, quality time, touch, and acts of service. The question is that are we willing to spend the already challenging efforts for learning verbal and programming language, plus the additional efforts to bear through something that is not well-defined, so that we can communicate better with our spouse. One thing to remember is to cultivate our love. Just like the saying, no matter how many languages we speak, it is of little use without love.