The DeSmet leader. (DeSmet, Kingsbury Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-06-19
LEARNING LANGUAGES.
NOT TO BE THOROUGHLY ACQUIRED
FROM TEXTBOOKS ALONE.

The Prime Necessity of Teaching . Ian
guage Ivy Beginning 1t the Wrong
End of tho Line-Easy to Teach =
Baby to Talk Correctly.
M. Michel Breal delivered before the S0f.
bonne noteworthy lecture upon the method
OF learning foreign languages, In which -
boldly condemned all scientific systems IN
vogue, and declared to his Partisan auditors
that IL he himself knew how to speak very
few languages, although he could read y
number, it was owing to the imperfectiop az
his early linguistic training. Some Of hia
remarks will have much interest for Amer
lean readers.
The main point he attempted to establish
In his lecture, reproduced by The Revus
Politique ct Literature, was the prime ne
cessity OF teaching language by ear TO
teaching living language by the eye, ac-
corning to any system, no matter how
scholarly the method or how apt the pupil
was likely to produce very indifferent re-
sults-for the simple reason that such sys-
ten itself is subversion of the natural Law.
Speech Icing the primitive medium OF tha
communi alton Of ideas by sounds, anl
written language only the subsequently de-
veloped art Of fixing those ideas by durable
signs, 1t Is obviously controverting nature
commencing at the wrong end of the
line-to attempt to teach language first by
the eye The consequences of this false
method In educational establishments are
truly lanentable. In the French lycees, ac-
cording to NJ. Baeal, it is held that ten
years study are re Iuisi.e for the learning
Of English!
NOT LEARNED FROM BOOKS ALONE
The French government has learned to
appreciate the impossibility Of thoroughly
learning foreign language out OF books
alone; and those public-school instrurtorS
who are educated by the state are now sent
to England to learn Eng to Germany tSs
learn German. They are placed in private
families, and generally learn the language
tolerably well in one year, very well In two
years To be able to read q language il one
thing, to speak It another! The germans
seem to recognize that speaking is rather .
question of mental habit than learning:--
they do not say "he knows French" but "ho
can French, FER kann franz0ssh.
language should be learned by tho
adult just as it is acquired by the child
This too much-ignored truth Is well mani
festei by the facility with which soldiers,
servants, mechanics and others master an
idiom during q comparatively brief sojourn
In foreign country. And when o language
has thus been acquired orally, il becomes
easy enough then for any educated person
to learn its photography, its grammatical
laws and niceties, and the beauties of It's
literature But let it Le well understood
that no book can teach pronounciation--that
no printed system can train the ear, that
no cabinet study can ever teach one u
think In another language than one's own;--
and this it Is absolutely necessary TO do be-
n In on hat tbor 70
THE TIME TO TEACH LASGUAGE
Tho time to teach languages, tbsn, q moe
after the mimi has become wC1k developed,
but while it is still shaping. = = as easy 70
teach baby to speak In two o. three Ian
Of father who always talks French TO tho
child, while the mother always talks Eng
lish. The child, says NJ. Breal, is not at ell
astonished because his mother speaks q diff
ent language from the other peopls whom be
Knows
He simply thinks that Is his mothers
way OF talking that Is the way his mother
calls things all the acts OF his life have an
other nane when his mother mentions them.
In his little head there Is develop special
group or representative ideas, OF which tie
figure Of his mother forms the center. The
child does not translate ;---hs does NOS know
what translating ans;-he does not know
that no y speaking two languages, nor even
what languages r.. He only knows thai
his mother will not answer him tf ko Gala
his doll q p0upee instead Of s'doll" Chil.
dren have been known 70 eviucs tho gysat-
est amazsmsnt on hearing other persona
speak the very language which they nd
thought to b the unique and spscial tiiou
Of their mothsr,--so intfmatsly were NJ
tvvo idaas asaociatad for 49, Ynk ~ ~
years pass--lst The sams ssiuca<isn cpn1lnud;
and ths two languages sve O. - ehill6 d. Y
posltioa They aAs developed eyse1as ~ ;s
IN : p0railsl way, and wfokeat t16a r
--New OrIeans Times Dsnocpo4 Y \, 2