Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-12-05
WORDS MAKE LANGUAGES.
But You Can't Learn n Language by
Memorizing its Dictionary.

Il attended most of the Coqueln- Hading
performances recently" said a well-known
teacher Of languages to a STAR reporter yester-
day. "and studied the audiences almost as
much as I did the artists. l was struck with
the very few people indeed who seemed able to
follow the speakers readily and appreciate
fully all the fine points of the dialogue. saw
quite number of persons in the audiences
whom l know very well and whom 1 have al
ways regarded as excellent French scholars
Many of them have the reputation among their
friends of being great linguists, speaking
French, German, italian, &c, as fuently as
they do English number of them. ladies
and gentlemen, lived abroad for years and GER
tainly had every opportunity to become expert
polyglots.
well. from nv observations during the
performances, venture to say that not one IN
twenty of these reported masters OF French
thoroughly understood the lines of the plays
and fully appreciated the nice shades of mean
ing which the artists sought to convey. The
audiences were nearly altogether composed OF
people who knew some French This was
shown by the fact that they seemed able to
gather the drift of the dialogue, and now and
then displayed appreciation of the nicer points.
Probably a majority of those who attended
went believing themselves thorough masters of
French, and were sadly crestfallen when they
found themselves frequently at a loss
'.An this proves" the professor continued.
slowly relighting his pipe, which he had al
lowed to go out while speaking, that to learn
another language as well as you know your ma
tive tongue isn't the easy job the authors of ten
day mastery methods would have us believe.
In fact my experience has BEEN that it is the
rarest thing in the world for a man or
woman to learn thoroughly and completely to
speak and TO understand any language but his
own native tongue, unless where the study of
language is made the business of life. or where
foreign languages are absorbed almost uncon-
sciously by long residence in the country in
which they are spoken"
Well, professor" The STAR reporter re-
marked. ''thats rather discouraging for people
who want to pick up a language or two for use
when they take little run over to Europe.
But why should it be so very difficult to master
foreign language if man has a clear head
and fair memory"
THAT'S IT, THAT'S JUST IT."
the professor cried, as if the reporter had given
him the opening he had been longing for. "a
clear head has really very little to do with it.
and might almost say the same Of the memory.
In fact. you don't learn language: YOU alb
serb it. you inhale il. 1t must be
taken In. as IT were. through the
pores of the skin and the lungs as well as
through the ewes and ears. Most people make
the big mistake of supposing that language is
an exact mathematical science: that when You
have learned the conjugation of the verbs the
declension Of substantives adjectives and arti-
Giles. and have acquired a vocabulary of four
or five thousand words, you have mastered a
language. What foolishness, As well say that
having gathered together so many brick, so
much mortar and lumber. and so many shin
giles. sash. doors and blinds. man has built a
house. You see, even the best dictionaries
don't give you the true value of words
Nothing but acquaintance with written
and spoken language can do that. Then
no language Except Volapuk) is scientifically
constructed and logical. The genius. the soul
Of language, resides in its idioms and YOU
have not mastered a language. not even if you
know perfectly every word in its dictionary
and every rule of its grammar, until you have
absorbed that soul
And let me tell you, Soung man." the
speaker concluded. becoming almost invisible
In the cloud of smoke he had impatiently
pulled out sort of relief to his feelings
which had been not little worked upon as he
discoursed on his favorite theme, that is not
a Pastime for rainy days in vacation. Try it
and see if il is
The reporter was satisfied to take the pro-
fessor's word for it.