Have you ever made it your New Year’s Resolution to learn a new language? I speak 3 languages: 2 fluently (English and French) and one considerably less fluently (German). During the pandemic, I started work on a fourth language, but it was Klingon, and once the world started up again, it fell by the wayside.

(For now: I have EVERY INTENTION of picking it back up again in the future. Is it useful? No. Is it suuuuuper fun to be able to say, “I’m learning Klingon?” HIja′!) Learning a language is hard. Learning a language as an adult is very hard.

Kids and grown ups learn in very different ways. Kids’ brains are like information sponges. Adult brains are more rigid: always trying to save energy by reusing what they already know. If we grew up here in Canada (which I didn’t but that’s beside the point for the moment), we probably learned French as a second (or third) language in school.  That’s important: we learned French as kids, and we probably stopped using it just as soon as we weren’t being forced to take it anymore.

Flash forward to your thirtiesfortiesfifties and your romantic trip to Paris where you discover you can’t read the menus and the waiters are extra snooty when they are forced speak to you in English. (Personally, I believe they do this on purpose to live up to the Paris waiter stereotype. DO NOT waive and call them “garçon.” I saw it happen, and I have never seen such vitriol in someone’s eyes.)

So. You decide you’re going to learn a language. Or relearn a language. I’m using French as my primary example, because I have the most resources to offer you in French, and also, because Canada, but this absolutely applies to any language.

You remember learning French as a kid. There were verb tenses and genders and something about Vandertramps? You have an expectation, based on your 8-year-old self’s experience, of what learning a language will be like, what it will entail. But your thirtyfortyfiftysomething brain does not hold the information like it did when you were 8. It is harder to grasp the words because the sounds are strange. It is harder to follow the sentences because you want them to work like English and they don’t. Why is it so much harder than you remember? Easy. You’re a grown up now.

Let’s look at two things: why are you learning a language and how are you learning the language, because one is going to depend on the other.

Why?

First up, the why. Why do you want to learn the language? If you are traveling to Montréal or Paris, it is infinitely more important that you can ask, “Où est la toilette?” than it is to know that “toilette” is feminine. If you visit Germany, you need to be able to say “Ich hätte gern ein Bier,” you do not need to know that “ein Bier” is in the Accusative Case. If you are getting a degree in Italian, well, then you do have to learn all the rules and grammar and spelling and all that stuff, sorry. But in that case, I’m hoping your academic library is there to help you out. Very likely, you fall closer to that first group of learners.

The How

Now, how are you learning the language? If your goal is not to be fluent, but to be able to move around in a foreign country with some ability to communicate, fantastic! I’ve got tools for you.

I’m sure you know Duolingo, you’ve probably tried it. With your library card, you have access to a similar software called Transparent Language. It has courses in a myriad of languages, for learners who speak a myriad of languages. Transparent Language has French language learning for English Speakers, but also for speakers of Norwegian, Danish, Latin-American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, German and Modern Standard Arabic. They also have courses in three French dialects: French, Canadian French and Moroccan French. I would LOVE to know how French and Canadian French are different.

Like Duolingo, Transparent Language has an app that you can download to your phone or tablet. It breaks language learning down into short, repetitive lessons that focus on building consistency. Duolingo can sometimes seem nonsensical: when will I ever have to know how to say “Haters gonna hate” in Klingon? (I mean, I will absolutely say that, but when will I need to say that?) Transparent Language is a little more on point. You can set your learning path and your learning goals, even if that goal is 15 minutes a day. The pressure to not break your streak – even if no one else will ever know about it – is real.

Some of the Transparent Language content is admittedly a little dated, I expect it’s based on software or workbooks from an earlier era. It specifies, for example, that “Madame” is the term used for an “older or married woman”. This was true, when the word “Mademoiselle” was also in use, but language is ever evolving, and times have changed. It is also incredibly difficult to introduce gender neutrality in a language where everything from your shoes to your table has a gender.

The app requires both speaker and microphone access, so you can listen to the pronunciation of the words and also record yourself speaking for comparison. You listen and compare yourself. The program doesn’t have an AI overlord passing judging over your accent and speed of your progress. Yet (cue Terminator music).

CBC also offers a free resource called Mauril that offers French and English language learning using content from CBC and Radio-Canada. This allows for a more dynamic, interactive learning experience. Instead of just reading a text and answering questions, Mauril is able to play clips from CBC content to let you engage with the language in a more natural sounding environment.

More options?!

Not interested in using language learning software? We still have books on tape, just like you see in 90s sitcoms. Except of course they’re not on tape anymore. We have a few left on CD, but at this point, they’re mostly ebooks. Who even has the technology to play a tape (or CD) anymore?? If you commute, like I do, audiobooks can be a great resource. Hoopla has a wide selection of language learning books that you can check out with your library card.

OK, so you’ve started to learn a language. Now what? Listening. Watching. Reading. Writing.

What Books to Choose?

You might be tempted to head to the children’s section. That is a good instinct, but on your way to the endless shelves of Picture Books – stop, veer slightly to the left… or right – and check out the Early Reader collection. Picture Books are designed for an adult to read to a child. Early readers are designed for the child to read to themself. As a new reader in a language, you want to seek out the simplest texts, with the simplest grammar and the simplest words. You’ll find that in Early Readers, not Picture Books.

I learned French and English as a small child. My baby brain sucked up that information and stored it away. I learned German as a young adult. This was harder. What did I do to reinforce my German skills? I reread books I’d already read in English. I watched movies I had already seen with the German language track on. I watched movies in German, first with English subtitles and later with German subtitles.

I remember having to do a reading in class. It didn’t matter what I read, I just had to get up and read out loud. I read Harry Potter. I read Winnie the Pooh. I read books that I knew really, really well already. That way, I didn’t have to work so hard to understand what was going on. I knew the story. I probably even knew the English text more or less word for word. So, if I didn’t know a word in German, I could figure out what it meant based on what was going on in the story.

Vaughan Public Libraries has Harry Potter books in 9 languages. We have Percy Jackson books in 5 languages. We have Dog Man in 6 languages. We have James Patterson books in 6 languages. And yes, James Patterson books are exactly the kind of thing that would work perfectly here.

Eventually, if you really learn a language, you may want to read books originally written in that language, but when you’re learning, GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK.