Learning a language is a process. A process that is easily forgotten if not practiced and the language is not being used. While I do remember bits and pieces of learning to read and write in English, learning a second language still burns freshly in my memories.
They say that learning a language as a child is much easier than learning as you grown older; something to do with growth and development of the human brain. This all makes sense and I am one that can vouch for this claim. It is true, learning a second language is one of the hardest tasks I have ever attempted, and achieved in doing.
When first arriving in a foreign country (one that I will soon call home), the language barrier hit pretty hard.
“E ai, juiz! Filho da puta!” My host dad explained that this was the right thing to say when going to a soccer game. I soon found out from the starring eyes that it was not necessarily the nicest thing to say.
Reading and writing was the next step in my journey to learning a new language. I remember when I was younger I would read the book Where the Wild Things Are. I would brag to my neighbors that I could read. It took me 21 years to realize that the book consisted of one lined phrases and a large picture per each page. Oh well, I thought that I was special.
Reading was the one thing that had saved me while in my early months of being abroad. My family just so happened to have a handful of English written books. Oddly enough, Harry Potter soon became my best friend in this new estranged world.
Using the same process I as did when I was a child learning the English language, I was able to eventually read and write in another language.
