Writing by Fuad Abdul Aziz; Translation by Rana Abdul
(Eqtsad)- At the first glance, the scene seems strange, men and women who have passed fifty years of age and who have adult children are sitting in language classes to learn the language of the European country they have chosen to live in, after their bellies have grown full, their hair has turned white or fallen.
The scene becomes comic quickly when you listen to their complaints about themselves as they struggle to learn this language without succeeding as their heads are filled with worries and people are no longer able to cope with more than a few light mental activities so what then about learning a people’s language?
-Language is the biggest barrier-
You barely meet a Syrian family who have sought refuge in Europe without them talking about the difficulties they are facing in due to their attending the mandatory language classes… as the age train is closer to the end of the line, and the new conditions and responsibility that European countries place on families for their children adds to the mental pressure that newcomers to these countries suffer from, so that language no longer constitutes their major preoccupation, thus Adnan al-Mouqdad, who has been living in Germany for a year and a half summaries his story with the language classes as he approaches fifty.
Adnan continues, “I feel that I am luckier than others, because I have learnt enough to manage of the language to manage my own and my family’s issues, but even with that I have not succeeded in the language classes, and I have to repeat them after 9 months of classes.”
He added, “the issue is not related only to German being a difficult language for even a child to learn, but also returning to study and complying with the attendance in itself is difficult because a human being’s ability to concentrate after he has passed 40 is very low, it might not be more than 2 hours whereas 7 hours daily are required which makes a person unable except to maintain a limited amount of information.”
Yousef al-Homsi (45) lives in Sweden away from his family, says that even now he has only learned vocabulary for welcoming and greetings, and some simple words although he has finished the language course and is working for a Swedish employer. He indicated his brain’s inability to absorb the language which he attributes to his distance from his wife and children since the family reunification processes have not yet finished.
Which language is harder.
Every Syrian believes that the language of the European country he is living in is the hardest. They compete between themselves to show how difficult the language is. According to experts, every language different to the mother tongue is difficult and the issue is not related to French, German or Swedish being difficult to learn.
The linguistic expert Mohammad al-Salh who owns an interactive language website which includes English, French and German said that the older the person gets his chances of learning a new language are reduced, and he believes that the maximum age that a human being can learn a people’s language completely is 10 years of age indicating that after this age the child begins to complain about the difficulty of learning a language.
Al-Salh asks the question, “what then of those wanting to learn language and they have part 40 or 50 years of age?” he continues, “it is very difficult, and at that stage, a human can barely learn some simple vocabulary and even though with bad pronunciation, but he is able to understand and he can learn to read better.”
Al-Salh adds, that are there many who believe that the difficulty of learning a language is because of their lack of interaction and communication with native speakers, they think they can learn the language from their small children, and some see bring the difficulty down to the presence of their family and their worries about their children and others to their distance from their families…. But he sees also that the issue is unrelated to any of these circumstances, and the issue is mental in the first degree as a human being’s ability to learn and memorize after passing 30 years of age is difficult and requires exceptional persons.
(Eqtsad)- At the first glance, the scene seems strange, men and women who have passed fifty years of age and who have adult children are sitting in language classes to learn the language of the European country they have chosen to live in, after their bellies have grown full, their hair has turned white or fallen.
The scene becomes comic quickly when you listen to their complaints about themselves as they struggle to learn this language without succeeding as their heads are filled with worries and people are no longer able to cope with more than a few light mental activities so what then about learning a people’s language?
-Language is the biggest barrier-
You barely meet a Syrian family who have sought refuge in Europe without them talking about the difficulties they are facing in due to their attending the mandatory language classes… as the age train is closer to the end of the line, and the new conditions and responsibility that European countries place on families for their children adds to the mental pressure that newcomers to these countries suffer from, so that language no longer constitutes their major preoccupation, thus Adnan al-Mouqdad, who has been living in Germany for a year and a half summaries his story with the language classes as he approaches fifty.
Adnan continues, “I feel that I am luckier than others, because I have learnt enough to manage of the language to manage my own and my family’s issues, but even with that I have not succeeded in the language classes, and I have to repeat them after 9 months of classes.”
He added, “the issue is not related only to German being a difficult language for even a child to learn, but also returning to study and complying with the attendance in itself is difficult because a human being’s ability to concentrate after he has passed 40 is very low, it might not be more than 2 hours whereas 7 hours daily are required which makes a person unable except to maintain a limited amount of information.”
Yousef al-Homsi (45) lives in Sweden away from his family, says that even now he has only learned vocabulary for welcoming and greetings, and some simple words although he has finished the language course and is working for a Swedish employer. He indicated his brain’s inability to absorb the language which he attributes to his distance from his wife and children since the family reunification processes have not yet finished.
Which language is harder.
Every Syrian believes that the language of the European country he is living in is the hardest. They compete between themselves to show how difficult the language is. According to experts, every language different to the mother tongue is difficult and the issue is not related to French, German or Swedish being difficult to learn.
The linguistic expert Mohammad al-Salh who owns an interactive language website which includes English, French and German said that the older the person gets his chances of learning a new language are reduced, and he believes that the maximum age that a human being can learn a people’s language completely is 10 years of age indicating that after this age the child begins to complain about the difficulty of learning a language.
Al-Salh asks the question, “what then of those wanting to learn language and they have part 40 or 50 years of age?” he continues, “it is very difficult, and at that stage, a human can barely learn some simple vocabulary and even though with bad pronunciation, but he is able to understand and he can learn to read better.”
Al-Salh adds, that are there many who believe that the difficulty of learning a language is because of their lack of interaction and communication with native speakers, they think they can learn the language from their small children, and some see bring the difficulty down to the presence of their family and their worries about their children and others to their distance from their families…. But he sees also that the issue is unrelated to any of these circumstances, and the issue is mental in the first degree as a human being’s ability to learn and memorize after passing 30 years of age is difficult and requires exceptional persons.
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