Tags
proficiency

Ever felt that unless you speak a language fluently it's not worth having a go? Marina Warner's recent article in The Guardian is a rallying cry for making do with what you've got. As she points out: "First, it is possible to speak another language fluently and yet make continual mistakes in it – mistakes of word order and phrasing, register and weight of terms used, and numerous other pitfalls. Second, languages are mobile, capricious, and have a voracious appetite." That is to say: turn your back on the language by being out of the country for just a month and you'll find on your return that it will have moved on. Faced with these thoughts, but mindful of the cultural enrichment that comes with multilingualism, she suggests we should drop our fears and inhibitions and celebrate and make the most of whatever second language attainment we have. Amen to that.