Language

English is my native language. In middle school through high school, I had to choose a second language. I chose to learn French. As much as I tried, I could not learn it. I did not understand the conjugation and tenses. In order to pass the regents, my parents hired a tutor. After that fiasco, I decided to change to Spanish. I did much better learning that language, but if I traveled to a Spanish speaking country, I would have been limited to visiting bathrooms and kitchens.  Donde esta la sala de bano? In college I avoided any language. The reason I am writing about languages is because my small grandchildren have done what I could not. They have mastered a new language in under two years. They understand everything and speak in short sentences. This leads me to believe that the best way to learn language is by listening to it. No one has sat them down with a crayon in their hands to show them past tense, predicates, nouns and verbs. No one has asked then to say,"His, hers, ours and theirs". I spent the afternoon with my grandson yesterday. He knew exactly what I was saying and got his thoughts across to me beautifully. We need to rethink our methods of teaching language to our youth. I bet everyone reading this took at least one language in school and cannot speak it.