Last month, for example, my partner and I traveled around Lithuania. While I won’t be dipping into a Lithuanian novel anytime soon, I’ll never forget the word for thank you — ačiū, best remembered as “achoo” — which we deployed each time we stopped for kibinai, or traditionally savory pastries. After a vacation, such far-born words are often among my favorite souvenirs.
The challenge, of course, is getting started. Luckily, new digital tools help us fit language learning into daily life. I’m hooked on Wanikani, a web-based tool that uses targeted repetition and irreverent mnemonics to teach kanji, the logographic characters of the sort that puzzled me on the sign in that Tokyo garden. (How to recall shitsu, a reading of the character that means “room”? Imagine a tiny dog. “The shih tzu likes to come into your room and pee everywhere.”) I’m also a fan of Pimsleur and JapanesePod101, which offer short lessons I can do anywhere — instead of scrolling the news or social media.
Most usefully, I found a tutor on Preply, a start-up founded in 2012 by three Ukrainian friends to seamlessly connect language learners and instructors across the world. Akiko-sensei, my teacher, is a Japanese native who lives in Toronto; I often sign into our video lessons from hotels in the dozens of cities I fly to for work. (The first topic is invariably the weather wherever I happen to be.)
It’s possible to shape an entire journey around language learning. The group that ran my homestay, The Experiment in International Living, arranges similar programs today, while other organizations offer language-based travel for people of all ages. Alternatively, ask a tour guide on your next trip for an hour of language practice — a welcome break, perhaps, from busy sightseeing — over coffee or a local dish. And why not seek out conversation partners in your own community? Or try one of the many free online conversation exchange websites, which offer the satisfaction of sharing the intricacies of English with a potential friend on the far side of your world.
My love of languages has fostered enduring connections. My friendship with my college buddy Jamie, for example, was forged in our grueling first-year Japanese classes. Thirty-two years after we first struggled to master the Japanese particle wa — which spotlights the topic but not necessarily the subject of a sentence — or to conjugate adjectives into their past tense or to deploy the humble versions of everyday verbs, I asked him what those early efforts mean to him now. In response, he likened learning a language to reading fiction. Both, Jamie said, expand our horizons by compelling us to consider the minds of others. In this way, he explained, learning a new language “is an exercise in empathy.”
AloJapan.com