Writing by Ear

I have heard it said on multiple occasions that English is difficult to learn as a second language. I’ve never actually heard anyone say this who did learn English as a second language—just native English speakers—so I’m really not sure if it’s true or not. I have heard that for the Chin congregation that meets in our church (refugees from Burma) English is difficult, but I heard that secondhand. And anyway, is English especially difficult as compared to other languages, or would any Germanic language be difficult for them to learn?

Supposedly English has one of the largest vocabularies of any modern language, significantly larger than other European languages. But I’ve always heard it was the lack of clearly defined rules for constructing a sentence that made it difficult. A quick study of the history of the language reveals that some of the strange conventions may have arisen from it developing largely in isolation in the British Isles for about 1500 years. So, perhaps it is difficult. (If you’re reading this and English is your second language, please chime in and let me know whether or not you found it difficult to learn).

I do know this: when I was a writing tutor in college, a professor stopped by to ask me what the difference was between “a” and “the.” I believe he was from India. I did my best to explain the conventions for using an indefinite article and a definite article. I told him that “a” was more general and “the” was more specific. I gave him some examples, since examples always help me learn better than rules or theory. After some discussion he left unsatisfied, as frustrated as ever. I realized at that point that I didn’t really know the “rules” very well either, I just knew what was right and what was wrong. I knew because English is my first language.

Despite the fact that I went to a fairly good high school and was an English major in college, I was never required to take a grammar class. In fact, I don’t think one was even offered. I have also never really learned a foreign language well. I took Spanish in high school and college and got straight A’s, but it didn’t really stick. I’ve never really been able to have a conversation in Spanish, though I did get somewhat decent at reading and writing it. Now, however, it’s mostly gone since I don’t use it. I remember a smattering of nouns, adjectives, and verbs, and with thought I can form a simple sentence, but it's fairly pitiful. Mira: Lo siento. No hablo español. ¿Por que? Porque mi escuela no es muy bien.

The reason I bring up learning a foreign language is because it was when my husband learned Koine Greek at seminary that he learned and truly understood all the jargon and rules that go along with grammar. Verb conjugation, demonstratives, hortatory subjunctives, etc. It all means little to nothing to me, but it helped his analytical mind grasp a dead language in a completely different alphabet. I wish I knew all of these things about English.

But I don’t.

Still, I write and edit text in English, not only as a hobby but as my job. I know when something is incorrect and I know how to fix it, but I can’t always explain why. I write and edit by ear. I suspect I’m not alone in this.

These photos are all of my gardening journal, a little notebook I used to record my progress in the yard so I knew what was where and I could remember my plans for the future. Sometimes the entries became more about just experiencing the outdoors than working outdoors. This last one is the last one. I did a lot less work in the yard once my son was born. But this fall I'll be getting back into it. I have BIG plans for the back yard and I'll document it in my journal and also here for you to see. By the way, take note of my TERRIBLE handwriting.