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For the past couple of summers, this is how I spent two evenings a week: I would leave my office at 5:30, walk through downtown DC, pushing my way through traffic and thick swampy heat, usually stopping at obligatory name-brand coffee store for something iced to revive myself, until I got to a pretty little building with a courtyard and made my way into a classroom with the air conditioning on full blast. In the classroom, I’d take my seat, open my notebook, and spend the next two hours with one of the language loves of my life – Arabic. To this day the Arabic language is all tied up in my memory with the sensation of humid heat outside and a slap of freezing air inside, the taste of an iced caramel macchiato, the buzz of a city on a summer night when I finally left to go home. Similarly, this first stretch of summer swelter gives me an itch to get back into the Arabic classroom. For various reasons I won’t, unfortunately, be studying Arabic this summer, at least not in a formal classroom setting. But I have other language-y things planned that I’m also really excited about (I’ll tell you more about that next week!)
Summers are the time a lot of us slow down, explore hobbies, learn new things. Recommended reading lists for summers are often filled with looooong novels, books that aren’t necessarily “important” but are hypnotizing. We finally get time to savor things a little bit more – those of us who are students or who work in schools are particularly sensitive to this. Summers are for indulging.
So what languages are you indulging in this summer? Are you studying a new language just for fun? Are you trying to pick up a few phrases you’ll need for an upcoming trip? Or trying to stick with a language you’ll get back to once the semester starts back up?
Copyright Allison Taylor-Adams. See About for details.
polyglossic 
I love that description! I do a lot of shadowing while walking and have quite a few locations — a bend in a hiking path, a grassy spot by the UCSB bus stop, a corner of our duplex’s deck — that bring back a phrase, reminding me that language learning is truly about experienced life.
I am going to keep working at German this summer, in hopes of going abroad in about a year for research. My plan is to force myself to seek out a fellow speaker, as my output is in need of work.
I also am enjoying dabbling in two languages just for fun: Scottish Gaelic and Russian. I listen to slow podcasts (BBC Radio nan Gael’s Litir Bheag and RusComRus) and shadow them, essentially luxuriating in the raw music of these languages. I have engaged with these languages before, but have been unduly derailed by the writing systems and grammar. This time I plan on having them well in mouth and ear before deciphering with the eyes.
Have a great summer!
Best,
MR
It makes me so happy to hear you say “raw music of the language” when you’re talking about Russian! I majored in Russian and lived in Russia for a year and I always feel like I have to defend the sonic beauty of the language – the only thing anybody seems to think about with Russian is the harsh hacking sounds. It’s an acquired taste, maybe. There’s something about native Russian intonation that I particularly love, too, especially when they’re reciting poetry.
Ура! Русский язык!
Thanks, Matthew!
I love your paragraph: “Summers are for indulging.” Some college students indulge by partying. I hope to indulge by immersing myself in poetry: modern and ancient, canonical and non. I too am studying Arabic, but only the Qur’anic variety, which is poetic enough last a lifetime in study and prayer. Arabic is a continuation though — my newest studies will be in Old English.
My idea of summer indulging is spending whole hours put together doing one luxurious thing – lying in a hammock with a good book, for instance. Or studying classical Arabic. Or studying classical Arabic in a hammock. 🙂
And to me it is delicious and indulgent to study a language that has no immediate practical use whatsoever. Old English is fabulous. Matthew is studying Scots Gaelic – also fabulous.
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