So you're going to learn another language, that's great! Your brain will start to function in ways you never imagined possible and you will start to think you're really smart. And then BAM! It hits you! You're humbled because while you might be gaining huge (or small) ground in your second language, your first language is quickly going downhill. This is a hidden danger that I don't think people are fairly warned about.
After my last post it was pointed out to me that I had a number of grammatical errors, mostly having to do with there/their and then/than usage. Now a lot of that could have been avoided if I had actually proofread it before I posted it, but also that almost never would have happened before I started learning Spanish. I guess God gave me the gift of being good at English and grammar but now He's taking it away! In fact, I used to (and actually still do) get upset at people who could not use the correct form of they're, their and there on Facebook because they mean three totally different things! I used to be able to write my statuses (stati?) like none other, whipping them out without even having to think about spelling or grammar. Now I have to read each one (although I don't always) to make sure I wrote "too" instead of "to" or "they're" instead of "their" correctly. I guess I needed this lesson in humility.
But it's not just your grammar that gets messed up when learning a second language, it is also your vocabulary. There are so many words that I cannot remember anymore! I'll be having a conversation in English with someone and a very common word that even a two year old would know will be on the tip of my tongue yet my brain will not recall it. Or I'll be having a conversation with Andres and he'll say a word in Spanish and ask me what it is in English and in my mind I know what he's talking about but I cannot for the life of me think what the word is in English. So if you want to learn a second language, make sure you're up for losing some of your native tongue. Be aware of the danger!
What I wrote up above is true but I just want you all to know that I think it is definitely worth it to learn as many languages your brain can handle. And I (we) definitely plan to raise our kids bilingual and I might even encourage them to learn a third language or more! Yes, some studies say that bilingual kids struggle to understand some of the grammatical rules in school but to me the benefits outweigh the deficits by far. Studies also show that bilingual and multilingual kids do better in other areas and are more creative (think outside the box types).
I will end on a somewhat serious note. I'm not sure how much of this news has reached us in the U.S., but the big news in Chile is that the Chilean government recently voted to allow a project to develop hydroelectric power in the south by making five hydroelectric plants. Many Chileans are not happy because it will block rivers and flood a lot of the land and also put up power lines over this land that is pristine, beautiful and mostly untouched. Protests are happening but the government doesn't seem to want to listen. A movement called "Patagonia sin Represas" (Patagonia without Dams) has been started to disseminate information on the damage these plants will cause and to work to get the project reversed. You can check out their website in English here. You can read an article in the NY Times about it here and you can read about the protests from gringa Chile blogger Eileen here and here.
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