Yesterday my 18 month old daughter kept on saying the Dutch word for refrigerator, over and over again. She was not near a refrigerator at all. I was changing her diaper. It was funny to hear her going on about something she had learned a while ago. Apparently she thought it was time to practice the word. The more I thought about it the more it made sense. That’s how you learn a language. Practice a word, wherever, whenever. Whenever you are having a chat, throw in a word you have never used before. And when the occasion doesn’t arise soon enough, forget about making sense and surprise your unsuspecting listener with it.
As an English teacher I was often such a victim of surprise words that didn’t make sense. It happened regularly when I read reports from students. It was my own fault, really. I gave them a new word every week that I picked out especially to talk about. Some students would go out of their way to use that word in the next reflective report they wrote. No matter whether it would be appropriate or not.
One student, for instance, described her learning process during a project as a case of ‘serendipity’. She didn’t really show she knew what it meant. But it was a pleasant surprise to find one of my favourite words in her writing.
I taught that word with as much enthusiasm as I could muster because I just find it is so beautiful. It is a pity we can’t use it very often in everyday life. Maybe if we use it more often even when it isn’t appropriate we will have more cases of serendipity. And then even the process of learning new words will be like serendipity. To be lucky to find valuable or pleasant things that you were not looking for.
I know there are books about funny mistakes Dutch people make when speaking or writing English. I promis this blog will be a little different and I won't steal any stories from others. I would, however, like contributions from others and hope to have a bit of fun discussing what we have 'leathered'.