Subject: INTRO TO LANGUAGE, SOCIETY, AND CULTURE

Submitted to: Instructor Emily Jungao

Written by: Jomar Panimdim Balaman

Modern Myths concerning Languages

One of the assignment tasked to us as a student who majored in English language studies
was to write and summarize a responder's view towards the myth concerning languages into an
essay. In this activity, I interviewed my mother regarding the so-called myths. Despite having a
personal opinion on this matter, the matter of how she viewed the statement left me astounded.

According to her, it is only natural that some languages are harder to learn since not
everyone found the matter of learning languages outside of their used language. This speculation
is indeed viable but the next thing told was something indeed agreeable. The language itself is
ambiguous; it is people's misinterpreting things that cause problems. It seemed like the notion
was foreign to her but apparently, she viewed this matter as something natural. Since almost
people backed out when presented with the chance to learn another language aside from those
who have a passion for it. The third statement which is the use of language somehow reflects
one's intelligence. At this statement, my mother's view on it was that intelligence doesn't
manifest in the matter in what language you spoke and it is not in any way a measure of how
smart a person is. As for the next myth which states that people who are fluent in another
language may not have complete mastery of their native language. Her reactions pretty much
told me that it all depends on the person if he/she spends time in mastering her native language
or prioritize mastering other languages. The response given to the next myth was that everyone
is at the same starting line and the ability to learn a language is all decided if you're dedicated
enough to persevere. For the next one which states that if you want to get it right, go to the
dictionary. This was true from her point of view since it was indeed very helpful. As for myths
that learning Chinese is easier if you came to a Chinese background. The answer states that it is
only natural since the environment helps a person quickly learn the language.