On learning English . . .

As my dear friend, Ali, has probably told you, his students, I was born in Hungary. I came to the United States when I was 18 years old. That was 51 years ago by now (and, yes, that makes me an old man of 69 by this time). I knew German at that point, having spent a little over two years in Austria - and, of course, I knew my native language (which is Hungarian). In fact, I was an avid reader in my native language from about the age of 6. I don't ever remember a time when I didn't have a book in hand, though as a young student I usually didn't read what I was supposed to read. I was a "bad" kid who followed his own desires. Well, "bad" in a good sense, I suppose. The word is mischievous. Never mind.

In any case, by the time we (my mother and I) landed in New York City, I was fairly well-versed in matters of language and literature. But all this sophistication, if I may use that word, slipped away from me when it came to English. Not knowing English made me look like an idiot in America. Well, no one assumed that that's what I was, but that's how you feel when you can't understand the language of the people among whom you find yourself. So I was very keen on trying to do something about this. And that's how I began to take learning English seriously.

I never really took up courses in it. I didn't have to. I was in the country where the language was spoken, so all I had to do is do my best to "pick it up." But that's easier said than done. In any case, I went to it every chance I had. I got myself a Hungarian-English / English-Hungarian dictionary and just kept looking at it at random. Trying to memorize words was a first step. I also had some primitive language tutorials on hand. These were published for people like me, for new immigrants to the United States whose native language was Hungarian.

That was the beginning. In less than a year I knew enough English to enroll in a university course for the first required course for American students in English. The course was English 101. Many years later, by the time I was a professor of English, I ended up teaching that same course myself. But the road to that time was fairly long. And right now I feel that this little article of mine is also long enough. So I'll finish it with this final thought: my own example clearly shows that it is possible to go from complete ignorance to impressive knowledge. In fact, as a rule, we should never stop learning. To this day I like to browse in the Webster's Dictionary where I usually try to find some new word to learn. I guess I'll never be too old to learn new things. And right now, I am even learning things about Iran. So be it.