Love Affair with Language

Since learning to read, language has been my passion. I devoured books as a youngster. Of course, the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys series as well as the Little House on the Prairie books were must reads. (Do young tweens/teens read those anymore?) I then moved on to Agatha Christie’s mysteries. Yes, she wrote in English, but British English which made her stories all the more exciting to me and showed me that even within a language there are variations of vocabulary and expression from one country/region to another.

In elementary school we were asked to choose one of a variety of subjects to study short-term – I chose Spanish, and thus my love of foreign languages was born! My high school Spanish teacher used to say that when you learn a language you also learn the culture of the native speakers. The two are inextricably intertwined, the deeper one goes into learning any language, including one’s own native tongue. Reading books in a foreign language can also give one insight into the culture.

What do you like to read? And do you read in another language?