Second Language
By PLETHOS
@Plethos (13560)
United States
April 27, 2017 3:22pm CST
English is not my first language, Spanish was my first language. I started to learn english as a kindergartner. One of the things that I feel really helped me was trying and learning how to read comic books, in both english and spanish.
When I was a kid, my parents would always go to Mexicali to visit one of my two uncles who lived there. He would always stop at a street vendor who was selling carne asada tacos. There would also be a news stand of some sort nearby also, it sold newspapers, magazines and comic books, in both languages!
By the time I got to third grade, I was reading at a high level and you couldn't really tell that english was my second language.
I still remember reading "El Condorito" and "El Negrito" (very unpoliticaly correct by todays standards) in spanish and "Archie", "Heathcliff" comics in english and sometimes some sort of lucha libre (wrestling) tabloid or the news magazine of "La Voz", ( it was really graphic) which showed mostly a lot of gory accident photos.
It seems to some that I may of have learned english in a bit of an odd way, but hey, I learned english.
Photograph- Taken/Owned by me, Plethos
14 people like this
15 responses
@marguicha (216082)
• Chile
27 Apr 17
Comic books helped me learn English when I was 11 and we went to the US for a year and a half. That and TV. We saw all sorts of things on TV until a lady told my mother that we were speaking like cowboys
6 people like this
@marguicha (216082)
• Chile
27 Apr 17
@jaboUK There was Roy Royers and Gene Autry then.
4 people like this
@jaboUK (64361)
• United Kingdom
28 Apr 17
@marguicha Funny you should mention them as I've just written a post about going to the cinema as a child. I described seeing the cowboy pictures and I mentioned those two, amongst others. I haven't posted it yet, will probably do that tomorrow.
3 people like this
@chrissbergstrom (10767)
• Banks, Oregon
27 Apr 17
Sounds like a fun way to learn a different language, i think if i had started trying to learn Spanish when i was younger i may know more of it now
4 people like this
@marguicha (216082)
• Chile
28 Apr 17
I don´t much believe in learning anything in a boring way. I would not teach a language starting with grammar. Coversation is the thing.
3 people like this
@chrissbergstrom (10767)
• Banks, Oregon
28 Apr 17
@Plethos i know how to count to ten, uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cincp, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez
3 people like this
@Nawsheen (28643)
• Mauritius
27 Apr 17
My story is quite similar to yours. Though the national language is English here my mothertongue is the mauritian creole. I started learning English when i was in kindergarten and by the time I started college I became a pro at english. Im just kidding
4 people like this
@LadyDuck (459742)
• Switzerland
28 Apr 17
English is not my first language either, I am Italian and my first language is Italian. I studied English in school (as well as French and Spanish). When I got married, we moved to France and nothing is better than living in a place to learn to speak a language like a local. We bought our first computer in 1979, it was very useful to write and understand a better English. My Spanish is not very well, but I can understand what Spanish say and order at a restaurant without that people realize I am not Spanish.
3 people like this
@Plethos (13560)
• United States
1 May 17
i know some italian, good fellas italian, is what my friends and i call it, because we learned the words and phrases from the movies like, good fellas, godfather and casino. we would use it around strangers as a joke and they would look at us funny, one time we were asked straight out if we were real mafia, we laughed.
3 people like this
@marguicha (216082)
• Chile
28 Apr 17
The result is that my accent is terrible. And I have a good written English as I like literature and have read all the English classics in English.
2 people like this
@MALUSE (69409)
• Germany
27 Apr 17
English is also the second language for me (after German). The difference between you and me is, however, that you've always lived in an English atmosphere so-to-speak whereas for me English doesn't exist outside of school, university and books.
3 people like this
@MALUSE (69409)
• Germany
28 Apr 17
@Plethos I know about Spanglish. There's even literature in Spanglish. Many years ago I got to know it in a seminar where Spanglish poetry was discussed. An interesting topic. Yet, people can only move forward in life if they know both languages perfectly. If they only know the mixture, they're condemned to stay in their close circle.
3 people like this
@Plethos (13560)
• United States
28 Apr 17
what you say about my environment would be true when i was a kid growing up. now, everything is mostly in spanish. its what happens when the area doesnt stress integration like it used to, instead it changed to accommadate the spanish langauge. so its become one big jumbled hybrid language known as Spanglish.
3 people like this
@crossbones27 (48480)
• Mojave, California
27 Apr 17
That is what I say, does not matter how you learn as long as you learn. People tend to think there has to be a set standard to do anything these days. I prefer to go what works for each of us in our own way because most likely that is a much more efficient way for our time and resources.
2 people like this
@prashu228 (37525)
• India
29 Apr 17
English is not my first language even, well i can read and write three languages , i am thinking to learn another language now.
3 people like this
@else34 (13517)
• New Delhi, India
17 May 17
@Plethos I'm from India and English is a foreign language for me.I learned English at school.My English is not perfect.Now if I can try to express myself in this foreign language,the cremit goes to Mylot.It is on the platform provided by this site that I attempt to improve my writing skills in English.
2 people like this
@DaddyEvil (137142)
• United States
2 May 17
I really like your photo, Plethos! Did you add the neon look or did you actually set up the display with the neon lights behind the small figures?
I just deleted most of what I wrote here. *sigh!* I couldn't make it come out the way I wanted it to come out so thought it better to just shut up! 
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (137142)
• United States
10 May 17
@Plethos So.... did you get lots of great comments on your picture on Instagram?
(I was pretty sure you liked the picture or you wouldn't have gone to the trouble of setting it up and taking the photo! grinning at you! 
)
)1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (137142)
• United States
12 May 17
@Plethos Oh! (I have an account there, but can't remember why I made it. As far as I can remember, the only time I've gone there is to look at the photos you posted. That was a long time ago!)
I didn't pay much attention to how the site worked. I was just looking at your photos... It seems like I couldn't log into my account back then? (Do you remember? Did I happen to mention why I had a problem on there to you?)
From what I do remember, you should expect more than just a like! (I'd get a bit uhm... peeved if all I got was a like after spending time working on lighting, substance and theme in those photos, like you obviously do... maybe that is just me, though. *shrug!*)
1 person likes this
@Plethos (13560)
• United States
12 May 17
@DaddyEvil - nah, no one really responds on instagram. its just a "like" that people mostly give.
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
28 Apr 17
That sounds like the perfect way to learn a language, although by default you're lucky that you could learn it in an English speaking environment. We have a lot of students at college who come from non-English speaking homes {Polish, Russian, Romanian, Hungarian, Pakistani, Thai, Filipino, Portuguese ...} and I'm always in awe of how they may have only been here a few years and have still picked up English to a better standard than some of our students who are from English speaking homes and have tried their best to never have to learn a second language!
2 people like this
@MALUSE (69409)
• Germany
28 Apr 17
Children can learn many languages without problems. I had pupils who spoke five or even six languages. But there must be interest to do so. Speaking English - the world language No1 - and cultivating the sense of 'splendid isolation' doesn't help.
3 people like this
@Plethos (13560)
• United States
28 Apr 17
if the environment requires you to integrate into your current cultural surroundings, you will do it. the ones not learning a second language perhaps they think that they will never leave the homeland and therefore dont take interest to learn. but just wait till one of them wants to talk to a cutie who speaks a different language, all of a sudden its crash course time !
2 people like this
@abhinalstrikr (4111)
• India
3 May 17
Congratulations, its good and one can communicate all over the world i guess
1 person likes this
