Page:Madras journal of literature and science vol 2 new series 1857.djvu/227

 JULY — SEPT. 1857.] The Study of Living Languages^ S17

simply because in general they had no distinct ideas at all on the matter, nor any solid reason for any thing they had done in their studies. He has however got various hints from observing what progress different men had made in such studies when using different means. On one occasion he met with a young man who had given his whole time to Arabic for three years, and could not then produce a sentence in conversation, and soon after he was intimate with another who in about 8 months and while loaded with other duties, had obtained, if not an accurate yet such an effective, colloquial use of the same tongue, that he regularly transacted exten- sive business in jt»with strangers of all sorts without the least diffi- culty. Again, in lAdia one meets every day with men who have studied most diligently for one, two or three years, and yet all their life after speak a language, that both from pronunciation and expression is almost, or quite, unintelligible to any Native, excepting those who from being about them constantly in an official capacity have learnt their language, (for what they used and called the Native language was really a language of their own invention) and so have come to understand them.

The writer cannot conclude these remarks without expressing his full assurance that the acquisition of a correct knowledge and perfectly ready colloquial use of such languages will be found to be a matter requiring very little time compared with what it does at present, in most cases, when a better mode of learning is adopt- ed. On one occasion he had an opportunity of observing the progress made by children in acquiring a new language in a certain time. Out of a number that embarked in a ship in India many did not know a word of English, having previously used nothing but some Indian language, and they were of various ages. During the four months of the voyage to England every one of them had so perfectly acquired the use of English that they never were at a loss, and latterly seemed to have as good a knowjedge of it as those who had always used it. Now if children of a few years old, without the slightest assistance from teachers or study, could thus pick up a colloquial use of a new language in four months and talk it exactly like one who had never talked any thing else,