The British cyclist says that learning a new language is a bit like cycling in that you don't want to lose momentum.
Raise Your Game: How did you set about starting to learn French?
Yanto Barker: The fact that I wasn't scared to ask questions I think was one of the main things that helped me. I had a dictionary and a diary, and every day I used to write down words that I'd heard if I didn't know them after I had looked them up and also their meanings.
I just went through the dictionary looking at English-French translations asking "What's the word for this?" or remembering a conversation that I'd had during the day in French with one of my team mates or my director, or perhaps at the shop. Or sometimes it was just thinking "How do I say that?" and then looking it up and writing it down. I did make quite an effort like that to be honest.
RYG: What did you find hardest?
Profile
Name:
Yanto Barker
Born:
6 January 1980
From:
Carmarthen, Wales
Event:
Road race - retired in 2007
Internationals:
Wales & GB
Achievements:
- Best British rider overall in the Tour of Britain, 2005
- 3rd place in the British National Championships, 2005
YB:To be honest it's all hard (laughs)! I can't think of one specific area. I get this feeling that when you learn a language like French in school it's hard, but the way I learnt the language was purely conversational. There were no areas that I learnt well and areas that I learnt less well, or areas that they teach you. It was just everyday language that I learnt and so it came in very evenly. Obviously I learnt the cycling terminology first because that was most common and easily used.
Then after that it was the shopping area. I remember thinking questions like what time and where are we going to meet? How much and when are we going to be paid? Where and how far is the race? Those were the main three subjects that you really got on the ball about because you needed your money, you needed to eat and you needed to be at the race, because that's what you were there for. Everything else was secondary. I did focus my intentions on those three areas first then you develop the more rounded vocabulary as you go on. It's very drip, drip, drip - a slow process.
RYG: How long did it take you to learn?
YB: I went every season from the year 2000 until last year 2004, including both of them, so that's five seasons. I wouldn't say that I started to understand the TV and really to understand French until August 2003 (the season runs February to October), so that's 3 and a half seasons at 9 months a season... so basically a long time (laughs)!
The watershed for me was really watching the TV and really understanding everything that was going on. What you notice is when you're in France and people know you are foreign and you don't speak French very well, they speak to you in a language which is simple, and so you go round speaking simply.
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French Cycling Terms
Peloton - The bunch. The main group in a cycle race.
Domestique - Servant. Rider who's main job is to help the team leader, rather than going for glory themselves.
Maillot jaune - Yellow jersey. As worn by the leader of the Tour de France.
Etape - stage. Long cycling races are broken up into stages to be completed each day.
Equipe - Team. Although race wins provide individual glory, professional cyclists rely heavily on the help of their team-mates
You can understand the conversation you are having, but it is toned down. The next step is understanding two French people talking to each other, because they are not speaking simple language they are using colloquial slang or phrases to suit the region or the area. The next step that I remember visualising in my head was the television. All subjects, all areas were incorporated in that. It was just the way people spoke and it took in all of France.
RYG: Can you read and write in French?
YB: I can read and I can write. My writing in English has a few mistakes and it's followed on in French, so I write it with a few mistakes, but it's understood.
RYG: Did these skills come later than the spoken word?
YB: Writing did. Reading came together, because there is no accent and you can understand a lot of the words because a lot of the words are the same but with an accent in French and English. It's just when they are speaking it so fast and it's mixed up with all the words that aren't the same you can get completely lost.
So when you are reading the newspaper, I used to buy L'Equipe, and read all the results it is easier to read than it is to listen to. That was a good measure, and you also got an idea of the word, and you could recognise that word with that accent. There is like a puzzle that fits together towards the end.
RYG: Would you do anything different if you had to do it all again?
YB: Do you know what, I don't think I would! I have a philosophy that I don't like to have regrets in my life. I like to do what's best at the time if you see what I mean. I do follow that quite closely, because it bothers me not to.
RYG: Would you have any tips for people looking to get into cycling, or looking to start learning a new language?
YB: An analogy I can use is that learning a new language and riding a bike is a bit like momentum. If you imagine yourself on a bike, you have to keep pedalling to keep the momentum up and if you are learning a language you have to keep learning and focusing on learning a language to keep your momentum up. Losing a momentum and then picking a momentum up again is losing energy and a lot more inefficient than if you keep a nice smooth momentum or a nice smooth pedal action going all the time. You get further for less energy.