'How I learnt to speak three languages – including Alsatian'

Learning a language can feel like a long uphill climb, but Peter Brooks, a 70-year-old British man has managed to become fluent in four: his native English, as well as French, German, and Alsatian, a regional language spoken in eastern France near the German border.

For Mr Brooks, learning a language was never just an academic goal. It grew naturally from travel, relationships, and the desire to communicate with the people around him.

“I was born in Leicester and went to a grammar school and began learning French at around 11,” he said. “From the first year, it was just a fun thing, not an effort.”

His early interest in languages was also shaped by family travel. His father worked for the railways and enjoyed travelling, which meant Mr Brooks visited France several times as a child.

“Learning a language meant something to me,” he says, adding that these experiences made languages feel alive rather than theoretical.

German came later, during his studies and professional life, but Alsatian entered his life in a much more personal way.

After university, Brooks worked as an English assistant in Lorraine, near the German border. There, he was exposed to a local dialect closely related to Alsatian. “It’s really the border from a linguistic point of view,” he says. “I picked up some notions.”

But the real turning point came when he met his future wife, Véronique, originally from Haguenau in Alsace, while in the UK. The couple later moved to Alsace when he was 23, and have lived in Haguenau there ever since. He worked as a logistics manager.

Alsatian then became part of his everyday life.

“If you try to speak Alsatian and you know German, then whatever you don’t know in Alsatian, you say in German and people understand,” he explains. “So it’s a progressive thing.”

He also recalls being encouraged by his wife’s cousin, who told him: “If you want to speak to the members of the family, then it would be best to learn Alsatian.” That advice pushed him to develop it further.

Unlike standard languages, Alsatian is not fixed. It changes from village to village. “It’s still very much alive, but people speak it less, like many regional dialects,” he says.

Today, he notes that it is still used in some families, but mainly in private or domestic settings. It is spoken by around 600,000 to 900,000 people.

He also made mention of its complex history, shaped by shifting French and German control over the past century. These historical changes, he explains, still influence how the dialect is used today, especially among older generations who grew up speaking it at home.

This sometimes creates a sense of exclusion for outsiders when conversations switch from French into the regional language, though Brooks stresses it is not intentional. “It’s not a conscious thing. People are just more at ease.”

For him, the motivation to learn Alsatian was deeply personal. “It was love,” he says simply.

Focus on similarities between languages

Asked what advice he would give to people trying to learn languages later in life, he encouraged a positive approach. He believes learners should focus on similarities between languages rather than differences, making the process feel more natural and less intimidating.

He believes attitude matters more than difficulty. “People look at problems rather than similarities,” he says. “English and German, for example, have a lot in common.”

At the end of the interview, Mr Brooks also offered a traditional Alsatian saying for readers:

“Geteildi Freid Isch doppelti Freid; Geteildes Leid Isch halwes Leid.”

He translates it as: “Joy shared is double joy; pain shared is half pain.”