Sometimes I question why it is I'm doing what I'm doing. Why do I want to share the passion I have for learning a language with others? What is it that makes me feel that this is a worthwhile career choice for me? Why do I believe that languages are important? I want to address these questions in this post.
With Brexit in mind, the importance of learning another language has been put into question. Prior to the dreaded B word, us Brits (and potentially native English speakers in general) were already characterised by an arrogance when it comes to learning another language, or maybe an ignorance, whereby we think that everyone speaks English, and thus ask ourselves why we need to bother.
Let me take you back to about 2007 at a metro station in Paris. I was in line, waiting to buy a ticket and an American man was 'communicating' with the woman behind the counter. Even though she was speaking clear English, showing patience and an excellent level of customer service, he gradually turned a shade of crimson and shouted at her, "can you speak more clearly, I can't understand you at all!" I simultaneously laughed and growled inside; the audacity! I couldn't imagine how the woman he was speaking to must have felt. That interaction summed up the aforementioned arrogance and assumption that everyone should speak English.
In school, I soon realised that in mastering a language, or two, doors to different cultures and countries would be opened to me. I remember a Spanish trip with some school friends when we were studying for our A-level and we had travelled just outside Barcelona for work experience. I waitressed at a small tapas bar which I adored. I recall one evening were I sat with my friends and I interpreted between them, the barman and a French speaking person, which gave me such a buzz, being the link, the facilitator, the conduit for communication to take place.
When I decided to travel to South America when I was 18, the sheer look of delight on people's faces when I spoke to them (in albeit poor A-level Spanish) was priceless, you could see that they appreciated the fact that I had endeavoured to learn their language and I was able to build a level of relationship with them that I otherwise wouldn't have had I not spoken Spanish.
My French A-level enabled me to go and work in an Irish pub in Paris (yes, I said an Irish pub!), and work as an au-pair when I was 20. This was an amazing time spent soaking up Parisian culture, making friends and immersing myself in the French language. A year later, when I was considering taking up a place at the University of Nottingham, my dad suggested I apply to the Sorbonne University. I was daunted, but decided to give it a go. Fast forward 2 years and I was completing my second year in a Foreign Applied languages degree at the Sorbonne. The experience there was one that warrants a post of its own! I made firm friends with my landlady at the time, a wonderful woman named Liliane who was a force of nature and is now in her eighties. We've recently reconnected and I'm planning to go and visit her soon. I also made very close friends with Filippa, a wonderful, intelligent and kind Swedish woman who I am still friends with today and whom I was able to visit in Sweden a few years ago.
For the third year of my degree, I carried out Erasmus in Barcelona, which enabled me to study fascinating subjects such as peace and democracy processes in Latin America and further my technical skills in interpreting and translating. I also lived with three Italians there, one of whom I saw just a few weeks ago after 10 years! I also took up a module in Catalan, which is a fascinating and complex language. Since then, I have lived and worked again in Paris, Seville and Biarritz in South West France. I have gathered friends from all around the world, some of whom I'm still in regular contact with.
I haven't written this post to boast about my achievements, but rather, shed some light on why languages are so important to me and how they've changed my life. There are so many experiences that I have had, cities I've visited, friends I've made and people I've loved. For those of us who've travelled, we all know the ability of those experiences to broaden your horizons and open your mind, but speaking with people in those countries in their native language is something beyond words, it's so special and deeply bonding. I love the feeling of being several different versions of myself when I speak my native English, then French and Spanish. You realise you almost adopt a different persona and character traits stand out when speaking different languages.
With the current global political and economical climate, I feel that now more than ever, it is of utmost importance that we forge connections, that we work on communication, that we show the rest of Europe that we don't want to be isolated on this island and we don't think we're better than everyone else. We need each other. We need foreign culture like air. We need friends from other countries, it helps us to look outside of our small, safe bubbles of existence and realise that there are other ways of living, speaking, eating, drinking, dancing, communicating.
So I urge you, if you're a bit bored, potentially considering taking up another hobby but you're not sure what, please consider learning a language. Not only will it stimulate grey matter in your brain, (yes science says so), but it can be fun and enable you next time you sit down at that café in the Mediterranean sun or on that Parisian terrace, to order your coffee or wine in their native language and I guarantee your drink will taste even better due to the sense of satisfaction you'll experience!
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