I had a background in a multilingual home. My dad being an immigrant speaks Spanish, Italian, German, Arabic, and English. My mom only spoke English and Spanish. However, I always felt the need to learn languages. When it came to taking high school Spanish, I fell in love. Suddenly I realized teaching Languages and becoming a polyglot was my goal in life. So far I’ve been doing great with French, and Spanish. I recently just started Korean as well.
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I hated languages. Granny would speak French and Catalan at me, Mom would use English… I only wanted to speak Low-Middle Class Urban Eastern Caribbean Spanish.
Then love, maturity, exile and life turned me into a field linguist, documenting indigenous languages.
I use the monolingual method as a way to navigate ethnically mega diverse and hyper multilingual landscapes such as rural southern Yunnan where I’ve engaged with 9 distinct varieties In the past two years alone:
South-Western Mandarin
Yuanjianghua
Nisu
Nesu
Hani
Alo
Southern Bai
Phala
and my field language: Phola.
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Born in a multilingual family, I am exposed to different languages since young. My father is Korean and my mother is Taiwanese. Therefore, I have been speaking Korean, Chinese and Taiwanese since young, which explains why I have 3 native languages.
My first foreign language experience was when I went overseas to study in high school and I needed to learn English. Coming from a pure East Asian background, I struggled with English a lot and I didn’t enjoy the learning process back then, which I am thankful for now, being able to communicate in English “fluently”.
My second foreign language experience, which was the one that made me realised I love languages, was back in high school when I met a couple of Malaysian friends. I was so fascinated by the Malay language and I fell in love with Malay music, food and culture. That was when I decided to start learning Malay and also Indonesian shortly after realising how similar these 2 languages are. I was so motivated back then that I would look forward to any opportunity to speak to a Malay or Indonesian speaker. That was when I realised that I love languages, Asian languages to be exact.
I have been learning English, Malay and Indonesian for 9 years and I am glad that I took the decision to study Malay and Indonesian. This started my language learning journey and throughout these 9 years, I’ve seen my English, Malay and Indonesian go from an absolute beginner to a C2 level which made me feel confident in myself. I’ve also started to learn Vietnamese and Cantonese 5 years ago, Japanese 2 years ago and I’ve recently started learning Thai and Swahili.
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In my line of work, I find that I couldn’t “switch off” and my mind is constantly busy, working. I needed something to distract me so that I can relax.
I found it in language learning. When I am learning a new language, my mind would focus on just that one task so much so that time would while away without me knowing.
It’s rather therapeutic for me.
Also, my love for reading. It is my point to read materials in the author’s original written language and not translated version in English.
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Terima kasih! Apa kabar!
Khabar baik. Semoga anda juga sedang menikmati hari Jumaat ini.
I probably realised how much I love languages after I had had my first conversation in German. I was 15 at the time, and German was my 3rd language.
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Hej, hvordan går det! My name is Matias and I’m from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I give you a warm welcome.
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Am learning Korean now, a big fan of the Korean culture of family concept. The speaking part was quite easy to pick up as it sounded somewhat like Malay. You might have found it to be the case when you were learning Malay.
Malay has always been a pride of mine as it is my way of identifying with my country. A language that I learned all the way to our A-level equivalent, it was like just yesterday when I sat through the exam, writing and writing in Malay for all my subjects including mathematics.
Your post brought back loads of memories.
Thank you for sharing.
Cheers,
Ivan
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It was few years ago, actually when I discovered A.J. Hoge’s Effortless English. Since that time I have improved a lot. I also have developed my love for languages and foreign cultures!
Well, first I am interested in just about everything but my interest in language started in my early teens. In 1967 when I was 11 the Canadian government decided that English Canada neede to learn French. That fall we my school started French classes. They had an odd program. We were just supposed to absorb it. The teacher did pantomimes and there were cartoons but no French English vocabulary. I lived in a small town and there wasn’t so much as a French English dictionary. I just didn’t get it maybe because I am a divergent thinker and saw multiple possiblities in the learning materials and never was able to put words to meanings. So this went on for two more years. In the end I could not understand more than a few words but I could do the grammar so I was able to passed. That was when I fell in love with grammar.
Though you would think I would have been reluctant to study more languages. I quit French and signed up for German and Latin which used more traditional methods and I learned how to learn a language.I went back and even took another year of French.
Later I studied psychology in university where I was especially interested in cognitive psychology and how language works in the brain.
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