77/100 How I’ve Thought about Language Learning Since My Exams
Perspectives on Language Learning
Learning languages has only confirmed the immense variety of human experience. I adore the newness and the care involved with the whole process.
Thus, I go on.
Spanish became a target again once I regained my confidence in learning. I’ve made revenge on my high school scare. While working with Harvard Business Publishing, I worked on a project with Grupos Financieros Banorte, one of the largest banks in Mexico. Naturally, I struggled at times, but I’m proud to say I held it down with my Spanish. I fully recommend my tutor.
I’ve come to see languages as their family groups. I’m certified in two of the five major romance languages (romance being that their root is Latin, the language of the Romans).
This proximity helps me keep the others close by as I focus on one. Italian and Spanish use very similar phonology, and so that was a rapid boost in regaining Spanish. French and Italian are very related on their morpheme levels, using very similar patterns such that they almost use the same words, though French has its unique sound.
I learned enough Romanian to manage shopping and the post office while there during my 100 solo travel days. I still want to go back to it at times. It is also a romance language, though surrounded by Slavic languages.
There is a supra-mega language called Indo-European, a common root that connects languages from Irish to Russian to Sanskrit in some of the oldest words we know. It takes a high level of awareness to see these similarities in practice, but, for me, that made it such that I should think of learning Persian.
Hold this idea: you experience your life through language; the joy and safety I’ve found in others as I’ve spoken their language is a serious thing. Thus, I had the idea that Persian would be appropriate, especially with the recent fall of Afghanistan.
With language learning, I’ve also come to recognize a level of privilege I carry. Many have been surprised to find that I speak a few languages. Even though I started this journey in southern California, my attempted multilingualism was something more unique than others. My home region is richly and deeply multilingual: Spanish, Vietnamese, Arabic, Persian, Korean, the list is big.
But the astonishment can be summarized as “wow, a white boy who knows languages?” because, let us be direct, race is a factor in this. Everyone is surprised when the white dude says anything not in English; people are easily disturbed by any person of color saying anything not in English.
Multilingualism is in fact the norm of life across the globe, but in the US, too often do I hear this sentiment of “speak English or get out.” This sentiment demonstrates a critical failure of worthy US values: hospitality and diversity.
Recognizing my presence in this, I’ve decided that it is appropriate to languages that are typically ignored or “less than”, and as I take inspiration from my new home in DC, I find that I want to learn languages that are spoken on the continent of Africa, namely Amharic, Swahili, Zulu, or Arabic. As I build my next learning plan, I prioritize these.
As I have expressed before, curiosity is such a thing that it can express love; learning about the world is to also love it. I love the world around me, and I cherish the variety of life around me. I want to participate, and I embrace my presence with love and responsibility.
More soon,
Trevor