AES06 Language Learning

Language defines how we perceive and interact with everything and everyone. The ability to form sentences that impart complex meanings is one of the reasons for our species’ success. When you want to travel or live abroad, language is one of the most important aspects to consider, since it can pose a significant challenge that will shape your experiences.

I remember when I was a kid where knowing English was a very impressive skill, but nowadays it’s almost a prerequisite to interact with the wider world, I’ve seen very young children speaking English to each other fluently and naturally, and it’s funny to me seeing them use fancy words and inflections. The world has definitely changed, it is now more open and interconnected as ever.

From when I was very little, most of the content and media I consume was in English, so in a way I’m more comfortable using it than my own mother tongue. Apparently when I was a kid my parents saw me laughing at a comic strip in a newspaper. It was a fairly complex joke in English and they were surprised that I could read and even understand it. Nowadays, I use English for 70% of my daily interactions, since most of my friends live abroad. 

Recently, I’ve been learning Dutch to further my education, and it has been a really interesting experience. It has lots of similar words to English and German since it’s in the same language family tree. Also, because of the Netherland’s long history with Indonesia, we share lots of words which are fun to discover and re-learn. Do you have any languages you’re interested in learning? Give it a try! It might be easier than you think, you can meet some amazing people doing it, and maybe even get life changing opportunities along the way.