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What Language Meant



          “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” – Nelson Mandela
          “To speak another language is to possess another soul” – Charlemagne

          Language-fever struck me when I was 21 years of age (about 2 years ago), and I have not been healed ever since, which I want it to stay that way. For good. Language has been my life since forever. It filled my life with exciting adventures of learning lots and lots of languages. I have learnt Deutsch, Dutch, Spanish and French for the past two years while now I focus on my French only.

          I first realized the importance of language was when I was doing my school-research, by that time I already knew some Dutch words and I stumbled upon one of the research (I was able to understand only the title, though) written in Dutch and I could guess what the research was all about! That was an eye-opening moment for me, as I realize that by knowing other languages-any languages, I have so much more opportunities than my peers. I get a full-access to any of their resources (their research, their books, their music, everything), I’m able to travel around the world with no fear, I can have friends all over the world, I can be a citizen of the world.

          I took a French course for a month (which I did not study the day before my test took place and to my surprised, I got 85). What I did the night before was I conducted a play on my head, a “play-pretend”, so to speak. I pretend that I was having a conversation about that particular topic, replayed it over and over again and voila! I don’t even have to think by the time I took the real test.

          There is no such thing as “the language genes”. I made language as part of my daily life, immersiveness is the key. I changed my phone’s language to my target language (it automatically change all of my apps’ language too), I read articles, books, watched videos and movies, listening to its music, I also watched TEDTalks videos using French subtitle at this moment. I do all of that with English too and suddenly one day I could understand the whole movie without seeing any of its subtitle. During my college years I took notes in English (I automatically translates them in my head, Indonesia to English), I write my diary in English, I work part-time as a translator IND    <-> ENG this past year and I invited my friends to speak English with me. Doing those things more or less made me familiar with that particular language, I passively and unconsciously learning, sometimes actively. I had fun doing it.

          Language is like a puzzle for me. A never-ending, interesting one. We will never know what every single word means, but we can always guess what they are about in general. That’s why we must translate language by sentences, not words. To be able to grasp its meaning. As you may already know, one word might have double-meaning, it may be similar in pronounciation, it grammar sucks, it also can be very confusing (yet still captivating). I didn’t know everything in English but I read and write a lot so now English came naturally as if it is my native language.

          I’m so grateful that my parents fully-support my hobbies, be it languages, writing or anything. But one thing that resonates to me the most was the moment when my dad cheerfully said something to my mom : I’m so proud of her! She wrote in English like its nothing, she wrote it like its her mother tongue.

          That compliment really made my day and I instantly feel grateful. For everything. So happy learning to you all! 




    (photo courtesy of google.com)

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