How the language(s) we speak become who we are
Three students explain how multilingualism has helped them connect with other cultures.
20-year-old Iranian student Mahya Mirsadeghi did not like learning new languages at first. “I was like, ‘What's the point of studying all those languages?,’” she asked herself when her family moved abroad for two years so she could learn French and Arabic. She already spoke Persian and English, wasn’t that enough?
“The more languages you learn, the more personalities you have, the more ideas you will have, the more world you will have.”
But Mahya’s attitude changed after she realised how much learning new languages helped her grow. “The more languages you learn, the more personalities you have, the more ideas you will have, the more world you will have,” shares Mahya about her journey to becoming a polyglot (a person who knows several languages). “It made me more open minded, sociable and have more confidence because I know that if I meet anyone, I can connect with them.”
Today Mahya can speak eight languages. During the pandemic, she co-founded an online language school to support students who want to continue their language studies at home. Mahya loves that digital language learning allows students to “travel around the world and learn about different cultures” all from their bedrooms. She sees the change language education makes in herself and others. “I can accept different cultures easier because I've learned and I've studied about them,” Mahya says. “I can really feel the difference between a person who only knows one language and those people who can speak multiple languages.”
(Courtesy of Mahya Mirsadeghi)
A fellow polyglot, 19-year-old Tunisian student Sarra Chaouch grew up speaking Arabic and French. She started learning English in school at the age of 6 and began studying Spanish five years ago. “I totally believe that a language opens the door to the world and that's the only thing that made me want to learn languages,” the pharmacy student shares. “When I learn a language, I feel self-confident while talking to people in their native language. It helps you express your feelings and communicate.”
Sarra loves that languages have the power to create cross-cultural connections. “You learn different traditions, different ways of thinking when you meet people that are different from you,” she shares. “You learn how they think, how maybe they have things in their countries that you don't have. It makes you learn many things.” As Sarra prepares to move to Romania for university, she is focused on learning Romanian. “I believe that if you want to learn to understand a society, you need to learn its language to understand them, to communicate,” she explains.
(Courtesy of Sarra Chaouch)
18-year-old Brazilian student Lari Carolina Magalhães is an aspiring polyglot — but this wasn’t always her dream. She assumed she’d never leave Brazil and thought learning multiple languages was unnecessary. But after studying English in school, she realised that she was able to comprehend English TV shows and song lyrics. “I was like, ‘Oh I can understand this, this is cool,’” she remembers thinking. That experience inspired Lari to commit to her English lessons and expand her studies to new languages. A massive K-pop fan, Lari started studying Korean last year in order to better understand her favourite artists. She also recently picked up Spanish and Japanese studies.
Lari shares her language journey on her Instagram @languageswithlari, where she posts pictures of her notebooks and some serious #studymotivation. “I wanted to share with people because I wanted to help people who may feel things I feel because I don't think it's that easy to learn a lot of languages at the same time,” Lari explains. Watching old videos from her account is also a way for her to track her progress and see how she’s improved.
(Courtesy of Lari Carolina Magalhães)
For other young women interested in studying another language, the three language students have a lot of advice. “I like to read things or listen to music and lyrics. That helps,” shares Lari, who also watches TV series in the languages she’s learning. Lari advises being patient with yourself as well. She remembers feeling frustrated that her development in Korean — which involved learning an entirely new alphabet — wasn’t fast enough, but now she has learned to relax and knows that progress will happen if she gives it a chance.
Mahya likes turning to YouTube to learn about specific subjects that interest her. “Like today I watch a video about lifestyles, tomorrow a video about nature, about politics. I can learn the vocabulary related to that topic,” shares Mahya. She also believes that books and reading can only get you so far and suggests talking to native speakers as much as possible and trying to mimic their accents or expressions.
For Sarra, the most important advice is that it’s never too late to learn a new language. “Learning languages has no age, you can start learning them at any age,” she shares. “I started learning Romanian while I'm 19, so it's totally fine. That's my advice. Get motivated.”
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