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| Image by Tessa Kavanagh from Pixabay |
Although I’m—humbly speaking—quite smart, learning more languages didn’t cross my mind until my mid-twenties. I’ve been bilingual my whole life, just like around 90% of my town. Picking up more languages didn’t seem worth it. Being multilingual is so rare here I wouldn’t have anyone to speak to. There’s also a “settling” mentality that dominates this town. Everyone is too content with what they have (even if it’s not much) that very, very few aspire for more. I’m one of those minority, and it is a major reason why I’m itching to leave. I want more, and that isn’t reachable here.
I also took long to start learning a new language because schools don’t offer such classes. There wasn’t anything except Spanish during my time in high school. And in college I didn’t even think of taking any foreign language courses. Back then I intended to major in English. By the time I wanted to learn a new language, I couldn’t return to school. I also didn’t think it was possible to learn a language without a teacher. That held me back for a little bit.
One day I was browsing music on YouTube. I wasn’t subscribed to a music streaming service yet. It was also already out of fashion to buy music CDs. An album in my recommendations caught my eye: Mes Courants Electriques by Alizee. I remember it well because the album art was distinctive. I played a few songs, although I couldn’t understand them. Despite that, I liked the music. French is a beautiful language. Later I discovered another French singer. She was Joyce Jonathan. It was a coup de foudre for me. Joyce’s voice was the most beautiful I’d ever heard. That was enough to convince me to learn French.
Another thing that made me decide to learn a language was time. I was old enough to start noticing years passing by. They didn’t go fast, one after another, but it was enough to make me stop and think. It was in late 2015 when I thought to myself “Time would keep passing”. There was no stopping it. Did I want to find myself five years later, still not knowing a new language? No. It would have been one of my biggest regrets. So, teacher or no teacher, I committed myself to learning French.
Now, four years later, I have rather solid mastery of French. My level right now is at about B2 of the CERF scale. I could be higher by now, perhaps C1. I just haven’t been in a hurry to become fluent. In part, I learned French for fun. Another reason I chose the language was because it seemed useful. I thought it would help my career prospects. And since I already knew English and Spanish, French wasn’t hard. I’m also happy that I was wrong about one thing. It is possible to learn a language by oneself. Intelligence isn’t crucial. All it takes is time, patience, and constant practice. Since 2016 I haven’t spent a single day without exposing myself to French one way or another.
Though I’m still in my twenties, I wish I’d started learning new languages earlier. I enjoyed teaching myself French. By now, I could be learning a new language. I’m not doing it to seem brainy, it’s just fascinating. Picking up new languages changes your world in a positive way. Now that my French is solid enough, I’m considering learning another language. I haven’t settled on one yet. Over the past year, the Slavic language family has piqued my interest. Polish and Russian especially sound awesome. Who knows, I may choose the latter.
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