My New Trip

I have always been fond of languages. It has always been something I had success in learning.  Growing up in a multicultural and bilingual environment has given my language learning abilities a major push forward, for which I will forever remain grateful. Exposure to American cartoons has no doubt made its mark and by the age of 7, I was fluent in three languages: Russian, Lithuanian and English. I continued learning all three of them over the following years up until the very point of my final high school exams in detail and have never had a mere thought of the process being tedious or boring.

But it’s languages. I thought. /How can it not seem fascinating? Look at the grammar, look at the sentence structure, look at the word history! Long story short, I was a nerd.  This obsession with linguistics from a young age has backstabbed me massively when I started learning German. But I will touch on this a bit later.

Speaking three languages has always been something that I took for granted. For as long as I could remember, I knew what to say, how to say it, etc. Yes, I was learning grammar and literature at school but I never had to put any actual effort into figuring out the language itself because it was always in my head. So, having this skill was never something special to me and one of those things I would put on a /“fun facts about me”/ list. Good to know but nothing extraordinary.  It was only in my second year of university, when I decided to get a language teacher qualification alongside my studies (hell knows why I thought that was a good idea, I had tons of other stuff to do besides that anyway), when I was forced to look at my native language from a linguistic perspective. It wasn’t high school, nobody was playing. This was about getting a professional qualification that could possibly open even more doors for me in the future, that is if I decided that filming PR ads wasn’t making me feel weak in the knees anymore.  

I had rediscovered my language and fallen in love with it all over again. That is when I realised that perhaps there has always been something special that made me come back to languages over and over again. Which inspired me to try and learn a new one. I was at the point when there was nothing new I could take either from Russian, or Lithuanian, or English. There was nowhere I could progress further. “Time to learn a fourth language”, I thought. The time has come.

German

I came to Germany with one purpose and one purpose only. To learn the language. I knew it was not going to be an easy journey but I had no idea how hard it will end up being.  Actually though, what was I even expecting?

• It took me around 4-5 months to start feeling more or less confident of my whereabouts in a language. After all the intensive courses that I had + a follow-up course, I finally started noticing that I am automatically able to recall basic everyday phrases without giving it too much thought.

• I have never felt less confident in myself when having any sorts of social encounters with the native speakers. Because I never knew what it was like and then I suddenly did. In fact, today was the day I have had my first normal conversation in German at a post office. I forced myself to not switch to English and try and play it safe but to ask for what I want in German. Because about time. Because I should know this. And because having insecurities about my pronunciation is a pretty dumb excuse to have at this point. I said what I had to say. I thought I looked like an idiot. I almost had a panic attack. But nothing happened. The sky didn’t fall and the lady at the counter didn’t bat an eye at me fumbling with words. I felt much better. I want to try again. You have to go through this experience in order to move forward. The good thing is, it can only get better from here.

• German articles are the definition of pain. Der, die, das, den, den, des… I have had a few nightmares involving those already.  God bless Russian for not having any articles and these have nearly pushed me to the edge of giving up so many time in the past semester. Which brings me to my next point.

• Sometimes courses are simply not enough and no matter how skilled in language learning you think you are, you have to sit yourself down and do extra work. Such a simple truth but I came to Germany being too confident in my abilities. Like I pointed out before, I have no idea what I was expecting in the first place. 

• Procrastination will ruin your life. Pretty much applies to everything. And if you are like me and suffering from procrastinating on literally anything, don’t. Like, just don’t. There has come a point when I had to force myself to sit down and study, to find relevant material, to make charts.  All of this is something I like doing in general but the hardest thing ever is to start. However, there is no better feeling when after a long day of studying you open your book and do an assignment you previously were so confused about all by yourself. Small victories, small achievements, small steps forward. It made me truly proud in the end.
  

Hebrew

I honestly do not know how this happened. In fact, this whole thing started today and it was, in fact, what inspired me to write this blog post. I’ve studied German for a few hours in the morning, i went about my day, then I got bored. One moment I was scrolling my Instagram feed and the next thing I knew, I was learning the Hebrew alphabet. And I was having the time of my life.

• Why Hebrew? Because why not?  I already knew enough basic words to have a basic conversation (I visit my family in Israel several times a year) but I still can’t read or write. I thought, “Might as well, can’t get any harder than German at this point.” So here I am, making cards with Hebrew letters to practise later.  It went surprisingly well.

• Why now? Absolutely no idea. But in any case, it’s useful knowledge to have. I am going to continue learning it alongside German and see what progress I make over the next few months. I have already noticed that my memory has become much better then it was before I came to Germany and language learning definitely contributes to that. And, most importantly, it’s massive fun. (At least for me.)
  

Language learning can be an extremely useful hobby if one has the capabilities or passion to make it one.  This language journey has made me realise the potential I did not know I had, inspire to find out more about customers and cultures through the prism of a language and overcome some of my anxieties. I look forward to every time I am about to start studying and I genuinely enjoy every single time because every single time I become better at writing, speaking, studying and being more organized. And this feeling of personal fulfilment contributes to my overall state of happiness while living in a foreign country.

Have you gone through similar experiences while trying to learn a foreign language? Would love to hear your stories! Also, if you have any tips on making language learning more efficient (websites, apps, studying tips) feel free to share! .x

A.