The Beauty Of Bilingualism

languagelearning

26 Mar

“In an interesting turn of fate, a couple of years later, life would see me engulfed into the Polish culture in a way that I didn't even see coming when I met who would subsequently become my husband and child’s father.”

The thought of submerging into another culture just by speaking another or using a dialect different to your 'mother tongue' has always been interesting to me. My first introduction to a foreign language was in year 6, the final year of primary school. We studied French for a few months, during which we took a day trip to Boulogne-Sur-Mer. We'd taken field trips before but this one was my first discovery into international waters, not to mention the only one that required me to be at school for 6am! Permission slips at the ready, we boarded the coach with our packed lunches in tow, waved goodbye to the parental’s and set off. I don't remember everything about the trip but I do remember walking through a street market sometime after our arrival, trying to revise colours in French and everything around me. Overall, I found that language to be a bit of a challenge. The lack of 'out of school' practice wouldn't have helped but I just didn't seem to 'click' with it.

It wasn't until midway through high school that my love light for languages was reignited with Spanish. Mrs Goddard was a dainty yet direct teacher but her methods for teaching worked well with my style of learning, so much so I still use some of the methods she taught me to this day. Over the years as life has progressed, I have always found ways to keep Spanish a part of my life. Whether it be through books, audio tapes/CDs from the library or exchanges with native Spanish speakers, I've enjoyed it so it's always stuck with me. Luckily, in addition to the old school methods mentioned, the era of digital transformation has been a massive help. Apps and tools such as Duolingo and Spotify make it a lot easier to continue practicing my listening, reading and writing, especially on the go.

Now my 3rd spoken language, developed in less academic circumstances. During my early 20s, whilst working as a waitress, I'd made friends with other members of staff and I'd always hear them speaking in what clearly wasn't English. I must be anomalous to the stereotype that suggests us Brits can be quite arrogant when faced with others that live and work in the UK and don't (predominantly) speak English - I mean how dare they right?! (joking) I have always been a bit more open minded and inquisitive so one day, I asked one of them what certain words meant and as English wasn't her first language, we ended up doing an exchange, her Polish for my English. After a period of around 3 months, I pretty much had the basics memorised - by basics, I mean the hello and good day, nice to meet you and thank yous as opposed to the profanity some prefer to learn first.

In an interesting turn of fate, a couple of years later, life would see me engulfed into the Polish culture in a way that I didn't even see coming when I met who would subsequently become my husband and child’s father. By this point, I was living in a house that had been converted into flats. 3 out of 5 of them were occupied by Polish people, the delicatessen across the road was a Polish shop and on what seemed like every other day (sometimes it actually was), you'd hear them coming together for dinners, bbq’s or to watch a sports match.Naturally as time passed and I spent more time around these people, I was submerged into the culture and my Polish proficiency increased. A bilingual baptism if you will.

Current day has Polish fluency at approximately 80-85% which is sufficient for conversation and has served me well in the various times when I've visited Poland or needed to speak the language in the UK.
There have even been times (with both Spanish and Polish) that whilst in work, I've been called on to translate for customers who were having difficulty making themselves understood in English. Moments like that make me proud of the skills I have acquired and hopeful for a future where everybody makes an effort to improve communications in such a diverse society.