Sunday, August 7, 2016

What we talk about when we talk about speaking foreign languages

Don't you love to speak foreign languages? Don't you think you are such a lucky human being, being able to communicate with a vaster crowd than, maybe, most people in the world? Isn't it wonderful, the way speaking foreign languages makes us more complete individuals and, in a certain way, more participative citizens of the world, only because we are aware of other linguistic codes? Isn't it wonderful that we have this special power we sometimes take for granted?

Everyday, we encounter lots and lots of other people, especially if we live in a city, or a capital city - which was my case. I am from Lisbon, one of the most magnificent capital cities in Europe (c'mon, just agree with me and all of those centuries of grandeur, and travelling around the world, and collecting gold that the nobles and the Church acquired because slaves worked for them and because the peasants starved). Even though I never lived near the city center, I was fortunate enough to go there frequently during my whole life, until I enrolled in the University of Lisbon at the age of 18. I had the best of both worlds: the quiet, quirky life of the suburbs + the agitated, fugacious frenzy of Lisbon. Even though I do not consider Lisbon to be the busiest city I have ever been to, it still has its moments of craziness. People going around like ants, phones hanging from their bags, their pockets, their hands. Cars and buses and pedestrians coordinated to the sound of ever-present traffic lights. The very dirty staircases that lead us to the Metro stations below our feet. Tattered beggars, sometimes drunk or high in the clouds, sometimes just disgraced, not only begging for money but also for a vestige of our attention. Just a quick look. Just a quick look is all that takes to wake up from this dream in the sunniest capital of Europe (fact), where the downtown buildings are yellow and white, the tourists are guided in not-so-portuguese Tuk-Tuk cars and the taxi drivers fight over their dignity with the much more fashionable (but less traditional) Uber drivers. A little now and then, we should just appreciate the fact that we have a cold rainy Winter, a shockingly hot Summer and the warmest and most beautiful mid-seasons we could ask for. And we also have beaches around the corner (most precisely, both on the other side of the bridge and in the end of the highway - you choose it). And we are surrounded my mountains. And we have precious monuments, museums, palaces and castles ready to tell the stories about our History, just around the corner (and with this I really mean around the corner, you could just step into them, they are everywhere).

I liked to live in a city, at least from morning until early dawn, in the middle of other people, just like me, but who often spoke a different language, not Portuguese. I was fortunate enough to have learnt three foreign languages, so I could relate. You know, this is all about relating. Relating to other people. Listening to other people. Having the skills and tools to do so. There is a mechanical part in the process of learning (grammar, vocabulary, phonetics, memorizing, building sentences, creating meaning), but the most important, for me, once I manage to manipulate the previous one, is the human part of it (something even more intrinsic than mere body language). It is such a reward, to finally share something with someone who, otherwise, would not understand me. What a blessing! Lisbon was just the perfect city to put my language knowledge into practice, particularly because I studied in the School of Arts and Humanities (also famous under the nomenclature of Faculty of Letters), which means I had the chance to meet many foreign teachers (Brazilian, Spanish, English, American, Slovenian, ...) and even more foreign classmates (from every continent, I am almost sure).

I got to know about more lives, I got to read more books that my peers could not read, I got to collect more world, not leaving my place. And meanwhile I got to teach others how to speak foreign languages as well, isn't it funny? 

And now that I left my place I am so glad I had both a polyglot and a very thoughtful education about the existence of something beyond my physical limits and imagination. I am thankful I have met so many wonderful people who were not from the same place as I, who introduced me to more ways of living and thinking, to more behaviours, to more books, more authors, more countries, more movies, more, more, more, more.

Learning a foreign language is aiming for more and actually never stopping to do it. On the one hand, you learn to express yourself in another code, but on the other you gain a new identity and a new vision. I think speaking a foreign language is like being given a third, a fourth, a fifth, a millionth eye and also expanding your heart into more than it could handle before. It is like pushing your horizons and demanding the sky limit to go the extra mile, just as you are willing to.

What about you? Do you suggest a different metaphor for speaking and learning new languages? Leave your answers below, I am sure everyone will have a blast while reading them!



(Disclaimer: these two pictures were taken from the Internet, I just Googled them, so I just want to declare that I do not own them. That's all, thank you.) 


BTW: If you find something wrong in this blog, please do not hesitate to contact me. I am not a native speaker of the English language, so pardon my Portuguese thought.

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