Languages for communication

Learning languages has always been extremely important for me. Firstly, since I am living in Switzerland, where four languages are recognised by the government, I have to be at least bilingual. Secondly everyone knows that if you are a resident of Geneva as I am, it is essential to know how to speak a minimum of English to have a decent job.

Another reason for my interest for languages is the desire to communicate with other people from different cultures, so I was lucky to study some. I am bilingual since I was born due to the fact that my parents are emigrants from Portugal and could not speak in french at the beginning of my life. I just learned french when I went to school and when I created friendships with my classmates.

The third language that I have been studying is english. I first learned the basis at school as everyone nowadays do. However, it was not enough for me. I decided at sixteen years old to go to England for four weeks. It was a great experience because it was not only the first time that I was travelling alone without my family, but also the first time that was going directly to a country to learn its native language. I discovered a new culture and history and that helps to take a keen interest in this language. For instance, I am proud of being able to speak the language of Shakespeare, Oscar Wild and so many others illustrious authors.
I studied, as I mentioned before, not only portuguese, but also italian and german. Luckily, I could travel also in those countries and knowing about the country, the culture and even about litterature is highly fascinating. In addition, it definitely helps in acquiring knowledge about the language itself. Of course, watching movies in those languages and having the oportunity to practise them by speaking with people represents a great part of the process for being fluent in a language.

Nonetheless, learning languages includes very high difficulties as well. All the Grammar " stuff" is absolutely overwhelming and I have often the impression that even if I am supposed to be knowledgeable about a certain language, I just think that I do not know anything about it. There are always new words and expressions coming up and it is impossible to memorize them all.

Obviously, learning is not exhilarating at all times, but when we can communicate with people in another language and get across with most of ideas that they want to express, it provides such a feeling of pride and satisfaction that it really worths it.