Why Learning a New Language is Exhilariting

Those who know me IRL tend to associate my name with one thing first: languages, a bunch of them. Frankly, I always tend to take this ability and I'm told that maybe I shouldn't? Maybe.
I've been fortunate to have been given opportunties to study up to 14 languages at this point.

However, as a trained linguist, I immediately offer people an odd disclaimer that says something akin to: do not get too impressed by the fact that I'm now in the double digits, I mean, it's what you do if you study linguistics. Well, not quite. But that's another topic.

If you study, and fully study a language, the next natural step is to acquire all the other languages in the same family. After years of Latin, mastering the Latin-based languages wasn't necessarily a real uphill climb. The same applies to the Germanic family. But, I did it and this is how the languages kept adding to the tally.

Anyway, currently I'm revisiting Hebrew, a language I used to speak fluently over a decade ago but one that I have not had a chance to use much. Thus, getting to revisit it has been a real treat. And I am here to vouch that, yes, if you knew it once, you'll always know it!

But, what's truly exciting about the current linguistic pursuits is that I'm learning two new languages: Mandarin and Hungarian. I'd never want to visit a country without speaking its language first.

So, next time I'm in China and Hungary I intend to interact with the locals in their own language. If nothing else, it's the kinder and better thing to do. Namaste! Ok, its neither Mandarin nor Hungarian but I'm also deep into Moksha yoga so, you know, there's some overlapping. We all only have 24 hours after all and, at times, a bit of overlapping is ok. In the meantime, let's all keep exploring and try harder to get better.