What does learning a language mean to you?

A language is used widely to communicate with diverse groups of individuals and communities. Learning languages opens opportunities, bridges gaps between people and their environment, and, most importantly, is key in building communities and a sense of belonging to them.  Personally, I feel by learning a language, you are willing to reach out the people in that community and assures your ability  “to do” something in another language. Learning a language is very important in a globalized society as today. When I was at school, I began learning Japanese, and then French at GCSE level, and continued to study them at A-level, whilst I became quite proficient unfortunately through lack of use and integration into my daily life, my knowledge and memory of French was sunk back to a basic level of proficiency.

I think this is a pretty interesting point to consider in learning languages because we can be truly multilingual, but our proficiency is determined by our environment and the frequency and ability to use the languages we have learned.

When I was 9 years old, coming from a background where the language that was spoken by the majority in the country- Sinhala, I was determined to learn Tamil because of my keen interest to listen to what my not- so -close friends had to say about me who spoke Tamil at school. I used to be a very mischievous girl who was quite popular in school, so it doesn’t surprise me to see some peers who didn’t agree with me on everything or anything.

I recall the days where I used to sit in front of the television and watch movies at a stretch for weeks. In the beginning, it was quite difficult as I didn’t have the subtitles with me, but gradually I learnt the words and referred to my neighbors who spoke Tamil and books to understand it’s meaning. I remember playing with dolls using the language pretending I was talking to them as I didn’t have friends to talk to in Tamil. My enthusiasm levels were so high that I used to enjoy the culture and events as a result. Fast forward to today, I’m native like Tamil speaker and I’m proud to feel that all that was possible because of my determination and motivation I had right from the beginning. Today, I’m successful at helping my students to learn the language more accurately, while enjoying themselves as I started off learning Tamil on my own with almost no Tamil at all, but with a goal in mind which was to feel included in the school community that spoke Tamil.  Having a set goal, and a motivating environment and perseverance to learn the language can help one learn the language faster than they think.

Learning Tamil has been very useful to me in my work, especially when working in the field as a social worker. In the field, I’ve come to realize that sometimes one language is just better at expressing a meaning rather than another. For example, the word ''athma'' in Tamil has a much deeper and profound meaning than ''soul'' in English because of the cultural significance it has.

More surprisingly though, I have found greater meaning and understanding the work I do by having it explained to me in Tamil when I work in communities that spoke the language avoiding it’s meaning to not get “lost in translation" when English is used. Tamil script brings additional layers of depth and meaning which English doesn't accurately portray through translation.

So, language keeps people together and multilingualism widens it. Being able to speak more than one language let people communicate and share more and this is wonderful! Most importantly, I find it gratifying when people see that you are trying to integrate and understand their culture by learning their language.