The feeling of having a tornado of languages in your mind is pretty amazing.
When learning a language becomes essential for you, your mind is completely focus on that and each single day is a challenge. One always learn something new and interesting.
If you are Spanish and you have been Erasmus you will understand perfectly my experience. Well, there are different cases, but in general I think we all have that special and magic moment when talking to a german.
Talking to a german. Be or not to be.
Jokes apart, I remember it was really hard to realise that the 10 years learning English in the school and the years of private lessons were not enough to have a reasonable conversation. You could easily talk about colours, fruits and the verb " to be". I think we all in Spain could make a Master class about the verb "to be".
So there I was, standing in a cocktail party (you bring as much beers as you can buy, go to someones else house, put them in the fridge and they disappear magically in 20 seconds, so you end up drinking the whiskey that someone else brought from the duty free). It was full of germans, some turkish, one french and me. They were talking English as they were born in England, as I saw it. I tried to catch up the conversations and instead of focusing on what I was saying, they said "oh such a cute accent you have". It was so embarrassing for me I realise I had to start focus hard to really learn English.
It was there when I first feel I needed to talk another language so I could control a situation, I could communicate myself and meet a lot of amazing people.
I am still learning English every day. We talk in English at home and I do mistakes, ask for the meanings of words and use google translator.
After speaking a language that allows you to communicate with the most of the people, you also feel like learning the language of the country where you live in. In my case, I was in Istanbul so I decided to make a little effort to learn Turkish and communicate with some neighbours and sellers. It is one of the most beautiful languages I have heard.
Learning Turkish was not easy when your focus as a Erasmus student is to travel all time. But I came back to the country after finishing my university studies to look for a job and enjoy the wonderful city of Istanbul in another way. That was the perfect moment to learn more Turkish. Fortunately, I got a job in a wonderful kindergarten as an "English teacher" and just my boss and the art teacher could speak English. The kids and the rest of teachers just spoke Turkish. How is life!
I learned some Turkish so I could communicate at work and tell some funny stories about my life. How hard it was! I think I have forgotten a lot of it cause I am not longer using it but I would like to, in some point of my life, keep on learning Turkish. From Turkey I moved to Sweden with my "Swedish" and another new language.
The first 2 or 3 months my mind was completely messed up. When people talked to me Swedish I replied them in Turkish. And that is incredible cause I can't say my Turkish was not that interiorised, it was more the relation of my mind between them like the "strange languages" on me.
After my work in a restaurant and Swedish lessons in SFI (a Swedish for foreigners course completely for free, I think this institution deserves a full post and some pictures of the amazing people I have met there). I dare to say I talk Swedish. In a decent level. But it allows me to work in the kindergarten, communicate myself with the kids and my workmates, read all around, be more independent.
A long way to go and always learning something new. Life is amazing.
Live and learn.
With love
Tamara
When learning a language becomes essential for you, your mind is completely focus on that and each single day is a challenge. One always learn something new and interesting.
If you are Spanish and you have been Erasmus you will understand perfectly my experience. Well, there are different cases, but in general I think we all have that special and magic moment when talking to a german.
Talking to a german. Be or not to be.
Jokes apart, I remember it was really hard to realise that the 10 years learning English in the school and the years of private lessons were not enough to have a reasonable conversation. You could easily talk about colours, fruits and the verb " to be". I think we all in Spain could make a Master class about the verb "to be".
So there I was, standing in a cocktail party (you bring as much beers as you can buy, go to someones else house, put them in the fridge and they disappear magically in 20 seconds, so you end up drinking the whiskey that someone else brought from the duty free). It was full of germans, some turkish, one french and me. They were talking English as they were born in England, as I saw it. I tried to catch up the conversations and instead of focusing on what I was saying, they said "oh such a cute accent you have". It was so embarrassing for me I realise I had to start focus hard to really learn English.
It was there when I first feel I needed to talk another language so I could control a situation, I could communicate myself and meet a lot of amazing people.
I am still learning English every day. We talk in English at home and I do mistakes, ask for the meanings of words and use google translator.
After speaking a language that allows you to communicate with the most of the people, you also feel like learning the language of the country where you live in. In my case, I was in Istanbul so I decided to make a little effort to learn Turkish and communicate with some neighbours and sellers. It is one of the most beautiful languages I have heard.
Learning Turkish was not easy when your focus as a Erasmus student is to travel all time. But I came back to the country after finishing my university studies to look for a job and enjoy the wonderful city of Istanbul in another way. That was the perfect moment to learn more Turkish. Fortunately, I got a job in a wonderful kindergarten as an "English teacher" and just my boss and the art teacher could speak English. The kids and the rest of teachers just spoke Turkish. How is life!
I learned some Turkish so I could communicate at work and tell some funny stories about my life. How hard it was! I think I have forgotten a lot of it cause I am not longer using it but I would like to, in some point of my life, keep on learning Turkish. From Turkey I moved to Sweden with my "Swedish" and another new language.
The first 2 or 3 months my mind was completely messed up. When people talked to me Swedish I replied them in Turkish. And that is incredible cause I can't say my Turkish was not that interiorised, it was more the relation of my mind between them like the "strange languages" on me.
After my work in a restaurant and Swedish lessons in SFI (a Swedish for foreigners course completely for free, I think this institution deserves a full post and some pictures of the amazing people I have met there). I dare to say I talk Swedish. In a decent level. But it allows me to work in the kindergarten, communicate myself with the kids and my workmates, read all around, be more independent.
A long way to go and always learning something new. Life is amazing.
Live and learn.
The shopping list I did in January.
I got the pic from my boyfriend who hesitated if buying a horse (häst) was a good idea.
Luckily we bought just yeast (jäst).
Tamara
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