How languages changed my life:
Languages never interested me at school – like most 16 year olds I was more interested in the boy next door than conjugating French verbs! I scraped a pass in my GCSE but it was my worst mark out of all of the subjects and I promptly forgot everything but ‘bonjour’ and ‘pain au chocolat’.
Fast forward to age 39 – I now speak fluent Spanish and Italian and also have a qualification to teach English which I use to do some volunteer work with refugees.
How did it all happen?
One day when I was 25 I was killing time on my lunchbreak and spotted a teach yourself Spanish book on sale in a local charity shop. The pages were tattered and someone had already filled in half of the answers but it was 50p. I was about to go on holiday to Mexico so I thought why not?!
It was slow going at first but the first time I actually spoke to a Spanish speaker and connected with them through the language changed everything – I was hooked! I enrolled in evening classes, started listening to podcasts, and tentatively went to a Spanish conversation club in a local bar for the first time. I needn’t have worried – I was welcomed with open arms and have gone almost every week for 8 years (we moved to skype for the pandemic).
I’ve found a group of people who have become close friends, who have been a constant through the best and worst times of my life, and who I never would have crossed paths with if I hadn’t picked up that book and opened my mind to learning a new language.
Now I also speak Italian and use them both in my day to day work. I work in a global company so it’s super useful when I need a favour from the southern Europe sales team! It has progressed my career and pre-Covid I was lucky enough to travel often for work.
Put yourself out there and make mistakes
Anyone who has learned a second language will tell you that putting yourself out there and speaking it without being afraid of making mistakes is crucial, in fact the phrases that will forever stick in my mind are the ones that I embarrassed myself by getting wrong the first time around, it’s how we learn!
There is a common myth about languages that adults can’t really learn them, that you need to do it when you’re a child. I’m the proof that challenging yourself and your own mindset, being open to the chance to learn something new, can change your life!
Paula Guard
