How languages changed my life:
I first spoke French when I was three years old, ordering croissants in a small boulangerie during a family holiday in the Vendée. Forty-two years later I run a small translation business. It might not seem much but I built it from the ground up punctuated by an innate love for the power and possibilities of language.
Aged 18, I moved from Hexham to Paris to read French, armed with just French and Spanish A levels in my back pocket. Post French, I read law, specialising in research into European Law and my languages came in useful again.
Languages open doors
My language journey developed over the years with periods in Sweden, writing about geopolitics and the EU, music and Spanish football. As my little business grew, I found myself working on projects for NATO, the UN and UEFA to name just a few. I also freelance as a tutor and it is satisfying to see a new generation embracing languages.
Languages cast a spell and open your mind to the possibilities that life has to offer. They transcend the mere acquisition of knowledge and become a vehicle for cross cultural exchange and a better understanding of other traditions, attitudes and backgrounds.
They bleed into literature and film, jokes, food, music, politics, love and even sport – a quixotic ball of curiosity.
The wonder of languages
It is the satisfaction of using a smattering of a language you have never formally learned on an early morning flight to Amsterdam, ordering a coffee, elucidating a smile from the cabin crew and – for a moment – feeling like James Bond.
It is the wide-eyed wanderlust of walking around a place you have never visited and being able to order a beer in a different tongue. It draws you in and injuncts your love of learning, just like that three-year-old in the boulangerie all those years ago.
I live in a multilingual household, which makes “arguments” fun. I am trying to learn Greek in my spare time and consider Athens my second home. It is a challenge made more difficult as my mother-in-law to be is French mother tongue and brother-in-law to be has studied in the UK.
Languages are for living
Languages are about making mistakes, yet still trying to persevere, giving you memories you would not swap for the world. It is a tragedy that some perceive language learning to be a thing of the past. I would argue that in a vastly changing world they are more important than ever and AI or substandard algorithms will never be a substitute for the frisson of excitement and humanity that learning them brings.
Chris Yeomans, Translator (French, Spanish, English), Writer and Journalist
