Language is the only thing worth knowing even poorly!

Language is the only thing worth knowing even poorly! I repeat. This is quite important. I cannot tell how many times I had unexpected fun, or received so much kindness, just because I learned a few words or phrases in another language. This is my trick: anytime I travel to another country if I don't speak that country's language yet, I need to learn a couple of words before going. Hello, thank you, goodbye, sorry and 'one Coca Cola please'. You don't need to speak the language. Sometimes 20 words are enough to spark a conversation that goes beyond verbal understanding, and exchanging smiles is more important than understanding anything. Every person is happy to hear you trying to speak their language, doesn't matter how small, or how bad. Actually, there is no bad when you try to connect. Unless you are in France. Yes, I said it, must be a remnant of me living in England for too long. Huh!

I always liked to learn about other languages, and later, to learn languages. As a child, I used to dream about reading Ancient Greek and Latin, but back then, nobody had the patience to teach those to a 10-12-year-old. So, I had to read the old texts in my native language translation. I was a voracious reader, and soon most of the Latin and Greek classics were done, only to realise much later, as an adult, that the same book is different every time you read it. Marcus Aurelius, my man. Talking about a Neverending Story. Right, Bastian?

At some moment in time, when I was 14, I found this strange word:

polyglot - adjective, formal US /ˈpɑː.li.ɡlɑːt/ UK /ˈpɒl.i.ɡlɒt/ speaking or using several different languages

So, bilingual means talking two languages, multilingual, more than 3, and polyglot, the consense is around five. I was counting mine, and I was there, right on the brink. Six if I count Moldavian, which is in fact same as Romanian, so that will be technically cheating. Or not?

Talking about languages, if you just started to learn, and you can read this post, most probably you have realized that English is a widely spoken language by 1.45B people (380M first and 1.07B second language speakers). The second is Mandarin Chinese, with 1.13B people ( 939M first and 199M second language speakers). Unless you love China and want to live there, I find the use of it limited outside the country (still, Chinese food is amazing and I like it). The third language is a Hindi/Urdu combination, with 610M (345M first language speakers, and 266M second language speakers. Then Spanish, 559M speakers combined. French, 310M, closely followed by Arabic 274M, and if you manage to learn all six of them, you can technically reach more than half of the total world population. When you find the time to study them all, Russian, German and Pidgin English will also open some new horizons. But if your time is limited, English, Spanish and French should be the starting ones, as you can enjoy South and North Americas, Europe, parts of Africa and the Middle East, and loosely, some parts of Asia.

The languages are also grouped in families, and once you know some of them, the others come quite easily. Like, if you learn French and Spanish, then you can understand and learn Italian, Portuguese and Romanian very quickly (I would say even months). Fun fact, if you speak in Spanish and somebody is speaking to you in Italian, you can understand each other despite speaking different languages.

German and English have quite a few similar words. Wow, this was a nice prompt for #Aprilinleo. Learning how to write in any of the following languages: Chinese, Japanese or Korean, will help you to assimilate the other two remaining ones better. At least that's what I was told, they still seem very different to me. Well, technically the Japanese Kanji looks similar to Traditional Chinese, so, maybe it's true.

Just a little hint, if you can visit another country often, a conversational level is enough, as you can use that as a starting point to improve in time. Do not go for the native level, that is very difficult and most people need to live in that country for a while to achieve this level.

And mostly, learn other languages to enjoy life, and to connect better. Some clever people say that every person learning a new language brings a bit of light into the world, making a bit of hate disappear.

All the best, hasta luego, au revoir, arrivederci, la revedere, Auf Wiedersehen,
George

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