Throughout my whole academic career I’ve had to take a language! Whether it was in middle school being forced to take French, or pursuing it for the credits in high school, to college where I’m in my second semester of taking a language, learning a foreign language has been constant. I’ll be forthcoming, I hated having to take a language in middle school and most of highschool. I felt that it was too time-consuming and there was no practicality to me learning a language. However, I feel very differently now, and it’s strange to know how wrong I really was!
In all of my academic years I attempted to learn French, Mandarin Chinese, and Latin. I spent a few years in middle school learning Mandarin Chinese, and throughout both middle school and high school I had studied French. I had put a lot of effort into French, so much that I became President of the French National Honor Society. However I wasn’t passionate about learning any languages at the time, but when I decided to start taking Chinese classes at Holy Cross I vowed to myself it would be a new beginning!
I love learning Chinese at Holy Cross and feel as though I’ve become more passionate about learning languages in general. While I initially was only interested in taking Chinese for the credit, I have decided to double major in it! I think that it is so important for everyone to at least try and learn a new language. Not only will it open up so many opportunities in life, but being able to communicate through other languages is just as rewarding.
Furthermore, I can’t describe how satisfying it feels when you hear someone speaking the language you’re learning, and can understand what they are saying. It sounds simple or trivial, but to me that means progress! When I can understand someone in their native language, I feel accomplished when I know that I’m progressing and can understand the subject matter I’m learning outside of the classroom. Overall, I would recommend at least trying to learn a new language to anyone. It’s not everyone’s jam, but you might find you enjoy it way more than you would have thought!