Why celebrate languages?
Today is Saturday, September 26, and we celebrate the European Day of Languages, as proclaimed by the Council of Europe. Did you know that we have been celebrating it since 2001? Whether you knew or not, now you might be asking why we even celebrate languages. Well, there can be many different reasons. The official EDL website states that the EDL objectives are mainly to promote linguistic and cultural diversity, plurilingualism and to encourage lifelong language learning both in and out of school. Quite clear and quite formal, aren’t?
For me, almost everything is personal, including my work. And so I took this opportunity to think about all the good things English has given me. I asked myself a simple question: How would my life be different if I couldn’t speak English. This is what I could come up with:
Without English,
- I wouldn’t have found an ideal job for myself (and would most probably have ended up in Club 27, minus their talent, of course);
- I wouldn’t have met all the amazing people who were (and are) my students;
- I wouldn’t have all the many wonderful friends from all over the world;
- I wouldn’t have spent a year in Manchester, UK, and (so far) three absolutely awesome summers in Montana;
- I couldn’t have travelled as much as I have done, and if I could, I wouldn’t have been able to speak with the people I met on my travels as much as I did;
- I couldn’t have successfully communicated with a long line of doctors, immigration officers, teachers, waiters, shop assistents, police officers and other people that my life/health/well-being sometimes depended on;
- I wouldn’t have a university degree, wouldn’t have become part of the world of science for a while, and wouldn’t have met all my amazing teachers;
- I wouldn’t have the experience of being a uni teacher for a few years;
- I wouldn’t have access to articles in different media, I would have to rely on (often quite horrible) Czech translations and much information would be lost or distorted along the way;
- I wouldn’t have access to a multitude of books, videos, podcasts and other materials on so many topics that interest me;
- I couldn’t keep learning so many things (such as calligraphy and drawing) for free;
- I couldn’t work as an editor and content creator for a great art magazine and couldn’t write about what I love – polymer clay art;
- I couldn’t have worked as an iterpretor at a few great events
- I couldn’t have translated many interesting materials;
- I wouldn’t have fallen in love a few times 😉
- I couldn’t spend long hours with House MD, DS Marcella Backland, DSI John Luther, Dr Sheldon Cooper and my other TV series heroes, skillfully pretending to practise my listening skills for work (continuous professional development, right?);
- a lot of great lyrics and jokes would have been lost on me.
These are just some of the positive outcomes of my falling in love with English many many years ago (at least the ones I could think of so far, I’m sure there are others too). Learning a foreign language is fun, but it’s also a lot of hard work. A fact that makes many students feel annoyed or frustrated. But what would their lives be like without the ability to speak English, German, Spanish, or Russian besides their mother tongue? So let’s play a game on this kind of special day – sit down, take a pen and a piece of paper (or your computer, if you will) and write down all the good things that a foreign language brought into your life. What are they? Let me know in the comments 🙂
Photo by Christian Lue on Unsplash