The language experience

It's difficult to organize language learning in the COVID environment if you are in a very secluded place in the countryside: schools are closed, it's a long drive to town, you have to look for other opportunities, I study online with a teacher from Russia once a week by myself and I don't feel like that's enough. The main thing in speaking skills is practice, but so far my main language of communication is English, and it was here that I realized how valuable it is to not feel like a guest from another planet and to be able to share my thoughts. English always tends to be simplistic, there are many different modifications and regional features, but it is so unselfish and applied that I truly admire how, thanks to English, people find a way to be close and not feel dumb. These qualities have a disreputable historical background, the experience of colonial introduction and imperial influence, but we can now see how language in this case loses its insularity and uniqueness and yields to people, acquiring an international and borderless sound.

As for German, the story is somewhat more complicated. When I was first introduced to the language of Goethe and Schiller, it resonated very strongly in my soul, I found inspiration in it. I had a goal to take a language exam before the volunteer service, I prepared in 2 weeks and passed A2, but that level was far from good communication and already in Germany I felt the gap between me personally and the language, I lost motivation, because the exams were no longer needed, and I communicated with people in English, only sometimes new sparks were kindled when I heard a beautiful German speech or when I read aloud Rilke. How to find and return this motivation and mental connection, an open question, you need to set new goals, and find new strength, as there came more fatigue from work and sometimes desolation and apathy.

The main discovery is still how amazing it is when people understand each other without words, it's amazing how ephemeral our borders are, which we build ourselves based on national and cultural identity. My thought and experience here is that a sense of belonging to humanity is supra-national, everything we feel and share is truly about empathy. I work with people with special needs, there are times when there is a change in my soul, I can feel pain but not say a word and be professional at work, but nothing goes unnoticed, someone comes up to me and just hugs me because they feel when there is no other language but that of love and caring, in that moment the person embraces your soul, it is an incredibly valuable experience.

But I continue my journey of learning, and I don't want to stop, because through language nonetheless we discover many mysteries that are so interesting to comprehend, the main impulse of language, is the language of feeling or logic, how language changes your life, thinking, perception. They say that you look at the world with different eyes when you master new languages, of course it is true, a new structure, logic, new melody, sound comes into your life, you keep getting into a new world, exploring, observing, noticing, finding connections with yourself. I'd like to give some examples of how this works next time...