Share a hobby you’ve picked up recently — what got you into it?
I’ve written about this in another post but here’s an update.
Almost three years ago my children were using a language learning app, but the free version of the app only allowed so many mistakes in a day, which meant they were running out of ‘lives’ regularly. So, I bought the family version for the year.
Knowing how kids are with such things, I decided that, rather than waste the money, I would do something that I’d always wanted, and it would be just for me, to treat myself. I would learn Italian.
Early on in my journey a friend suggested that since I already spoke English and Welsh, maybe I have a flair for languages, which intrigued me.
I finished the Italian course and moved on to Spanish, then French. And now, almost three years later, I’m on Brazilian Portuguese. And it’s become a hobby.
Whether I’ll ever use these languages remains to be seen. I’m keeping them fresh by reading and watching videos in those languages. But for me, it’s a hobby, and it’s just for me.
Which languages do you speak and how did that impact your life?
Being able to speak a language is relevant. We use a very limited vocabulary every day, but we know a lot more words than we use. Therfore, we may understand a lot more words than we can speak. But we don’t need too many words to get by, and to get our basic needs met.
I grew up speaking English and went to a Welsh medium school, but I didn’t use Welsh until one of my sons went to school. We were living in a predominantly Welsh area, and we felt he would benefit from being educated in the Welsh stream, so I re-learned the language.
Three years ago, my youngest two were playing around with a language app but always running out of ‘lives’ with the free version. So, I paid for the family version of the app and decided that I wasn’t going to waste the money. I would learn Italian, like I’d always wanted to but never gotten around to it.
Since then, I’ve moved on to other languages. So, as of today, I speak:
English, Welsh, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese. I can also sign a limited vocabulary in British Sign Language.
How has it impacted me?
I first realised the significance when I was sitting behind a young man who was a deaf mute. His interpreter and family had gone to get lunch for him and he was sitting alone in the midst of all these people enjoying their own conversations.
I tapped him on the shoulder and spelled out, “Hi. My name is Michael.” And I’ll never forget the sheer joy on his face over the fact that someone had ‘spoken’ to him in his language.
I’ve had similar experiences with others, over the years. Even a simple greeting in the person’s mother tongue makes a huge difference in their life. Suddenly, they’re not alone. Suddenly, they have a friendly face in front of them instead of a sea of potentially frightening mystery.
Why does this happen?
A friend told me about a conversion he once had with a native Welsh speaker. It went something like this:
“When I converse, I converse in Welsh or English. When I watch TV, I watch TV in Welsh or English. When I go shopping, I go shopping in Welsh or English. When I pray, I pray in Welsh. That’s the language of my heart.”
That’s the impact. We talk of speaking in someone’s ‘native tongue’. What we really mean is speaking in the language of their heart.
Then there’s our heart. Our heart expands when we learn another language. Our heart is touched because we’ve touched someone else’s heart.
And when we touch someone’s heart, anything can happen.
