Last time I was monolingual, was at the age of 3. Moving abroad, I had no options but to learn the new language. Leaving our home behind, my parents opened up a new world for me. I was born in Lebanon and grew up between two different cultures, Lebanese and Swedish. Speaking a second language at a young age and being able to adapt quickly made me confident.

Eager to learn as a kid

My parents had two options when we migrated to Sweden from Lebanon, either to put me in a school for foreigners or in a local school with Swedish students only. They knew that the best for me was to integrate into our new society as quick as possible, therefore their choice was obvious. I ended up in the local school and never reflected about whether I was happy about it, instead I was eager to learn and to start speaking to my new friends. A few months later, I was already able to communicate and integrate with the local community.

Choosing French

The summer I was 10, we spent two months in France with my half-french cousins. At the time I had not in mind to learn French, however, I almost had to if I wanted to be able to understand and to communicate with my relatives. So I started repeating words after them. My mother, who had worked as a French teacher earlier, was more than happy to teach me as well. Back in Sweden, we have the chance to take on a third language to the schedule in school, besides Swedish and English. The opportunity came very timely and I chose French. Twice a week, two hours each lesson, covered most of the French grammar and basic vocabulary.

My Arabic speaking background with borrowed words from the French and spending 6 months in school in Lebanon at the age of 4 gave me an advantage at learning French. During the 7 years of my French studies, we went visiting my cousins in France every year. I kept hearing French natives, so I did become familiar with the culture as well as the pronunciation. The listening comprehension during tests in school became my biggest strength.

Mandatory Chinese

During my years at the university in Sweden, I got the chance to study one year abroad as an exchange student in China. Alongside with the mandatory courses, we had to learn Chinese. Living in a small city as Jinan, the provincial capital of Shandong province, meant no English speaking population besides our teachers at school. That made us strain ourselves to learn faster to be able to communicate with taxi drivers, at restaurants, and in stores. Having a desire to learn faster, I felt that my Chinese evolved rapidly even though we had only one hour Chinese class per week.

Develop language hacks

Every time I learn a new language, the learning process feels easier than the previous one. That is also why I still want to continue learning more languages. The reason why I find the process of learning easier, is that I manage to develop new language hacks that work for me. As a kid, my father pushed me to be independent when it comes to interacting with locals. Nowadays, I do feel less unsure unlike when I was 4 years old and learned my first foreign language.

I decided to learn these 5 languages because I know I sooner or later will have, or need, to use them somehow. Successively, I have got an advantage in today’s globalized world. Relocating and traveling brought me help understanding the diversity within societies.

Be multilingual,

Nadine