5 ms·

Surprised no one has mentioned learning a second language yet. I'm currently learning Spanish (one of the easier ones for native English speakers like me to lea

by pluto9 6y ago

Surprised no one has mentioned learning a second language yet. I'm currently learning Spanish (one of the easier ones for native English speakers like me to learn, especially being from the American Southwest) and finding myself suddenly understanding conversations between people I walk past at WalMart has been one of the more gratifying experiences I've had. It's hard to say whether this skill will afford me new opportunities in the future, but it's immensely satisfying and I think it's useful because it has changed the way I think about language in general. It's hard to explain, but when I only knew English, words were the concepts that they symbolized. Of course I knew intellectually that "dog" is just a symbol for the animal, but I couldn't separate them subconsciously, if that makes sense. Now that "perro" is also a symbol for the animal, and it's ingrained in my mind enough that I don't have to translate it to English, it's as if words and things have been "decoupled". Unfortunately I'm finding it hard to articulate why that revelation matters. Basically, learning another language expands your mind in a unique way. It's just something you have to experience.

082349872349872 6y ago
¿Hola, qué tal? As to new opportunities, having multiple languages certainly makes it easier to vote with one's feet. (two years to acclimatise as a fresh immigrant may seem like a long time, but that may well be very short compared with the timescale of political change in one's birth country.) Languages can not only be explored in breadth or in depth, but also open up side quests of culture, music, etc. I would say one of the most significant benefits of attending an international school (presumably the Asker is past this point, however) is learning to habitually rephrase, paraphrase, gesture, etc. in order to accomplish things with people with whom one shares little vocabulary and not necesarily much more culture. Surprisingly, one may find these skills even come in handy when attempting to communicate with people who nominally share one's mother tongue and national culture... (It's also rewarding because the learning curve is relatively quick. At the beginning, one is only able to understand the sorts of conversations mothers have with very small children at WalMart, but before any of those children reach university age, one has gained the ability to read authors in the original.)

by pluto9 6y ago

082349872349872 6y ago

¿Hola, qué tal? As to new opportunities, having multiple languages certainly makes it easier to vote with one's feet. (two years to acclimatise as a fresh immigrant may seem like a long time, but that may well be very short compared with the timescale of political change in one's birth country.) Languages can not only be explored in breadth or in depth, but also open up side quests of culture, music, etc. I would say one of the most significant benefits of attending an international school (presumably the Asker is past this point, however) is learning to habitually rephrase, paraphrase, gesture, etc. in order to accomplish things with people with whom one shares little vocabulary and not necesarily much more culture. Surprisingly, one may find these skills even come in handy when attempting to communicate with people who nominally share one's mother tongue and national culture... (It's also rewarding because the learning curve is relatively quick. At the beginning, one is only able to understand the sorts of conversations mothers have with very small children at WalMart, but before any of those children reach university age, one has gained the ability to read authors in the original.)