The connection between language and how we understand the world is something that has always excited me. Language is not just the way we communicate but also how we think and what our culture, history and values are. Learning languages improved my life.

It’s interesting because I keep hearing a lot of people saying “Oh I learned German and French in school” but years later they literally know nothing. I understand how it feels because we still teach languages in a very conventional way.

I truly think we need to be learning other languages to close the gap between us. And for the record, the experience of learning and mastering a new language is mind blowing. And i’m not talking about difficulty but the sense of achievement.

Before I forget, I’ve also made a video about this in case you want to check:

1) Confidence

As a native Spanish speaker, when I learned in English back in Argentina I was embarrassed to speak in front of close people. Just because of this fear of making mistakes. This non-sense perfectionism. When I was 18, this fear was gone. I travelled to the UK on my own. I lived with a host family for a month in Cambridge and studied English. Those 4 to 6 weeks there, gave me enough confidence to speak to anyone. My mindset changed.

In the words of the Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius: “Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within your way of thinking.”

2) New Destinations

This fear of embarrassment and making mistakes was gone again. I had incorporated Portuguese in addition to my existing Spanish and English skillset. I was able to travel to more and more countries and feeling more comfortable.

But besides being able to speak those languages, the best part of travelling was integrating into different cultures. This shift in perspective has allowed me to travel without fear, to make friends around the world, understand how they live, what they like, how they really feel and experience the kindness of humanity in multiple places.

3) Career

I’m not going to lie, learning French was definitely more difficult than any other language. However, I still managed to study, work, travel, make friends and essentially do everything I wanted in those 3 years.

The interesting part is that my first job in France was in Finance requiring somebody being able to speak fluently French, Spanish, English and Portuguese to cover clients in Europe. Such a coincidence I spoke those languages?

If we’re targeting the global marketplace or if we need to travel on business trips to different countries, speaking foreign languages will make us stand out. So certainly languages were the beginning of my global citizenship journey.

4) Relationships

This is probably the most interesting one. From Paris I relocated to London as even though I travelled to England when I was 18 I never really had a working experience in an English speaking country. You know, one thing is to speak the language in a casual way and the other thing is being able to speak in a business way. So one more time I wanted to challenge myself and I relocated. This was in early 2013. So it’s been now 8 years that I’m based in London.

Learning languages also increase our chances to have a relationship with somebody very different. I’m not saying we should not be with our local people but it’s very empowering to connect this way with other people.

Talking about any other type of relationship, if we’re approaching a person with a different native language than ours, and we make an effort to communicate with them in their language, this is a sign of respect and will instantly make them more open to getting to know us.

Final Thoughts

This has been a quick summary of my story of how learning languages improved my life. You may have your own story. You can have many reasons for learning languages, similar to the ones I have shared with you here. Whatever those reasons might be, we can be sure that speaking a different language will positively affect us, our travel, our work and our relationships.

I love reading lots of self-help books in hope of increasing my confidence in different aspects of my life but to be fully honest with you, the best university for me was the university of travel and languages. In other words, my tailor-made education to understand life. This was the only way I’ve ever found to get comfortable doing the uncomfortable.