Struggling with Multilingualism

Photo source: http://ux.prattsils.org/2015/10/language-learning-in-a-mobile-world/

Sometimes it does frustrate me that I can't get my points straight using effective sentences when speaking because English is my second language. Out of the 28 years of my life, I've only been effectively using English daily for 5 years. I don't go to fancy private school or university program which offers courses to be taught in English. My head has been programmed to think in my native language, then translate them to English. And even from one sentence in my native language, I can come up with several ways to put it out. And I guess what's worse is that I have the tendency to correct my grammar in the middle of my speech, haha. Some people, they could just go on and on talking without realising the numerous mistake in their speech, but if I my picks up a mistake I tried to correct it straight away.

Although I'm frustrated with my English skills, I am proud to be multilingual. The coolest thing about it is that you can talk in another language and other people around you will not understand. So, for example, when I'm at the office calling my husband, I wouldn't use English because then the people sitting next to me would know what I'm saying (especially if I say sweet and embarrassing words :P). I can read Arabic - although not necessarily understand the meaning but a few - and I understand spoken (harsh) Javanese (the language of my ancestors, learned this by listening to a lot of my grandmother's stories and conversations between mum and dad). My husband - on the contrary, he's also Javanese, but he couldn't understand a thing because he was brought up in Jakarta and his dad doesn't speak Javanese at home.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

I guess, with language, the best way to learn it is to practise it everyday. In the last three years I've been in Australia, I can safely say I'm much better at speaking English. Especially since I started working because I was then forced to use English everyday for at least 8 hours. I did have issues in my first interviews, as I had just been out of the "stay at home wife" world, I hardly talk to other people, and we didn't have TV. Even if I had communication with others, it would be in Bahasa.

Whilst when I was in Japan for one year, I still relied heavily on English because most people around me were able to speak English and Indonesian (if you can't guess, I only socialised with international students, my bad!). I didn't have to use a lot of Japanese unless I was going to eat out or grocery shop; although almost all of my lab members, every time I speak in Japanese they would respond in Japanese (do they think I speak their language perfectly fine?) and I would be looking back at them in confusion. At the end of the program, I was able to understand Japanese bit by bit, but now I have completely forgotten everything, which is really sad.

OUR BRAIN IS AMAZING

As a multilingual person, I think our brain is really cool. I mean think about it, God has given us brain that can process one language and translate it to another at a very high speed! I wish I had the drive to learn a new language. I've been meaning to further my Japanese language skills since years ago, but never really had the chance (or willingness?) to continue. When I have kids, I will definitely encourage and facilitate them to master at least two languages - English and Bahasa. I don't want their grandparents to miss out on communicating properly with their grandkids. Besides, we're still Indonesians after all. And I will also tell them how cool it is to be able to speak more than one languge ;).

If you still have the age and the brain, I think you should definitely give it a go at learning a language! Then if time and finance allows, visit that country and actually apply what you have learned :). I just wish Doraemon's translation jelly was real...