The Perks of being a Polyglot*
*Polyglot: someone who knows and is able to practice several languages. Not an ancient creature.
Ever wondered how it feels to speak more than two or three languages? Ever wished you could speak French or German? Well, let me share this personal retrospective with you.
As a third culture kid, I grew up being exposed to many languages. And for those of you who might not know the term third culture kid, it simply refers to children brought up in a different culture than the one of each parent. Yes, there actually is a term for that. Sounds complicated, right? It really isn’t.
One family, two parents, three cultures, four polyglots
My story is neither exotic nor exceptional. Nevertheless, I would like to share it with you to illustrate how I became the multilingual woman I am today. I grew up in the French part of Switzerland until the age of reason. My mother is from Austria and my father is half Swiss, half Russian. I hope you’re following so far.
So, from the beginning on, we spoke German at home, as it was important to my parents to raise my sister and I bilingually. We would even speak it to our father, for whom German was a foreign language he had merely learnt during his studies. It was all set for the best until my sister and I began to speak French to one another, as we got used to in kindergarten (which is by the way a German word commonly used in the English language). Slowly but surely, our family experienced a shift from German to French-speaking, with a short English speaking intermezzo. This eventually led to the loss of our good command of the German language and our perfecting of the French one. Counting efforts were taken to tackle that issue. We joined a bilingual school, went to German-speaking summer camps and regularly visited our family in Austria. While all these helped us to keep up with the German language, it became clear that learning and practicing two fundamentally different languages like French and German would be a huge challenge. And this is without mentioning the English, Latin and Spanish classes imposed in school. Seriously, couldn’t they have given me a break?
It was all set for the best until my sister and I began to speak French to one another, as we got used to in kindergarten.
At the reasonable age of 13, I decided to leave home and join a boarding school in Germany. At that time, my German level was good enough for me to communicate (wiz ze French accent) but proved to be a challenge when it came to follow an entire curriculum and to keep up with a group of teenage girls. Gossiping can really be more high-level than you would think. Adapting became a daily, fascinating challenge. I remember having difficulties for example with the polite form of address when talking to my teachers and educators. The German language uses the third person plural (Sie) while the French one uses the second person plural (vous). And this led me to address my teachers and educators in German accordingly (Ihr). It took me a little while to understand their laughter and persistent correcting: I was addressing them with a long dead sovereign, aristocratic form. Charming, no? Especially wiz ze French accent.
In Germany, everything was in German. Yes, this makes sense. But even the aforementioned English, Latin and Spanish classes. And this was tough. Translating the vocabulary first to French and then to German was definitely a nerdy move, but a necessary one for me to follow properly. This time-consuming work would later prove to be a helpful tool in my mastering of languages and socialising. Luckily, I managed to find friends who understood my situation and embraced my cultural understanding rather than making fun of me and my accent.
The challenges of being a polyglot
With every new school year, my German level and ease to communicate was getting better. Unfortunately, it also led to something I hadn’t quite anticipated: the loss of my French proficiency and French accent (R.I.P., buddy). When you start losing the thing you actually know best — your mother tongue, you might as well as start doubting your ability to know anything. When even counting becomes a higher science, because the German language had to have numbers pronounced in the opposite way than any other normal language does, you do start to question the meaning of life. Not that the French numbers like soixante-dix-sept (77, pronounced sixty-seventeen) and quatre-vingt-dix-sept (97, spoken four-twenty-ten-seven) would make more sense. Seriously, who thought of that?
This is a good example of how to make simple things complicated. And this pretty much sums up the entirety of the French language and grammar: simply complicated. Luckily for me, the Swiss people came up with different numbers.
By the end of high school, I was faced with the frustrating fact that I wasn’t mastering any of the languages I spoke and everyone was envious of. Not French, not German, not English. Not even Latin! I had bad grades and both my parents, as well as my teachers, were stressing me about it. As if being a teenager wasn’t stressful enough. Anyhow, I somehow managed to level up, started using dictionaries and finished school quite successfully.
When you start losing the thing you actually know best — your mother tongue, you might as well as start doubting your ability to know anything.
So, there I was, freshly graduated with little idea of what to become or where to go. Now that I was confident enough in French and German, it was more than time for me to take on another language properly. Next stop: English! And so I went to perfect the language of Shakespeare in various internships or experiences abroad during and beyond my university studies. I got a glimpse of British English, Singlish and English with the Schörman accent.
The advantage of the English language lies with its international use, as well as simple and easy grammar. Truly, we should have to thank someone for that. It has way fewer tenses than French and no (unnecessary) cases like in German. Still, it is a rich and diverse language, that can be difficult to master in the written. Thus, whenever I write in English, and I do so quite often now, I permanently use two tools. A translator for both from French and German to English as well as a synonym dictionary. The latter undoubtedly can be of assistance in the case that you would desire to communicate in a fashionable and high-class manner. In other words, it clearly helps if you want to talk posh.
This steady exercise is a great way to broaden your vocabulary and study the different languages. I eventually came to realise that some words are untranslatable (like écœurant in French) and some have differing meanings although being ultimately the same (like actual, actuel and aktuell). A more elaborate comparison of all three languages, their history, development, and intersections would deserve an independent blog article (if they ever let me share anything personal anymore), so we’ll leave that for now.
In light of panic, I turned to a less academic method of learning: music. I started listening to Enrique Iglesias — day in, day out.
As if three languages were not enough, I have also been studying Spanish for (more or less) ten years now. After leaving behind a gracious career in Latin, for those of you who have been following closely. But don’t hold your breath, I haven’t been very disciplined about it. In school, it was enough to take a few French words and add an ‘a’ or ‘o’ at the end to make it sound Spanish. ¡Ole! The rules and the roots are similar, so I didn’t see the point in putting much effort into it. I was fine as long as I understood what people wanted from me and the other way round. So, unfortunately, by the end of high school, my Spanish was pretty much restricted to ¿Una cerveza por favor?, which can come very handy depending on the situation. Sadly, not at business university.
There, I was confronted with multiple Spanish B2 level exams. You know when people say that a language is learnt over time and through practice? Well, they’re right and I was screwed! In light of panic, I turned to a less academic method of learning: music. I started listening to Enrique Iglesias — day in, day out. I looked up the lyrics, translated them and tried to understand the grammar behind it (if there was any). Now, my vocabulary became mainly based on South American dance interactions and human affection (in other words, sexy), but it actually worked! ¡Ole! Kudos to you Enrique, you saved me more than once! It would be nice if you could release a new album say by the end of March. I have another exam coming up soon.
The polyglot way of life and work
So, being multilingual is great — I hope we can all agree on that. Even Charlemagne said that having a second language is like possessing a second soul. Speaking more than one language broadens our ability to understand other cultures. It enhances our empathy and cognitive skills. But most importantly, it is a good exercise for our brain to stay healthy. Particulièrement das Switchen. It has been proven that polyglotism is one of the best exercises to maintain degenerative disorders. So keep up, people!
The ability to communicate in different languages with different people and inherently understand different cultures is terrific. Mastering the diverse grammatical and punctuation rules as well as pronunciation is regarded as a talent. And it is. But only the ones truly experiencing it might be able to feel the less positive sides of it. Today, I sound German although I am not, I sound French although I am not, and I don’t sound Swiss although I would like to. Switzerland, the country I grew up in, the culture I can most identify myself with, sometimes sees me as a foreigner because I have troubles mastering words like Chuchichäschtli in Schwitzerdüütsch. Incomprehensible, I know. Language barriers can be very harsh. Even to me. And cultural diversity is not always wanted. But my cultural identity is very diverse. It is a crucial part of my personality. Yet it has suffered from my difficulty to find a place to call home in the past.
Today, I sound German although I am not, I sound French although I am not, and I don’t sound Swiss although I would like to.
Obviously, I was in need of finding an environment with which to share my values (and my love for Enrique’s songs) to fully evolve both personally and professionally. And so I did. At Markgrafenstraße 12–14 in Berlin stands an old building built sometime in the after-war and badly isolated. It has this particular, strident noise when you open the door to enter a place full of wonders. After climbing a few stairs, you arrive in an open-space full of life, colour and variety: the APX family and office.
It is not like any other VC or accelerator you would know. And not only because the walls are covered in colourful, insulting graffiti. In fact, it is more than just a VC. It is where innovation happens, where strong relationships are built and where solutions are created. And it has a unicorn logo! It is a place where I found like-minded and culturally open friends. Although I haven’t really told them about Enrique yet…, I’m sure they won’t mind as it is a place that lives and breathes diversity and embraces it every step of the way. And even beyond. APX aims to set a new standard to foster entrepreneurship and therefore cultural representation, as well as creativity. At APX, different is the norm. And this is exactly where I belong.
It is where I can learn the most from others and improve myself on a daily basis. It is where I can practice the languages I know and even others. The variety of languages and nationalities covered by the APX team and startups is simply unprecedented. The core team alone represents more than ten different countries and six languages. Same thing with the mixture of ideas. It ranges from new mobility services to the sourcing of chemicals, revolutionising the furniture industry, how to train or treat pets and way more. It is this amount of variety that makes APX so unique and to some extent, overwhelming.
The variety of languages and nationalities covered by the APX team and startups is simply unprecedented.
I remember a visitor once comparing the office with an untidy children’s room while waiting for his lunch meeting. Clearly, he did not know much about APX to understand that it might just be the reason why it feels so safe and familiar.
So, to wrap up, having a multicultural-multilingual personality is part-time nice and part-time not so nice. But the former clearly outweighs the latter. The part where you struggle finding your cultural identity and start doubting your ability to master languages properly falls into the not-so-nice category. But once you are beyond that, it opens up to a whole world of great opportunities, out of which daily gymnastic without moving a finger, the usage of the word ‘polyglot’ and better chances to fight Alzheimer’s are only a few.
About APX:
APX is the leading pre-seed VC and accelerator program for very early-stage startups in Europe. Based in Berlin, APX invests across industries in teams building digital businesses — often as their first investor — and supports each team with an investment of EUR 50K, access to an extensive network, and a tailor-made growth program to secure follow-on financing.
