7 Tips on Learning and Mastering a New Language
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” — Ludwig Wittgenstein
I’ve spent more than half of my life abroad, away from my native Tanzania. I first left Tanzania at the tender age of 4 which was when I was just starting to form meaningful sentences in Swahili, my mother tongue. Two flights later, I ended up in a small Austrian city and as you’ve already figured out, Swahili wasn’t going to get me very far in western Europe.
Already at such a young age, I was living a multi-lingual life. At home, I was exposed to both Ha (our tribal language) and Swahili and at school I spoke German. Since then, I’ve added English and French to the list and have never looked back.
Becoming multi-lingual was something I had to do to survive in the cities and countries I was living in. I still remember taking an English entrance exam at an international school with an interpreter and working really hard to learn English because it was the only way I could stay enrolled and connected to my teachers and classmates. I also recall how eager I was to learn French during my high school years in French-speaking Switzerland because I wanted to have an authentic experience. Learning new languages was my way of committing to making the most out of the opportunities that were…
