Change Your Life for the Better by Learning a New Language
The impact it can have will always be worth it
I remember the first time I took subtitles off on a TV Series in English.
I was halfway through the second season of How I Met Your Mother — my favorite TV show to this day. I had been watching TV shows one after another for 6 months. First with French subtitles and then with English ones, following a friend’s advice.
The first time I took off subtitles was a shock.
I expected my understanding to drop drastically. I thought I’d get about 20% of what would be said. Instead, I was laughing here and there, understanding more than half of what was said. I won’t deny it, I was still frustrated about not understanding everything. Yet, it felt I had reached a new level. English was not “foreign” anymore. It was “a bit off” at worse.
This was the beginning of a journey I’ve never stopped since then.
Two years later, I dove into Japanese. One year later, into Korean. Another year later, into Mandarin. In the meantime, I improved my Spanish to a level I never even wished for. I then dabbled in many languages throughout the years. From well-known ones like Vietnamese and Indonesian to lesser-known ones like Ainu and Esperanto.
