Polyglot Diaries: The Joys of Studying 5+ Languages at Once

I am a big language learner, one who is learning multiple languages at once.

I grew up in an Iranian household as a mixed kid. My mother was white and my father was Iranian, but, growing up, he was never around, so my Farsi skills are a little bit stunted compared to a kid that didn’t have an absentee parent. Later in life, I wish I did learn Farsi more as a child, but growing up in this multicultural household is what sparked me originally to learn languages.

Here’s a breakdown of what I’ve studied & why I’ve done what I’ve done.

Mandarin Chinese — Intermediate

It all started in middle school, when we were given out the forms to pick a language for the next year. In Baltimore County, you were expected to start a language in the seventh grade, and my school gave us three options: French, Spanish, or Mandarin Chinese.

Quite a few people in my class were Cantonese heritage speakers; it turns out, a Baltimore had a huge population of Southern Chinese, ones who couldn’t speak Mandarin. I learned that one the hard way, when I went up to someone who didn’t speak any Mandarin and looked at me like an idiot when I started speaking it to them.

Going into college, I went all the way into Chinese III and intended to minor in Mandarin, until my college told me I couldn’t do more than four minors. Boo. I did the work for more than four anyways. But Mandarin is my original love, something that I keep coming back to time and time again.

Korean — Intermediate

Mandarin Chinese was my gateway into Asia, and while I had very little interest in Japan or Japanese culture, I found Korea to be very interesting. At first it was quite superficial, likened to the music and entertainment of the little peninsula country, but then I found myself connecting to Korean culture on such a deeper level. As a human historian person, I like to study narratives of trauma and resilience, and Korea is the perfect case study for that.

Of course, I never would want to liken a country to a case study or just something to research. But there’s something special and gritty about Korea, something that keeps me coming back and trying restudy the culture and language. I don’t listen to K-pop anymore, but now I do have a lifelong devotion to the little nation in East Asia.

Turkish — Intermediate

This was a spur-of-the-moment thing, as I randomly found out the Yunus Emre Institute had free classes in Turkish language, and so I signed up! The class was a bit more intensive that I liked, as I am a busy person and 2.5 hours twice a week just took up too much time as a senior in college, but I feel like I got so much out of it. My teacher spoke zero English, and so we had to get good at the language really quickly, because we were relying on Google Translate and the people who knew a little Turkish already.

I really like how I have a foundation in Turkish because one of my core research areas is Central Asia, specifically the countries that were formerly on the Silk Road. The Turkic-based languages, such as Kazakh, tend to all have extremely similar grammar and vocabulary, so that helped me out for my research purposes.

Italian — Mid-Beginner

I started taking Italian in high school, when I went to a high school that didn’t offer Chinese. Defeated, I chose Italian, spurring this strange path that has revived recently. I only took one year of Italian in high school, because they discontinued the Italian program in my county, so I was forced to find an alternative way to take Mandarin once again, but Italian was such a pretty language.

I’m trying to pick Italian up after my CLS program again, because I want to study gastronomy in the region and how the trade of food impacts Italy’s culinary and political reputation. So, in the end, I have to circle back to Italian and find out a study regime that works well for me. So far, I’m finding that I retained quite a bit, which is surprising.

Arabic — Mid-Beginner

I signed up for a food and Arabic class via the Yallah Institute, and it got me seriously trying to study Arabic. Right now I haven’t had the time, but the class helped me solidify and figure out connections between Farsi, Arabic, and Turkish. I could understand some of my classmates when they spoke in rapid Arabic because of the common words and grammar between the three languages, which was quite neat and I enjoyed it very much. All in all, I want to keep studying Arabic for research and literature purposes.

Bengali — Beginner

I’m a beginner as of right now! But I received the Critical Language Scholarship from the US Department of State in order to study Bangla out of the American Institute of Indian Studies, so I will probably be intermediate by the end of the summer. But what sparked your interest in Bengali, Ashley, you may ask. Bengali is a super niche language, but it’s actually extremely useful.

I went to fashion school. I studied International Trade and Fashion Business Management, and something that was brought up quite often was the fact that we sourced our garments from Bangladesh, and that the workers who made our clothes were extremely mistreated. And, of course, after a professor made us debate the pros and cons of sweatshops, I got super angry and wanted to actually get involved with Bangladesh and South Asia as a whole, so learning Bengali seemed like the only logical conclusion.

After applying to the CLS program for two years in intermediate Korean, I completely switched languages and made it all the way through for Bengali. I’m really excited to learn the language, because it’s so beautiful and actually sounds like auditory poetry.

Bahasa Indonesia — Beginner

Okay, so this interested spurred because I found out the Indonesian Embassy in Washington D.C. had free virtual classes for Indonesian available. I signed up, and guess what? Indonesian is actually pretty freaking cool. At the orientation they showed up traditional Javanese dance and music and I was sold. I’ve been down a rabbit hole of Indonesian dramas and whatnot, so I’m super excited when this class rolls around in the fall.

Swahili — Beginner

Started this because Africa is so freaking cool. My dream is to go to Tanzania. Don’t have much else to say, because I don’t know much Swahili right now, but I’m so ready to dive deeper into it.

Russian — Beginner

This is a new one! I signed up for free Russian classes in the fall and will be learning the language quite soon. I chose Russian because of the former USSR and how it impacted Soviet satellite states, specifically the ones in Central Asia. As a wee one I used to be obsessed with Russian history, particularly the Romanov era leading up to the Bolshevik Revolution, so it seemed like a perfect cycle back into my middle school days reading up on Alexei Romanov and his sisters. In the end, it benefits my research too!