Talk Foreign To Me
Ever since I was young I have heard stories from my family members about the places they had visited.Due to this, I caught the travel bug. I always marvelled when my grandfather used to tell his stories of the time he was in Israel, from walking through the street market on his way to work or sitting in a cafe drinking coffee with Baklava . These stories became the sole reason for me having a huge bucket list!
When I started travelling, which was from the time I was very young, I started realising how if one wants to connect to a place one must know the culture. And culture can be appreciated more if one knows how to connect to the people. This became the foundation for me to explore languages. It began with French, which taught me the significance of pronunciation. I remember saying “Merci, je suis pleine” when I was offered more food at dinner. Of course, I meant to say that I was full, but instead, I ended up saying something completely contrary. Whenever I used to visit a place I liked learning a few words in the native language. I became aware that some expressions and emotions can only be communicated in the language of origin. If altered they don’t remain the same. There is a word in Hebrew ‘Neshama’, it is one of three words present in the tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) to denote the soul, along with ruach and nefesh , neshama is a cognate of nesheema , which means ‘breath’. Interestingly, after studying foreign languages, I was further intrigued by my native tongue. Being a classical singer, how the songs I sang were written intrigued me. The form of words and sentences the poet wrote gave depth to the meaning, conveyed the soul of the song. In one of the songs I came across the word ‘herait’ it means ‘to miss that home which one never had’. If translated one cannot find another word which can convey this level of emotion.
But the best dimension that language brought to my life is the interpersonal connection. When I speak with people in their native language, I find I can connect with them on a more intimate level. I’ve connected with people in the most unlikely places, be it a painter on the streets of Paris to whom i could talk about his art, or a Korean sitting next to me on a flight from Delhi who wanted to know more about India being it his first visit here. There is no limit to learning a language, there is no point where one can say they have completely learned a language. I want to study foreign languages and linguistics because, in short, it is something that I know I will use and develop for the rest of my life. I will never stop travelling, so attaining fluency in foreign languages will only benefit me. Today, I still have the travel bug, but now it is merged with my addiction to language too.
