I’ve always admired people who could pick up a new language effortlessly. My older sister was one of them. She excelled at learning Chinese, and naturally, my parents assumed I could too. Spoiler alert: I could not. I failed miserably and quit after three days. That should have been a warning sign, but no, I kept finding myself in situations where I thought I could master a new language with minimal effort.
The Spanish Class Disaster
In university, I signed up for Spanish, thinking I would breeze through it. After all, Filipino and Spanish share many similar words. How hard could it be? Well, as it turned out, very hard. My cockiness was met with merciless verb conjugations, sentence structures that made no sense, and an instructor who clearly knew I had no clue what was going on. It was my lowest grade ever, and I walked away humbled.
Realizing It’s Never Too Late
For years, I carried that belief that I simply wasn’t good at learning languages. Then, in my mid-40s, something changed. I decided to learn French. It was hard. Really hard. But this time, I stuck with it. I attended classes at the University of Toronto and later at CCF Sorbonne in Paris. I still sucked at it, but I was determined.
After what felt like a lifetime of struggling, I barely managed to pass the DELF B2 exam. Was I fluent? Absolutely not. But did I survive and not embarrass myself (too much)? Yes. More importantly, I proved to myself that learning a new language as an adult was possible.
Language Stacking: A Shortcut That Works
Having suffered through French, I realized something interesting: the grammatical patterns of French were oddly familiar. And then it clicked—I could use those patterns and my Filipino vocabulary to pick up Spanish. This time, it wasn’t a disaster.
After about three months, I was speaking enough Spanish to get by. Later, I formalized my learning by attending the Universidad de Salamanca. Turns out, struggling through French made Spanish much easier. Who knew?
The Truth About Learning Languages
Here’s the thing: there is no endpoint. Learning a new language isn’t about achieving perfection or fluency overnight. It’s a lifelong process, and that’s okay. You will struggle. You will sound ridiculous. You will mix up words and accidentally say something offensive when you meant to order a coffee.
But, as polyglot Olly Richards put it: if you can hold a 15-minute conversation with a local at a crowded bar, you can say you speak the language.
And believe me, the more I drank, the faster I became fluent.
The Art of Multilingual Bar Conversations
Some of my best language practice happened in Paris, Madrid, and elsewhere, where conversations would morph into a chaotic mix of four languages in a single sentence. The shocking part? People actually understood me. And to this day, I have not been beaten or kicked out of a bar for butchering a language. So, I must be doing something right.
Final Thoughts: Just Start
So, if you’ve ever thought about learning a new language but worried you weren’t “good at it” or were “too old,” take it from me—just start.
- Don’t expect fluency overnight.
- Stick with it, even when you feel like an idiot.
- Use what you already know to make connections.
- And if all else fails, find a friendly bar where you can practice.
Language learning isn’t about being perfect. It’s about connecting with people, opening up new experiences, and having fun along the way. So go for it—you never know what doors it might open. Or how many languages you might end up speaking in a single sentence.