Member-only story
The Wonders of Living in a Foreign Tongue
Letting new languages and cultures shape me into myself.
Based on personal experiences in 2018.
As I sat in the Parisian metro, I tuned out the world around me without plugging in my headphones. Tired from my busy day at university, I am once again reminded of one of my favourite parts about living in Paris, about living in France. unless I am actively listening, my French isn’t fluent enough to understand a random conversation. I get the opportunity to tune out.
I grew up across Western Europe and am fluent in Dutch, English, and Italian. I love these languages, each provides something unique; although I might love Italian the most — I find it the most expressive language. I adore being able to converse in different languages, to better understand the culture through language. But fluency isn’t always a blessing… it also means understanding everything.
The never-ending understanding is a big reason why I always feel odd, almost out of place, upon arriving in the Netherlands. Dutch is my mother tongue; an almost sweet-sounding language when spoken in my own home (I say almost because Dutch is by no means a language that sounds sweet). Taking the train from the airport to my home town, I need headphones to survive the ride; that or sitting in the ‘silence…
