In today’s blog post I’ll talk about languages and the advantages that you can get when you are able to speak two or more, I hope you enjoy it reading it 🙂

The reason why I speak 3 languages

Even though I learn to love this aspect of my life, I must say that I never thought when I was young that I would be able to speak 3 languages today. This is all my parents’ doing. They enrolled me in a French school at the age of 3 years old. Due to my parent’s actions, I learn how to write and read French before I did in Spanish. English came a little later at the same French school, when I was 6 years old. 

When I lived in Santa Barbara, California, I realize that I was a privileged child with awesome parents, because is very unusual to find people in my situation that can think and speak in 3 totally different languages in Chile, I learned it by talking to my country fellows, as you know from my previous post, the only people that I knew where the people from my high school, which meant that everybody that I knew could speak my same 3 languages. Now, I know, Believe it or not that less than 1% of the Chilean population can speak French fluently. Chile, is also, according to the United Nations, the country that has the least percent of English-speaking people of Latinoamerica. That’s why, people always ask me why if I was born in Chile I was able to speak French and English. My answer always has being the same: “Due to my education was completely different to a normal Chilean student, not because I want it, but because my parents enrolled me on a multilingual school, which is very unusual in Chile.” 

I wish that English would be mandatory in Chile from kindergarten all the way to the finish of the university, as English is the international language for everything.  

When do I use each language and why?

I normally use all my languages on a daily basis but according to the circumstance.

Even though French is my second language, it is the one I’m less fluent in, due that  at the moment, I’m living in Toronto, Ontario (for the last 3 years), where generally everyone speaks English; I use this language to talk to people, in school, to write my blog, I like that it is a very straight-forward language, to read and so research since I feel that there is more information and way more up-to-dated, especially when talking about marketing and advertising.

I still use Spanish to talk to my family in Chile and friends, this is my mother tongue, it is the only language that even though I don’t practice it, it won’t go anywhere, because It’s part of whom I am and my identity.

I really enjoy listening to music in French when I listen to music, one of my favourite comedians is from France and I like to watch his videos and I also use it when looking for new recipes especially bakery related ones.

It’s strange to me that I rarely speak French, even though it was the first language that I learn.the only times when I speak it is when my friend from Paris calls me or when I see a French speaker lost in the city. I even joke that I’m the only French speaker in the city, because even if in Canada there are two national languages, French and English, in cities like Toronto it is rare to hear people speaking French and in my experience the ones that do speak French are usually from a different country or a federal government employees.      

What do I like about each language

It’s a fact that people who speak two, three or more languages are more intelligent and can reach better goals in their life, they can get a better job and not only that, languages can open many doors for you. It is easier to meet new people, communicate with them what it gives you the opportunity to learn how to express your emotions in different ways.

The two greatest examples of this are from Spanish and French. In Spanish, we have two phrases for the English “I love you”, which are “te quiero” and “te amo”. Te quiero is a friendly I love you that you can even say to someone that you’ve been dating for a short while, while “te amo” is Love with capital L. It is quite interesting that in Spanish we have two words that mean love but in different levels. 

In French the phrase “I miss you” is “tu me manques” which to my opinion is the most accurate phrase for “I miss you” because it literal translate to I’m lacking you or I’m lacking of you, while miss could also mean dodge and in Spanish is even funnier because is “te extraño” and extraño means strange, funny language facts.  

Some Korean friends told me that they don’t have a phrase to say “how are you” or “bless you” when someone sneezes. I’m sure they have other words for things that don’t exist in any of my languages.

I usually use different vocabulary when speaking different languages, especially in French since I learned it in a very formal way. I don’t have that “problem” in English since if you realized is a very informal language, they only have one word for “you” while in other languages they have two or more. One casual you and one to show respect to others. In Spanish is “tu” for the casual one and “usted” for the formal one and not only that we have a plural “you” which is “ustedes”. 

Quite interesting, isn’t it? 

Benefits of learning languages in general and for me

We are living in a globalized world and adding to that I live in one of the most multicultural cities in the world. Knowing 2 or 3 languages will become an asset when looking for a job, especially if that industry which is planning to expand. 

Knowing languages gave me the possibility to be where I’m now and allow me to meet wonderful people from all over the globe.

The above are my personal benefits, but what learning a language can do for you and specifically for your future are incredible. Some of the benefits are: You can get better at decision-making skills, it improves your memory, it give you a better chance to get a better job, for promotions, and it also improves your first language/ mother-tongue and many more. I’m the best example of the latter one. If you could read how I wrote 10 years ago, you’ll be ashamed. Learning and improving especially my French helped me have a better vocabulary in Spanish and English. In Spanish, because they are both derivatives of Latin, they are part of what is called vulgar Latin and in English, because 60% of the language is made by French words or similar words. 

The more I read in these 3 languages the more I improve them.

Final thoughts 

They are way more pros than cons regarding learning a language after I improve my French. I’ll love to start learning Italian, that’s has been always my dream. I really enjoy the sound of someone speaking the Italian language and it is in my roots.

 We all have different experiences when learning a language. I’ve talked a little bit about mine, feel free to share yours and I hope that my monolinguals’ reader after reading this blog post will start thinking in how to begin  learning a new language. The feeling of success when you talk to someone in a different language for the first time effectively, is UNIQUE. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s post. Have a great day, a wonderful weekend and as always write you next time 🙂

Alberto Yaconi Vilches

I'm a blogger in the making and marketing enthusiastic from Chile, living his dream in Toronto. I post every Friday or every 2 Fridays :)