For me, learning languages is fun and I find it easier to absorb new foreign words compared to memorizing history taught in school or understanding complex mathematical calculations. It seems like my brain was designed for a faster pace in picking up languages, although I don't have severe problems in remembering key ideas in Science textbooks or solving engineering calculations. At least when I push myself, I can manage to get my brain working for these two things.
Moving on to the main topic about languages, so far I've been taught to speak Chinese Hokkien (also known as Fujian), English, Indonesian, Mandarin Chinese and German. I thought it would be nice to be multilingual, but...it turns out a bit troublesome. Sometimes when I wanted to express something in Indonesian, the word that popped into my mind is the English or the German word. When I wanted to say something in English, the word that came into mind was the Indonesian or the German word. That happens to me quite often recently, and I hate it very much. It feels as if the mastery over a language is decreasing as I gained another new language. That's not good at all.
Our family uses Chinese Hokkien to communicate with each other at home or by phone. This is the reason why I can't forget the language even after spending my life for 6 months in Europe. When we send text messages to each other, English becomes our main language. Starting school at the age of 4, English was used as the medium of teaching along with Indonesian. The students spoke English with the teachers, while they chattered among themselves in Indonesian.
Mandarin Chinese was not taught in our school until my 5th year of primary school. Any public activities related to Chinese tradition or culture were forbidden before Indonesia elected a new president, who dropped the ban and allowed the language to be taught in schools. We started learning basic words for a period of 1 hour per week, but now I think it was a bit ineffective. Yes, we learned the words...but lacked speaking practices. I continued learning Mandarin, either at school or at tuition, until I graduated from high school. Learning how to speak the language proved to be more effective by attending tuition, where we were encouraged to build our own verbal sentences. But sadly, I had to quit the tuition to focus on my university studies. That was when I started losing the language, something that I didn't wish would happen.
I enrolled myself into a university which uses English as a medium of teaching, and teaches German to its students so that they would be able to speak the language during their 6th semester internship in Germany. At first, I found it quite difficult as I had never attended any preparation courses for German language. I can remember myself wanting to cry out loud when I couldn't work on my German homework several years ago. But as the time went by, I felt fortunate to have been able to catch up with the lessons. The internship in Germany last year actually went by without any major problem in language, something which I wouldn't have imagined when I first started university. What my German colleague said is really true, it is important to try speaking out even if the grammar is incorrect. At least people would appreciate your effort and try to understand you.
There were times when I unexpectedly encountered Chinese people during my time in Europe. Once, I met a Chinese man on my way to Frankfurt from Schöneck Kilianstädten, the small town where I lived during my internship. I was travelling to the city and had to transfer trains in Bad Vilbel when I met him. He was looking at me for a moment or two before he finally asked in Mandarin(Chinese) language whether I was a Chinese. When he asked me something else and I couldn't answer him in Chinese, I actually went the way of asking him whether I could speak German! Oh man...it was really embarrassing for a Chinese like me to ask another Chinese to speak a European language. I should try going back to my Chinese books. There was another encounter with 2 Chinese women who were on holiday in Holland. I was taking turns with my friend to take our pictures near the boats in Volendam, when I noticed one of them looking at us with much anticipation. When I asked her in Mandarin(Chinese) whether she would like me to take a picture of her, her face brightened up in an instant. She said we looked so happy and nice taking our pictures near the boats and so she would like to ask my favor to take their pictures with the same background. Later, I realized that I had used my Mandarin language more often in Europe than in Asia. That's kind of strange...
However, I feel thankful for having been given the chance to know a variety of languages. I hope this ability will be useful one day, either for me or maybe in assisting foreigners requiring language translations. :)
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