Growing up bilingual, I’ve always had an aptitude for languages. Much to my parents’ surprise and my own, I excelled in Spanish in middle school. Afterward, I took French all four years of high school, with my final year being AP French. I honestly enjoyed learning French, unlike most of my peers, and I found a newfound love for the language and for French culture. However, going into college, I had more opportunities to explore my aptitude further. Thus, I chose not to continue taking French, although perhaps I could’ve been much closer to being fluent by now had I continued learning French. Nonetheless, with the advantage of having the foreign language exemption, I was not required to take a language and continue with it for a certain amount of semesters. Instead, I could explore what Hunter College had to offer and take a language for my own personal gain.

With that, I chose to improve upon a language I already knew: Russian. Up to last year, I didn’t know how to write in Russian and had minimal reading skills. Also, my vocabulary was arguably limited to what I learned from my family. Therefore, I took Elementary Russian for Native Speakers, a course I never thought I’d have the privilege of taking. I finally learned how to write in Russian, my reading skills improved exponentially, and I learned some new words as well as grammar rules I did not know about prior. After taking this course last fall, I did not have to continue with Russian and since I only took it for personal experience, I did not choose to risk taking more advanced Russian language courses.

With the end of the Spring semester, I decided that if I wanted to take a new language it was to some extent now or never. I had to take advantage of the time I had left in my college career and the courses Hunter has to offer. For a while, I thought about taking German and now I finally am. I am currently starting Elementary German and I can already feel and see a difference.

My dad took German all through his years of school and I didn’t think I’d ever hear the end of it, with him saying random German words at times. However, he never continued speaking or practicing his German, or continued learning German after he was done with school. Thus, much of his knowledge of the language was lost. Finding out that I was officially starting to learn German, however, sparked something I did not expect. First of all, he became more excited than I was. When I came home with my workbook for the class, the day before my first day of classes, he immediately was eager to have a look and began reading out loud like an enthusiastic child. It was as if he had been transported back to his own childhood and what he once knew of the language was slowly coming back to him. It was quite a sight.

But it wasn’t just that. When I came home from my first day of German, for the first time I could sense his genuine interest in learning about my class and him actually wanting to practice German with me. I sat beside him and showed him what I learned, teaching him the beginner questions and answers. He would repeat after me and when I caught him mispronouncing he allowed me to correct him. He was also rather astonished at my quick grasp of the language, though I did struggle with certain pronunciations. We also looked up words, trying to expand upon some of the answers, and in the midst of it all, we shared numerous laughs and smiles and nudges. And he even surprisingly helped me with my homework! (Though it was a short set of German introductory questions for me to answer.) It was truly a rare heartfelt experience, filled with bittersweet moments. But I can only hope, as I continue to learn more German, as the semester progresses, that he and I will continue to bond over practicing German together.

Furthermore, my dad isn’t the only one in my family who learned German in school. I found out a while ago that my grandma also took German and even wanted to pursue becoming a Russian-German translator. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out and like my dad, she didn’t use her knowledge of the language and after decades of not speaking it, much of her knowledge of the language was also lost. When I told my grandma earlier in the summer that I was finally going to take German, her face lit up and with my aptitude, she knew that it wasn’t going to be difficult for me. This past weekend, I spent time with my grandma and shared a somewhat similar heartfelt experience with her.

As she put on her glasses, she attempted to read the words in my notes out loud and she let me help her with the pronunciation. I practiced the questions and answers with her like I did with my dad, and she too was taken back to a time she had forgotten about. She slowly remembered words that I had yet to learn in my class and seeing her smile, practicing German with me, was truly a gift and extremely memorable. She was impressed with my German accent and grasp of the language, and I felt like I had rediscovered something that I once thought and was told was a gift or talent. It felt really good to see her and my dad showing me that they were proud of me using my skills to take on a new language, one they both had forgotten.

Perhaps, one day in the future, years after I’ve graduated college, I’ll consider expanding my knowledge of French and/or German, so that I may actually become trilingual. In today’s world, where more and more Americans only know English, learning another language truly helps us gain important skills and can take us further in our careers. Sure, learning a new language isn't easy, but it's definitely something to conquer and will help you learn about what you can handle. I know I sure have.