I have found that learning foreign languages is quite a rewarding experience. I have been able to use my communication skills to accomplish things that I could not otherwise have been able to do thanks to my ability to speak in several different languages. Although English is my native and primary language, I have studied German, Spanish, and Japanese and used all of them in conversations with others.

In general, I have found that learning one language, or, rather, learning how to learn languages, will assist the learner with learning subsequent languages. When I studied German, the first foreign language that I learned, for example, I found that I was occasionally not entirely sure of what I was doing. Once I started to study Spanish later, I found that I had gotten used to studying new languages, and I was able to learn more effectively. When I finally began to study Japanese professionally at a university level, I had already been living in Japan for some time and knew a small amount, but rather than opting to take a proficiency test that could potentially allow me to skip at least the most elementary level of Japanese class, I decided not to, and I started from the beginning, as if I knew nothing, as I felt that perhaps even the most basic Japanese class might still be able to teach me something valuable.

Although I did learn some things in that beginning Japanese class, I got something much more important: practice. Practice is the single most important part of studying any language, even your own native language, as practice, along with a good teacher to ensure that the learner is doing everything correctly, is how the learner truly becomes fluent. In Japanese class, and in my German and Spanish classes, for that matter, I was able to practice using what I had learned to actually convey my thoughts to others.

Using this practice that I had gotten, I was able to then go out into the world and use my skills to converse with others. Although I have not actually been to a place where German is the native language, I encountered German tourists on multiple occasions when I was working in my family’s store when I was a high school student. Most of them spoke excellent English, but I still used these meetings as opportunities to use what I had learned. The German tourists that I spoke to were pleased and also generally surprised to hear me speak their language, and most of them said that I spoke quite well despite only having less than a single year of study, but I was also able to assist several of the tourists whose English was not exceptionally strong. I have not studied German since I was in high school, so I have unfortunately forgotten most of what I learned. In relation to this, however, there is one final point that I would like to make, and it is so important that I will cover it in my subsequent entry, so please look forward to it.