AUSTRALIA - ADELAIDE

Staying in Australia obviously means having to adapt to the local culture, the way people behave and how the day tends to be spent. However, the biggest difference, a hurdle right at the beginning of the journey: the language.

English is one of the most common languages in the world. It is also considered as one that is fairly easy to learn. For me it is a language that I have had in use for quite a long time now. Other than learning it in school, it was always a cornerstone for my hobbies. Additionally, as a lot of my generation can attest to: we grew up with and on the internet. The internet being the internet, it is very English and / or USA dominated within the content that I frequented.

All this to say, I have long since felt comfortable with using the English language in conversation, reading, writing and so on. With being interested in different countries and the lives that people lead in them and having listened to a very diverse set of people over the past decade, it is rarely a problem to understand people. Even if they do speak with a rather strong slang and / or accent. Obviously, it can still complicate things, but never to the point of communication completely breaking down.

Therefore, coming to Australia and experiencing the “Aussie Dialect” first hand, was not much of a problem. There were some words, that I had never heard before obviously, but then again, we always learn something new every day. Even in my mother tongue I am fairly confident in saying that I do not know all the words that it has to offer.

From my personal experiences, I have found that knowing any language is very useful. There is multiple factors to consider:

Knowing any language eases communication. A lot of people only know one language and are therefore monolingual. However, with the recent society, a lot of young people with a different mother tongue than English basically grow up bilingual, as they are surrounded with English things their entire life, due to the internet and other modern technologies. But not just English is useful, any language skill at any level can come in handy. Not everybody knows the same language after all and offering an olive branch can be very useful.

Additionally, the more languages one learns, the easier it is to learn even more of them later on. As the human brain is able to learn to recognize the unique patterns in languages that it is confronted with. This is especially true for languages from the same family or similar linguistics and historic development.

Also, it is a completely different way to connect to people. A lot of people feel way more comfortable in their own language, that they are used to. Being able to speak to your friends, partners, etc. language gives completely new and amazing opportunities to create a human connection and relationship between you. After all, the languages we grow up with become dear to our heart. If we notice or not.

In conclusion, there weren’t really any new challenges that specifically had to do with the language and the possible language barrier. However, due to experience, I can definitely relate and see how it can be a very big problem for people that do not feel as comfortable in the language in comparison. However, being able to come to another country and experience the culture, people and language first hand is a great opportunity and even if your language skills are not yet perfect. It is definitely worth to take the leap and douse yourself in cold water.