Hello, friends! Here's my answer to a question I got today.
I started learning Arabic because I lived in Dubai and was surrounded by the Emirati culture. I had to take it as a school subject, which I enjoyed, but I didn’t take it too seriously and didn’t really appreciate the power of language learning. After moving to South Africa, my mom and I decided to learn Korean together. We had some Korean friends in Dubai and they were always very hospitable, sharing their culture, food and stories with us. I think that was part of the reason we decided to learn, even though we didn’t know much about Korea as a country. After visiting Korea for the first time in 2010, I really fell in love with the culture - the mix between old and new; modern and traditional. Korean people are very friendly to foreigners and get excited when they hear you’re interested in their language and culture. Having a warm welcome like that really helps with motivation to learn the language! And of course, visiting a country helps you practice the language and make new friends, which in turn motivates me to keep studying. My parents moved to Japan for work when I was in university, and I was able to visit Japan twice a year over the span of four years. I absolutely fell in love with the Japanese culture. The Japanese pay attention to the tiniest of details and are extremely organized, precise and polite. I found this pleasant and enjoyed working in a Japanese company for a while - all the more motivation to improve my Japanese language. I guess I can say the story remains the same for each language after that - if people are warm, friendly, polite and interesting, I’m immediately captivated and inspired to learn their language. What are your thoughts?
