so I was sitting with my friends on the stairs of a fountain at the center of my
favorite square and Rome where I used to gather with my friends to have a few
laughs and drinks when all of a sudden I heard this loud burp behind me and I
turned and I asked: "who's that?!" and "that's one loud burp", and actually the person
who had done that was a girl, an American girl who herself asked me: "are you
American?" and I told her that I was Italian and that was really surprising and
we started chatting and I actually got to know one of my best friends, who was
sitting next to her - that is Garrett - and this is one of the surprising and
unexpected ways in which languages can actually change and revolutionize your life
Imagine a prism: when light hits that prism you will see its basic
components.YOU are that light and languages are like that prison which
help you show and broaden literally the facets of your personality. Think about
it for a second: when you speak a foreign language, your facial features, the
thoughts that you think, your actions, your reactions are all slightly
different than when you speak your mother tongue and we only have ONE life.
it's true but it's also true that the more languages you speak, the more lives
we can live within one live span.
Learning a language is a little bit like running a marathon: you learn a lot of
valuable life lessons by doing that. For example, you learn the importance of
being humble, the importance of knowing yourself, knowing when to speed up and
when to slow down. The importance of trial-and-error. Daily routine,
regularity, habits, belief in yourself, and I have learned these life lessons
through language and have carried them over into other fields and domains of
life. For example I have learned how to become more productive, how to develop
good sleeping and eating habits. So, it has brought about a change in my life
overall.
Traveling is in and of itself an amazing experience it doesn't matter where you
go and it doesn't matter how many languages you speak. But if you speak the
local language or you speak many languages, it changes, it completely
changes your experience. Back in the days when I used to live in Paris, I used to
carry out this social experiment: I used to walk into bars speaking English and
asking things around and the reaction was obviously very cold. But then - and
within the same day - I used to go to other bars and speak in French and the
reaction was completely different which goes to show that human beings all
across the globe have the same desires, the same actions, the same thoughts the
same reactions and only apparently we are different through the barrier of
language. Every language that you learn is like a key that unlocks a new pathway
to human experience. When you go to the gym and you see all these big guys you
realize that the reason why their muscles are so big is because they work
out. Differently from the muscles, actually we cannot see the brain itself
but the brain works in exactly the same way: if you make your brain work, your
brain will become smoother, leaner and more efficient and through language
learning that can happen very fast. Language learning has AMAZING benefits
in terms of learning other languages, for example when I started
learning Dutch after learning German, or learning Portuguese after learning
Spanish, I was astounded at the rate at which I was acquiring these languages
which is natural because these languages were similar to the languages I already
knew .But in general the more languages you learn, the more cognitive benefits
you reap. For example I am more socially and culturally aware, I am a
better imitator, I'm a better listener, I think I'm a more empathic person, and a
more caring person. Imagine casting a net into the ocean: the bigger and the better
the net, the more fish you're gonna get. Now think about all these social events
you have participated in: when you speak another language and you meet a person
who speaks that language, even a few words in that language can make a
difference because you're establishing a direct, natural and emphatic relationship
with that person, and that makes all the difference. When
it comes to establishing connections, making long-lasting relationships,
friendships and even love, which takes us to the next point: so this this is what
happened 2017 in Prague. I was sitting with my friends at a hostel and then we
started talking to these three French girls, who were surprised that I spoke French
and that I spoke it well, and then thanks to that I actually established a connection
I got to know her better and eventually she would become my girlfriend now the
interesting thing is that speaking French not only helped me connect, make
this connection, but it hope also helped me solidify and cement this relationship
because the quality of the relationship the empathy between the two of us - that
was different and imagine like speaking languages like having a little Cupid
shooting the arrow between you and another person
it actually makes love thrive and I've learned that, you know, the important
message that love is the same universal message for everyone but it's wrapped up
and coded in different cultures and different cultural codes and to unlock
that you need to speak foreign languages. Back in the days in 2010 when I moved to
Paris, I didn't know exactly what to do but I knew that I had a big passion for
languages and eventually languages caught up with me and found me and I
started working with languages so I told myself "bingo, I do what I love and I love
what I do but you don't have to necessarily work with languages, meaning,
you have to be a translator or you have to be an interpreter, you can be whatever
you want. But if you speak languages if you have a good command of languages,
that can actually make your career improve and you can find jobs much more
easily because with languages you not only acquire words and sentences but you
also acquire a command of the cultural structures and cultural codes underlying
negotiations or other things that can actually make your life and the life of
the company or the organization you work with much easier and smoother.
Imagine speaking languages like having a toolbox: the more languages you speak, the
more tools you have to do whatever you want. The bottom line of all this is that
learning a language or many languages is never ever a waste of time it's not just
a matter of learning new sounds or new sentences or new words
it's about being more: being a more competent person and more socially and
culturally aware person. In the end it's about being more empathic, more
understanding and more humane, and we need this in this globalized world. So if
you're thinking of learning a language just do it NOW, because it will have a
huge impact not only on your life but on the life of those who surround you.
If you want to know more just click on the link in the description box below the
video and you will be able to read an article that I put together about this
topic on my brand new website www.lucalampariello.com