Blog number 5

Bonjour. Ciao. Hello. Those are all the ways I can say hello in the languages I know. Since my childhood, I have been exposed to languages, which has inspired my love for them and has prompted me to pursue a career in secondary foreign language education.

Since I was born, I heard Italian being spoken at my grandparent's house and my mom speaking Italian on the phone. Over time, I learned to tune it out as I heard rapid foreign words that I couldn't understand. Then came Kindergarten, where I began to take French. I had grown to love it, and continued with it all through middle school and in high school. My passion for languages began to emerge when I would see words in English and get excited because they have French origins. Also, in freshman year English class, we learned Latin and Greek roots and I was so excited because the romance languages stem from Latin. This encouraged me to take Italian in my sophomore year, with a little push from my mom because I was content with only knowing French. After two weeks, I had fallen in love with Italian. Having previously learned French and its grammar rules. learning Italian verb conjugations and grammar was a breeze and hearing Italian everyday at home allowed me to pick up the vocabulary instantly. But most importantly, learning new words in Italian was easy mostly because I could guess their meaning based upon their similarity to French. When I learned the word "facile" which means "easy" was the some in both languages but with different pronunciations, I was ecstatic. There are many more cases like that, which brings me so much joy because I think it's so fascinating.

After completing Italian I, I was given permission to skip to Italian 3, while simultaneously taking French 5. I had taken French 4 while taking Italian I, and I was eager to continue my studies of Italian and French. This year was amazing because I expanded my vocabulary immensely and learned to speak more fluently. I'm so glad I'm involved in languages, because they're truly a beautiful thing.