Photo: Lauren Sztajer

I went to the 2015 Polyglot Gathering in Berlin last week – met a lot of fantastic people, listened to a number of interesting talks and here are the 10 things I learned!

1. You don’t need a reason to learn a language.

My monolingual friends often ask me what the reasons were behind my decision to learn each of the languages I can speak. To live abroad, to go travelling, to get a new job?

They’re missing the point, though. Multilingual people don’t always think along the lines of ‘utility’ when picking languages to learn. Sometimes, there’s no reason behind learning at all. And the gathering proved it. I met a lot of people who can speak, or are learning, very niche languages for no reason other than because they find these languages interesting in themselves.

So, when picking a new language to learn, make sure you follow your interests and you might end up having much more fun than somebody who’s learning a language because you think it might come in handy one day.

2. Mnemonics is a very powerful learning technique.

Mnemonics is a method of memorising and recalling vocabulary (or anything else for that matter) by associating words with mental images or sounds.

During the gathering, I went to a talk by Anthony Metivier, an expert in memory techniques, on how to use mnemonics to create so-called ‘memory palaces’ in your imagination to remember and recall words and expressions. Check out Anthony’s post on Benny Lewis’ blog for more details.

I’ll definitely use mnemonics and the ‘memory palace’ method to learn Arabic.

Image: slack12

3. We can see and hear more when we learn a new language.

Another one of the lectures I went to during the gathering was on the differences in perceiving colours, directions and time among speakers of different languages.

I learned about research studies which show that you can see colours differently depending on what language you speak, that you might be more, or less, risk-averse depending on whether you speak a ‘futured’ or ‘unfutured’ language, and that your perception of time and its linearity can be completely different to someone who speaks another language.

4. Languages have healing properties.

I heard stories of people who found that learning a foreign language had helped them improve their communication in their native language (which were due to an Autistic spectrum disorder), or enabled them to fight depression and other mental health issues. How amazing is that?

5. When you learn a new language, you create a new identity and that’s OK.

It’s not a new idea that whenever we learn a new language, we create a new identify for ourselves – and even take on a slightly different personality.

Some multilinguals may feel that they don’t have a ‘true’ identity because they have a little bit of this and a little bit of that. However, I agree with Tim Keeley who said in his talk that we shouldn’t get too obsessed with having one ‘true’ identity.

It’s OK to have multiple identities, with each of them being as ‘true’ as the other ones.

6. A lot of polyglots are also into coding.

Photo: Luigi Rosa

I found that a lot of the people I spoke to at the gathering have a background in web development.

When I first started learning Python through Code Academy, I got the impression that learning to code is very similar to learning a foreign language – you learn words and expressions and put them together using syntax rules to form sentences. You then communicate this to your interlocutor (the computer) who interprets the meaning of your words and acts on them.

I also found out how to pronounce ‘Python’ in French and I think it’s truly amusing.

7. Esperanto is a thing.

Before the gathering, I’d never come across anyone who speaks Esperanto.

To my surprise, it turns out the language has a huge following around the world. Among the 350 participants of the Berlin gathering, approximately one third spoke Esperanto to some degree.

I was told by one genius polyglot that it only takes two weeks to learn so, hey, I might have a go at it before the next gathering.

8. Gaelic is not a script.

This was one of the things that came up during a polyglot quiz I took part in. The question was about a script of some sort and my answer was ‘Gaelic’, which is obviously b*llocks.

9. Any level is a good level.

You don’t have to speak at least ten languages fluently to call yourself a polyglot. I met a lot of people at the gathering who have their principal fluent languages and a handful of ‘additional’ languages that they’re only starting out with.

Any level of language knowledge and ability is a good level – if you can say 10 sentences in Polish and that’s all, I’m still going to be impressed!

Another thing to add is you don’t need to be fluent to have a conversation in a foreign language. The key is to have a go at it, not be worried about making mistakes, and treat every challenging situation as a learning opportunity. Fluency will come sooner or later.

10. Putting your hand up is always a good idea.

Here’s a blog post I wrote on my first night at the gathering after I took part in a polyglot quiz. I came last but had a blast and learned an important lesson.

To sum it up, it’s a good idea to always go for it, no matter how confident or not you are in your language abilities. Chat to people if you’re shy, go out there and join the party even if you don’t know anyone, and have fun!

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Agnieszka