How to Learn Languages With Ease
From a monolingual to a multilingual mindset
This is a story about a handicap: Yes, I felt incapable to learn foreign languages!
Since I was a child, I failed at learning languages at school. Italian — the grammar just didn’t do it for me. My teacher was a bully, and I felt intimidated by her from the age of seven. Latin — I gave up. English — I was unable to get out a straight sentence.
Nevertheless, I felt intrinsically motivated to go to London after completing high school. My teacher asked me what I wanted to do professionally. When I replied, ‘Becoming a stewardess, so I can travel the world’, she laughed at me: ‘You don’t even speak English!’
Right, I didn’t become a flight attendant. Instead, I ended up in London for much longer than expected!
When my money was gone after a couple of months, I had no money to pay the rent for my room in Central London. Instead, I had a ticket, to fly back home… that was no option for me! I started job hunting, which was hard at first. I didn’t even know what it meant when I got the reply: ‘Come back with a CV!’
Eventually, a lovely Croatian recruiter had compassion for me. She made sure, I got a job in a coffee shop. I had a drink with her in a pub, and I could barely hold a conversation…
