Introduction

Hi, everyone. I wanted to write a post introducing myself, as well as state some of my goals for this blog. For many years, I was thinking of writing a blog, but always ended up putting it off. With the start of a new year, and a new mindset, I decided to create a blog, so that I could inspire other people to learn languages. Although there are already many talented language-learners around the world, I wanted to share my own unique experiences about language-learning, wanted to give others advice, and wanted to create a community in which others could share their own stories.

If you have found my blog, and have failed to successfully learn a language, want to improve a language, or want to learn a new one this year, then you have come to the right place. Despite being a freshman college student who has very little free-time, I have managed to study 7 languages, and can comfortably speak, read, write, and understand 5 languages (in order of when I started studying them: Spanish, English, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Portuguese).

I know what many of you are probably thinking: “You must be a genius!”. One of the main reasons why I decided to create this blog was, so that I could try to convince you that this were not the case. As many other famous polyglots have stated, there is no such thing as a language gene. I was not born smarter, or more capable of learning languages than anyone else. I simply found very effective ways to make languages a part of my identity. Multilingualism, or, more specifically, being a hyperpolyglot (someone who speaks 6 or more languages fluently) is a way of life that I have only recently started to embrace.

Having Colombian parents has not only given me the gift of bilingualism, but also the appreciation for languages. Oftentimes, many people think that English is the main language of the world, and, that if you speak it well, you can travel anywhere, and meet anyone around the world. Having already traveled to 37 countries, and to 39 states, I can confidently say that this is not always the case. For example, when we went to St. Petersburg in Russia last summer, there were very few people who could speak English, despite the fact that it is one of the largest cities in Russia. Luckily, I could read Cyrillic, could understand a decent amount of words, and we had a tour-guide, so we managed to get by. But as many of you know, this is not the case for everyone.

I hope that by reading my posts, you will learn why languages are so crucial in an ever-changing, competitive world. The world is only getting smaller, so there will continue to be a huge demand for bilingual, trilingual, polyglot, and hyperpolyglot individuals. Do you want to learn how you can set yourself apart in your personal, and in your professional life? Do you want to get advice from an individual who has a lot of language-learning experience? Do you want to find out how I have managed to keep so many languages straight? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then feel free to come along for the ride.