I have always been fascinated by languages, by learning, by being intelligent. I truly enjoyed school growing up and looked forward to college where I would continue to learn but this time, I would have my own choice in what I studied. At my private school, foreign language was taught young in hopes that by the time a student entered high school, they would be ready for the world and have another advantage to add to their resume. Therefore, I began to learn Spanish vocabulary when I was five-years-old.
It was never sentence structure, which would have been helpful, but I was able to grow my vocabulary. By high school, my foreign language was chosen for me, I would continue at least for two more years in Spanish. This did not upset me as much as others seemed to be upset, I enjoyed learning languages, they came naturally to me. Spanish was the second language I learned and I continued all throughout high school in Spanish and I continue to learn in college.
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My third language, American Sign Language, came even more naturally to me than Spanish did. I began my journey with ASL when I was eight-years-old. I did not have any deaf family members or friends at the time. I was simply asked to sign a song at church while someone else sang. After that first time on stage signing, I fell in love with the language, I never even realized I had fallen until I began taking formal classes my senior year of high school at a community college. It was then that I discovered I could do something after these classes to continue my love of ASL, so I began to research Interpreting programs at colleges; I found my home for the next three years, I found William Woods.
I am a linguist, I study languages, and I desire to learn as many languages as my brain can juggle. I don't want to sit around and let others learn for me, or rely on paper and pen for communication, I wish to use my words and my hands to communicate, to share, to feel. Most people will stop learning after college, they get their diploma and move on, I don't want to sit stagnant in languages, I want to continue to learn and improve.
There are numerous opportunities available for those who know at least one other language, in the job market, the demand increases and thus increases the chances of being hired. Not only does it help for career solely reliant on learning another language, like Interpreting, but in the medical field, psychology, business, it is crucial in this day and age to learn languages. We are not moving towards a universal language any time soon, so may as well stretch our brains and keep learning.
