How I Accidentally Became Multi-Lingual

When life’s adventures mean you pick up a language or two

I never really set out to acquire languages. Some people have a burning desire to collect them. As a child, I remember meeting a man who spoke seven languages. My parents thought he might have been a spy.

I have always loved to read. I taught myself at the age of three (according to my mum). I loved writing too. I can’t remember a time when I couldn’t read or write.

Other languages I just never thought about.

I went to kindergarten in Canada where I had a French-speaking friend. I might have started to learn some French but then we moved back to Australia and I went to school and they certainly didn’t have much of an additional language curriculum in the 1970s and 80s.

Then I went to High School. And I chose to do German. It was the only language I could choose, and I thought, “why not?”

It’s funny because I never really liked it. My teacher said I had a good ear and accent. But it was kind of hard, I hated the grammar, and I did it for only three years.

During my final year of High School, I decided I should go on an exchange. My parents were supportive of this (thankfully, because how else would a 16-year-old finance a year in another country!)

I applied for a Rotary Exchange with my local club, and after an extensive interview process, I was accepted.

The day I was told I was going to Finland, I guess I was both pleased and daunted.

I knew very little about Finland. My Grandmother had been there and sent me a postcard. Another family friend had been on exchange there, but she was a bit ‘troubled’ and ‘odd’ so I didn’t want to quite judge her perspective.

I knew about Scandinavia. I had thought Sweden or Iceland might be good. We had the option of writing down three countries. I had written Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. I got Finland. Not even a part of Scandinavia.

The amazing thing is, I ended up in an autonomous province of Finland, called Åland (pronounced aweland), and they speak Swedish. So I kind of got my first choice…in language anyway.

It was during this year I learned to speak Swedish.

There was no internet back then. No laptop computers and instant messaging, video calls or Skype. It was the time of letters. And stamps.

So I had to learn the language to be able to communicate. People seemed pretty shy and didn’t really speak much English to me.

I became pretty good at Swedish. I had a good ear (my German teacher had picked that up) and it seemed to come naturally to me.

I loved speaking it.

By the end of the year, I was what you might call fluent. My accent was quite local (according to locals and Swedes alike), causing great amusement when people found out I was from Australia.

And that was how I acquired my first language.

Pot luck really! I could have been sent to an English speaking country – the USA, Canada, the UK – but instead I gained another language.

Fast forward a few years and I was about to acquire another language. I had met someone, as you do, and we decided to get married. He was German.

His family had moved to Australia when he was 15 and his mother tongue was German.

The irony! The subject I hadn’t really liked at school.

Becoming a part of his family meant I had to delve into my brain and drag out all the old German I had leaned.

And it worked! It’s amazing how much you can remember. The things you learn when young can resurface into your consciousness when you need them.

Of course, German grammar is nightmarish (but nothing compared to Finnish, but that’s another story) and grammar has never been my strong point so I did a course to refresh my skills.

Then we moved to Germany.

And that is how I kind-of-accidentally acquired my second language.

What I NEVER expected was that I would move back to the place where I did my exchange.

Fast forward a couple of decades and that is exactly what has happened. I find myself living in the place I grew to live when I was 17. In my mid-40s!

I have been here two years so far and the language has come back nicely…and grown! My vocabulary has expanded hugely, mainly thanks to doing jobs like teaching in an elementary school in subjects like maths (never taught it in my mother tongue!) and Swedish (I did try to tell them I had never formally learned it!).

One of the biggest learning curves of all has been teaching German. In Swedish.

Yes! I am now teaching one of my acquired languages in the other acquired language. And some days it makes my head spin! Thankfully the students are beginners in German, but still, there are days where I am not sure what language comes out of my mouth.

You never know where life will take you and what you will learn along the way, but I think learning another couple of languages has been a pretty good adventure…so far!

Lisa lives in Finland with her partner. She is surrounded by water and forest. She has done many different things in her life, including teaching English Literature and History, waiting tables, helping long term unemployed find employment, and cleaning houseboats. She loves writing poetry, prose, song lyrics and singing in her band. You can stay in touch if you’d like to read more.