The Journey to Become a Polyglot Is One of Addiction

It all started with not knowing any foreign language.

You can’t give up alcohol by going to bars. It’s by keeping yourself away from bars that you can. If you want to become one, though, going to bars is a pretty good solution.

If you want to get hooked to anything, you need to mentally and physically get yourself in a place where that thing is present in abundance. And that’s what polyglots do.

I don’t know a single polyglot who started by learning 3 languages at the same time. Everybody started with one. The one language that was a bud for a magnificent yet simple journey.

You don’t know any foreign language

Apart from the (lucky) ones who grew up in multilingual families, most polyglots begin their journey with their native language. I started mine with my native French.

One day, they encounter one language which sparks an interest. For some, it’ll be the first foreign language they encounter at school. For some others, it’s not time yet.

I encountered Spanish through my aunt as a child. Then through a friend of my parents. Then at school. I hated the language because it was everywhere around. Then I discovered English and hated it because my older brother did too.

It wasn’t until middle school that I discovered Japanese. The language that began it all.

A thirst for the language arises

When I first heard Japanese, I was hooked. I watched for the first time an anime, Naruto, in 3rd year of middle school. The sound of the language felt incredible. I wanted to know more about this exotic language so I did some research.

I found resources online and discovered the existence of “Kanji”, Chinese characters used in Japanese. Each kanji has a meaning of its own but when combined with another, a new meaning is born. How awesome is that?

I became curious. I wanted to know more about this language. I needed to know more. And so I began my journey.

Every polyglot had his own spark. It can come at any time in any form. It could be a person you meet, a video you watch, a hobby you develop that originated from the country, or anything else.

What your trigger is matters less than the fact it exists.

The journey begins

I began learning bits of Japanese in my last year of middle school. Yet, it wasn’t until the end of high school that I really got my first breakthrough.

After spending so much time watching anime and learning the script, I started understanding more and more words. Sometimes, I could even find errors in the fan subtitles I was using.

It felt incredible. Every day, I was discovering something new, something different. And I started to have breakthrough moments.

Each time I would see Japanese people in Paris, I’d try to listen to their conversations. Each time I’d understand the topic, I’d get a high from it.

“Nice. I’m getting better.”

Each one felt better than the previous one. I needed more.

Nobody can become great at anything without starting it. You need to begin. Then, and only then, your journey can take you to majestic places.

You become addicted

The more highs you get, the more you want some. After a while, you can’t wait for a month to have another. You need one this week. Today even, if you can.

Future polyglots become so addicted to this high they can’t stop learning the language. They go out of their comfort zone. They find a community of other people who enjoy the same high.

This was how I joined the forum How To Learn Any Language (now moved to A Language Learners’ Forum). I became surrounded by people even more excited than I was.

Many spoke more than 10 languages. Some even know 30 or more. Everybody kept sharing, day after day, what made them a language nerd. The page on the old forum, where this was shared, still exists and has 468 pages.

Whenever I couldn’t get my own high during my studies, I’d open the forum and read about other people’s breakthroughs. I would smile and feel satisfied. Then I’d turn back to my studies.

People who become polyglots focus on these highs. An error doesn’t matter. Who cares about a step back? What matters is improving every single day and having fun along the way.

One language stops being enough

After a while, these soon-to-be polyglots realize they could get even more frequent highs by learning other languages. By then, they’ve encountered enough to know which one will be the next.

They start from scratch again and remember their humble beginnings in the other language. Memories or “simple” highs come back. And so they begin to dive deeper.

As I was starting to understand well Japanese, I started diving into Korean. The process was similar yet so different. It was so foreign I was in love.

I remember learning the script like it was yesterday. Sitting on a table in the French countryside, I had the alphabet table and a message left by two Korean people I had met. It took me two hours to finally understand one word: “Goodbye”, written in Hangeul: 굳바이.

I had given up on the rest by then. But when I finally read this word, I had probably one of the highest highs I ever got. It was only the beginning.

Polyglots are nothing more than addicts. They got lucky their addiction turned out to be such a productive one.

They don’t plan to become so addicted. They just end up being. And all the languages they speak are nothing more than the byproduct of this addiction.

You could become just as addicted and as proficient. All you need is to start.

Then keep your focus on having fun and finding those highs. Make the language a game. Enjoy your failures. Find other people playing this game, some even more addicted than you.

Find your trigger and start.

Soon enough, you’ll be looking up in the void with fond memories of when you started your first foreign language.

I couldn’t be more thankful to Naruto for introducing me to Japanese.

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