１．学校の先生
イギリスの南端で育ったおかげ、外国がとても近かく、フェリーに乗れば、一時間くらいで行けました。そして、一般的に小学校の修学旅行で海外に行くことはあまりないのに、たまたま私が通っていた小学校の校長先生はとても熱心で、フランス語を教えてくれたり、フランスのノルマンディーへの修学旅行に連れて行ってくださいました。10歳のときでした。このきっかけに、初めて外国語に触れることができました。若い時は全く気づきませんでしたが、子供の頃に出会う先生は本当に人生に大きな影響を与えます。
中学・高校でも言語に熱心な教師に出会いました。副校長はフランス語が堪能で上手に私たちの好奇心を引き起こしてくださったし、他の先生も言語が大好きだということがよく伝わってきて、フランス語だけじゃなくてラテン語も熱心に教えてくださいました。何語でもよかったかもしれません。私は先生の熱心さに惹きつけられて科目を選んだと思います。
成績が一番よかった科目を選んだわけではありません。
校長先生もいろんな機会を与えてくださって、海外から留学生や教師を招いたりしました。
２．キャリアフォーラム
中学校の時に、ある日の夜に学校でキャリアフォーラムが開催されました。各教室に何かのプロがいて、そのお話を聞きました。たくさん聞けたはずなのに、唯一覚えているのは、体育館で話してくれた通訳のプロです。その女性は大学でフランス語を勉強して仏・英の通訳者になりましたが、その後スウェーデンに引っ越して、あっという間にスウェーデン語を習得して（浸透という言葉を使いました）、それも通訳の言語に加えました。楽しそうに話していたし、言語はキャリアになるんだと思いました。
結局、私も言語をキャリアにすることができ、今までの歴代の職業には、教師、翻訳者、通訳者、コーディネーター、スーパーバイザー等が含まれています。
３．親
親はどうしても自分ができなかったことを子供にやらせたがるものです。自分が若い時に機会がなかったことや、苦手だったことをある程度、子供にやらせたくなります。なので、若い時にそれほど海外に触れる機会がなかった親は他の科目よりか、語学の勉強 に対してポジティブで励んでくれたと思います。私は言語が他の科目より特段成績はよかった、得意だったということではありませんでしたが、親に比べれば、得意だったなので、親からのサポートが比較的大きかったと思います。
４．得意なこと、楽なこと
中学・高校の時に話すことは実はかなり苦手な方だった上に、正解がはっきりしている理科や数学が一番得意でした。しかし、言語が得意な生徒は少なかったので、おそらく周りと比べれると、言語は得意に見えたでしょう。学校の言語の勉強ではあまり会話をしなくてもよいし、文学系の勉強が多かったおかけで、成績は良かったと思います。
５．友達
高校の時の校長先生は時々留学生を招待していましたが、私のクラスに1年間入ったのが神奈川県の学生でした。そして、私の友達グループに入ったので、毎日のように話していました。その友達が帰り道などで日本語を少し教えてくれたおかげで、ヨーロッパ以外の言葉に興味を持つようになりました。そして、それは進学の道を選ぶ時期でしたので、結局、東洋学部を選びました。
Image via author
友達の影響は大きいです。
６．性格
元々の性格も関係すると思います。割と好奇心旺盛で、新しいことを発見する喜びが好きでしたので、母国語との違いを発見するのも楽しんでいました。少しチャレンジ精神がある子供だったし、異なる言語は何て不思議で面白いと思いました。
７．FOMO （Fear of Missing Out）
ここまでが言語を習ったポジティブな理由です。自分のことなので、ポジティブバイアスが強いですが、深く考えて、言語を最初に習い始めた時を思い出すと、言語を一生懸命勉強した本当の理由はこれです。
仲間外れの恐怖症です。誰かが話しているけど、何を言っているか分からない時の疎外感。その会話・その文章が理解できない時に感じるモヤモヤを何とか解消したいのが私のモチベーションになったと思います。周りの人が分からないとか、あの人たちの輪に入れないとか、自分だけが全く理解できないことは相当怖かったから、言語にこんなに釘ついたと思います。
ちなみに、これは話し言語に限ったことではありません。私がルエダというグループダンスを必死に習ったのも、ルエダを見た時に、グループの合図が分からなくて、悔しかったからです。
自分の人生は様々な影響で道が分岐しますが、若い時の影響はもっとも大きいようです。
The Real Reason I Became Fluent in Multiple Languages
1. School teachers
Thanks to growing up in the south-east of England, it was easy to go abroad, and even before the age of LCCs, it only took about an hour to get to France by ferry. Although it wasn't common for primary school children to go abroad on school trips, the headmaster of my school was very enthusiastic. He taught us French and took us all on a school trip to Normandy, France. We were only 10 years old. This was my first opportunity be immersed in a foreign language. I didn't realize it at all when I was younger, but the teachers you meet as a child really have a big impact on your life.
I also met teachers who were enthusiastic about languages in secondary school. The deputy-head was fluent in French and was great at stimulating our curiosity, and it was clear that the other language teachers also loved their subject, so they taught us not only French but also Latin with enthusiasm. It could have been any language really. I think I chose which subjects to take at GCSE and A Levels because I was attracted to the teachers' enthusiasm.
I didn't choose the subjects that gave me the best marks.
The headmistress also gave us many opportunities, such as inviting international students and teachers from overseas.
2. Career Forum
When I was in secondary school, a career forum was held at school one evening. There was a professional in each classroom, and we listened to their talks. I must have listened to a lot of people, but the only person I can remember was a professional interpreter who spoke in the gym. The woman had studied French at university and became a French-English interpreter, but then moved to Sweden and quickly learned to speak Swedish (she used the word "osmosis") and added it to her repertoire of interpreting languages. She seemed to enjoy speaking about her job, and I realized that languages could be a career.
In the end, I too was able to make a career out of languages, and my professions have included teacher, translator, interpreter, coordinator and supervisor.
3. My Parents
Parents always want their children to be able to do the things that they couldn't do themselves. They want their children to have opportunities that they didn't have when they were young, and to achieve things that they weren't successful at themselves. So I think that because my parents didn't have much opportunity to be exposed to other countries when they were young, they were relatively positive and encouraging about studying languages more than other subjects. I wasn't particularly good at languages compared to other subjects, but I was good at them compared to my parents, so I think I received a lot of support from them.
4. Things I'm good at vs. things I found easy
In secondary school, I was actually quite bad at speaking, and I was best at science and maths, where the correct answers were clear. However, there were not many students who were good at languages, so I probably looked good at languages compared to the others. I think my marks were good in languages because we didn't have to speak much in language subjects at school and we studied a lot of literature.
5. Friends
The headteacher of my secondary school sometimes invited international students, and a girl from Japan joined my class for a year when I was 17. She became part of my friend group, so we talked almost every day. That friend taught me a little bit of Japanese on the way home, and thanks to that, I became interested in languages outside the Indo-European language group. And that was also the age when I was thinking about my path to further education, so I ended up choosing to aim for Oriental Studies.
Image by the author
Friends have a big influence on your life.
6. Personality
I think my personality also played a role. I was quite curious and enjoyed discovering new things, so I also liked finding differences with my native language. I was a child with a bit of a spirit of adventure, and I thought different languages were mysterious and interesting.
7. FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)
The first six reasons were positive reasons for learning languages. But, since it's about myself, I have a strong bias so I am bound to put a positive spin on things. However, if I think deeply and remember when I first started learning languages, this is the real reason why I studied languages so hard.
It's the fear of being left out. The feeling of alienation when someone is talking but I don't understand what they're saying. I think my motivation was to somehow get rid of that vague feeling I get when I can't understand a conversation or a sentence. I think I got so obsessed with languages because I was scared of not understanding the people around me, not being able to join in that group, or being the only one who doesn't understand something.
By the way, this is not limited to spoken languages. The reason I desperately tried to learn the group dance called Rueda was because I was frustrated when I saw a group dancing Rueda and couldn't join in because I didn't understand the group's signals.
The path of our lives diverge according to many different influences, but the influences we receive when we are young seem to be the greatest.
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