Learning Languages

Living in a country like India, you know the diversity in languages is evident when you travel and you hear someone have a conversation in Gujarati, someone reading in Hindi, while someone else asks directions in Marathi. And these are just the few. 
There's English, Konkani, Bengali, Arabic, Punjabi and Malayalam too. (Others too)

You don't have to read about the variety of languages in India in a school textbook to know it. It exists all around us. 

Thus, language both scares me and inspires me to learn more. 
It scares me as it comes as a barrier when I talk to strangers and so I get really anxious when someone seems to approach me to ask a question of some sort. Because I'm scared I won't understand their language. 

It isn't even that I don't speak or know any other language other than English. 
The languages I know in descending order of fluency are...
1) English - This being my first language, I can read, write and speak with it.
2) Hindi - This language I eventually learnt with fluency levels lower than English. But trust me when I tell you this, when I speak Hindi, I speak it with pride for my country. I can read, write and speak it at a slower pace than English.
3) French - A language I hated in school but after a short break, in college, a new kind of passion was kindled in me towards the language. I can read, write and speak (1-3 words at a time) in this language. 
4) Konkani - This is supposed to be my mother language but I never learnt it. I can only understand when people speak in Konkani. Can't really read, write or speak it.  


Language really fascinates me. When you learn a language, you automatically connect to the people living with that language. And that's quite beautiful. I would really enjoy the company of linguistically diverse friends. (I like diversity in my friendship circles in general actually.)
And so, it inspires me to learn more languages and improve my fluency in the languages I already know. 

In the future, I want to learn Marathi (properly) Japanese, Konkani and Mandarin. Let's see. The list may change as per my interests, time available, easy accessibility of language materials and many other factors.

Languages are something to be proud of. It's an integral part of culture without which we won't have any of the amazing lives we have and share with one another. 

I am even using language right now to communicate this piece of information to you...I know, so cool (and natural that we don't even realize how awesome it is in our daily lives or at least not always.)