I wish we as society could simply have one language to overcome language barriers, but that’s more of a content for my daydreaming.
I often encounter issues due to language barriers.
Mainly with 2 languages.
Since the start of war, I’ve been encountering lots of Ukrainians I can’t really speak with. Especially when I was on a dorm, where they were a great majority.
Not that I tend to talk with people, but I felt weird after a while.
Probably like someone who doesn’t speak Spanish in the US (at least I assume that’s fairly common over there).
And now searching for a job, I found many companies want you to know German.
Which I also encountered as “would’ve been useful now” a few times.
Seems like I should know an answer to this, as English isn’t my first language, but I have no fucking idea how I picked it up. I never made any serious attempt (i.e.: studying for more than a week) to learn it.
It’s very common for people to watch Netflix shows and youtube… but I dunno, I just can’t seem to get them to grasp what “sounds natural.” It’s like they’re constantly translating (using an outdated version of Google Translate from the 2010s) in their heads instead of thinking in English, you know what I mean? But you may be on to something. Even though I would lose my students, I always tell them to leave Japan and live in an English speaking country for a month or two because the full immersion and necessity will do them more good than 1 year’s worth of lessons with me.