19/52 Jessica Henry

19/52 Jessica Henry

“Knowing other languages is like a superpower in my eyes - I want to become fluent in more than just English. I’m truly jealous of people who grew up in multi-language households. I do, however feel very privileged to have learned French in immersion growing up. My brother who’s a year older took Spanish in high school and that year my family went Costa Rica on holiday. He knew all these words off the menu already, and that made me SO eager to take Spanish too. I was surprised that more people didn’t want to take it. Such a fun language to speak once you learn a little. In my experience when you're meeting people who have different first languages— even though most places I've been, the majority of people can also speak English— if you make an effort to speak their language, apart from it being fun and useful, it also opens people's hearts to you. Even if you can only get the pronunciation of the greeting down, and maybe a funny phrase to break the ice…You're saying you care about them and where they're from. It opens a door for them to teach you more. I think the biggest thing that stops people from trying new languages is the fear of sounding dumb, but I swear it’s worth it, even if you try and get it wrong, for the most part no one will make fun of you. More likely you’ll make a new friend.”