My English Language Learning Journey

By default of growing up in a family of journalists, English was always the medium of exchange in my household. Although in my younger years I learned English simultaneously with my mother tongue, my situation was slightly different from other kids my age. My parents hail from north and south India respectively, comfortable in their own mother tongues with almost no conversational knowledge in the other’s language. As a result, English became our common mother tongue of sorts. Additionally, I spent most of my childhood, or as some would call prime learning years, in Singapore and America. I strongly believe that living in these foreign countries laid a solid foundation for my understanding of the language.

Upon my return to India for secondary school education, I was dismayed by the lowered level of English in my classes. Although most of my classmates were well versed in English, they were equally comfortable in Hindi, their mother tongue. I do not consider myself linguistically talented and take quite a while to learn a new language. As a result, I immersed myself in learning English even more than the average bilingual child would. Despite the mediocre level of English taught in my high school, I tried all alternative methods to steepen my learning curve. I took to reading fiction based books. In fact, it was during my one week reading spree of the Harry Potter series that lead to my first pair of glasses.

When I first told my grandfather I wanted to study economic and not journalism in college, he was shocked but finally accepted my decision. His words were firm but strong when he told me to never let go of the language, no matter which field I intended to work in.

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