I’ve recently noticed that I don’t participate in class as quickly as I used to. At first, I attributed this to an exhausting schedule: two Writing Intensive classes, a FLIC class and a class that involves reading lots of very old texts, not to mention my roles as mother hen to a bunch of news writers, secretary to two clubs, clarinetist in two groups, and co-coordinator of a CommServ program…you get the idea. However, I realized that this wasn’t the case because my problem isn’t following the discussion or thinking of what to say. Rather, I’ve slowed down in order to make sure I don’t accidentally say “Acho que…” instead of “Creo que…” or “Ich glaube, dass…” My problem is that the Portuguese, Spanish and German parts of my brain get mixed up.

Those who know me well know that I’ve brought this upon myself. I’m a German and Spanish double major who lives in the Portuguese section of the Romance Language House. The Writing Intensive classes I mentioned earlier are in Portuguese and German, the FLIC class is for German, and the very old texts are in very old Spanish. Frankly, part of me is nervous about going to Málaga next fall and Bremen the following spring because I might worsen in the two unused languages. So this all begs the following question: why am I doing this to myself? Why couldn’t I be like three of my fellow Dickinsonian editors and stick with English for a major?

Part of the answer is that I like learning about other cultures. I’ve enjoyed learning about Mexican drug trafficking, German art and Brazilian musical genres in their original languages. I also like seeing how different cultures see the same topic. For instance, I’ve discussed graffiti twice this semester: once in regards to Rio de Janeiro and once in regards to Berlin. The second conversation was difficult because Portuguese and German are my slowest language pair, but it was worth it.

Another part of the answer is that I enjoy dealing with patterns, which means that I enjoy learning grammar rules (No, really!). Sometimes one set of grammar helps me learn another; this is especially true for Portuguese, which shares many rules with Spanish. Sometimes this backfires, like when I over-think object pronouns in Spanish due to lots of practice with cases in German. But it’s all a challenge of patterns and I love it.

In conclusion: Quando eu falar na língua errada, por favor dígamelo, danke schön! (When I speak in the wrong language, please tell me so, thank you!) And please correct my mistakes!