Have you ever wished you were fluent in another language? Many in our student body were raised in bilingual households, but those who learned English as a second language are rare. So what’s it like to become bilingual later on in life? To find out, I asked Antonia Vlad, Johnny Zhu, Joy Tran, and Juan Pablo Hortta to share their story. First, I wanted to find out what the biggest differences were between English and their native languages. Grammar was a given, but interestingly, Joy mentioned that the tones used with Vietnamese words also significantly change the word’s meaning.

Depending on what their native language is, there are often particularly difficult words for ESL learners to pronounce. Words like February, Massachusetts, omelet, rural, and Worcestershire (even native speakers struggle with this one!) were mentioned as some of the most difficult. Language learning can be challenging, so I asked these four students what methods were most helpful for them. Juan and Johnny mentioned that reading and watching TV in English were their go-to methods for improving their language skills. However, nearly all agreed the fastest and most effective way to learn was simply to talk to native speakers often because it forced them into a survival mode where the singular option for communication was English.

At what point did they feel they had reached fluency in English? Some realized they had reached fluency when they no longer needed to translate everything into their native language in their head. For others, being able to confidently deliver a speech in English confirmed their success. But as Antonia related in her own success story, no matter how long it takes, achieving fluency in a foreign language is an incredible feat well worth celebrating!