I was raised trilingual by an English father and a German mother. And even though 3 languages is quite a handful for a young child, my parents encouraged me and my siblings to consume media in other languages. When I was in middle school my dad installed Korean television networks so I could watch Korean TV, and every night before bed we would watch some anime. This grew into watching Chinese dramas and Filipino romcoms as I got older. Language barriers never stopped me from watching what I wanted.
Growing up I was mostly friends with all of the international students at school. I quickly learned what it could mean to a person when you speak their native language to them. So I started to learn a few words every time we went on holiday to a new country. And that evolved to wanting to learn the native language of the people closest to me. By the time I was graduating high school I had set the goal for myself to learn as many languages as I can. As I am studying I am finally starting to work towards my goal, by learning 2 whole new languages very different from one another.
English
My dad is how I learned to speak English. Until I turned old enough to have a phone, I was basically only speaking English to my family. As I got older, I was able to travel and meet a lot of different people. These people have all impacted how I now speak English. I have friends from New Zealand who talk to me than how my cousins in England talk to me. I have friends from the United States who have their own flavour of English. All of their mannerisms and words form their own language, the one I speak today. And I hope that as I get older my English keeps on evolving with the people around me.
Dutch
Ondanks mijn zeer interculturele opvoeding, ben ik een zeer Nederlands meisje. Mijn eerste aanraking met Nederlands, voordat ik naar school of de opvang ging, was mijn oma. Mijn moeder is in Duitsland geboren en opgegroeid, maar haar moeder komt oorspronkelijk uit Enschede. Een van de eerste mensen die met mij Nederlands heeft gesproken was dus mijn oma. Op de basisschool, voordat ik mijn eigen manier van praten heb gekregen, had ik de spraakgewoontes van mijn oma uit Twente. Tegenwoordig spreek ik Nederlands vooral op school en op werk, ook al was het eerst even wennen met het Limburgs accent. Nederlands is een taal die ik hoogstwaarschijnlijk de rest van mijn leven nog zal spreken en ik hoop de taal met de tijd mee te verbeteren.
German
Seit meiner Geburt hat meine Mutter mit mir deutsch gesprochen. Obwohl ihre Mutter Niederländerin ist, ist sie selbst nicht zweisprachig aufgewachsen. Diesen “Fehler” wollte sie bei ihren eigenen Kindern nicht machen.
Meine Mutter ist im Münsterland aufgewachsen, das wie eigentlich jede Gegend seine eigene Aussprache kennt. So wird man im Gespräch mit mir feststellen, dass ich gerne “Wuäst” esse anstelle von Wurst.
Auch wenn ich täglich deutsch spreche, bleibt die Grammatik auch für mich eine Herausforderung. Beim Sprechen fällt es weniger auf, aber meine schriftliche Kommunikation möchte ich gerne noch verfeinern.
Japanese
I started learning Japanese in September of 2025. Learning Japanese was a lifelong dream of mine and it’s why I chose the course in the first place. As a child my dad would show me an episode of Sailor Moon before bed, and my sisters have also been huge fans of anime for as long as I can remember. My personal interest lies with Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation studio that has had me fascinated for most of my life. I want to learn Japanese to communicate with people but also to understand Hayao Miyazaki’s (director) work on a deeper level. I can currently converse in Japanese with some struggle but I hope to reach a level where I can easily talk to people.
どおぞよろしくお願いします。
Finnish
I started learning Finnish around February of 2026. My reasoning at first was because I really would like to move there when I finish my studies. I also really wanted to specialise myself in the workspace by learning very uncommon languages. I tried learning it some time in 2024 before visiting but due to circumstances and Finnish being an inherently very difficult language I was not successful. My situation changed when I had to pick a self-study subject for my course. After some thought I knew I wanted to try and pick up Finnish again. I had some pushback from teachers and family telling me things I already knew. I had long realised that Finnish is very difficult to learn, but I had the academic pressure, help and confidence I did not have the first time. The first weeks were very difficult because there was a lot of new material and grammar rules that don’t exist in any of the other languages I speak or tried to learn. I have gotten to the point that I feel more confident in my grammar but I still am working on my spoken Finnish. I want to keep improving and get more conversational soon.
Minä rakastan Suomea mutta en tykkää kalasta.
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