Out of the world’s approximately 7.5 billion inhabitants, 1.5 billion speak English — that’s 20% of the Earth’s population. However, most of those people aren’t native English speakers. About 360 million people speak English as their first language. So, you see, knowing one language is never enough.

Learn a language, and you’ll avoid a war. — Arabic Proverb

This quote has beautifully put forward the most important advantage of learning a language. It eliminates communication barriers. I remember my grandmother telling me this story wherein just because of a mere difference of a word, a person lost his life.

Getting as inspired by this quote as one could, I went on to follow it. 😇

I had opted for French as my third language in class 4th. Frankly speaking, I took French pretty casually as I used to think that the language I’m being taught is something which does not exist in the real world perhaps because I didn’t have access to technology or the world outside. It was in the 8th grade when I got to know about DELF, a French Certification Examination due to which I realized that French existed! This certificate is globally accepted as the level of your knowledge of French.

So, I took the beginner’s level exam, and I merely passed. Seeing the score, I chose to study French with an online tutor. All thanks to my tutor, I passed with flying colors in my intermediate level exam. 👩🏻‍🎓 That has been a turning point in my journey of learning French.

I got the opportunity to visit France and to live with a French family for 10 days. That exchange program has been the best experience ever in my life. I got to see all the cultural aspects of France that I had read only in books.

I believe that language does not only mean the script, but also the lifestyle, culture, and traditions attached to it.

I joined an institute which gave me exposure to all aspects of the French language. All my friends always looked up to me for clearing or understanding their concepts in french, and some even pointed out that I could be an exceptional french teacher! ✍️

After a year full of learning, I felt that I could help kids in my locality struggling with French. So, I started taking tuitions and got the opportunity to earn pocket money! 😎 In that proud moment, I realized that I can achieve what I desire to.

Learning a language adds to your CV. It gives you an edge over other applicants. More the number of languages, the more the preference. It helps you to better connect with the cultures of different countries and increases your knowledge in general.

One piece of advice I’d like to extend to all the French learners out there is to stay consistent and keep loving the language. Don’t let its grammar take that admiration away from you. Those who don’t know the language yet, start learning! Not just French, but it could be any language!

If you put your mind to something, you can achieve it no matter how difficult it is.

J’aime beaucoup le français! 😇

Thank you FamPay for giving me an opportunity to share my story. I am excited to be a part of Friends of FamPay. There is a huge potential to learn new things and this is just a start. Join me at friends.fampay.in!

Mehak Jain: Gurugram, India
[email protected]