Spanish
My Spanish Story
Throughout my childhood I was constantly surrounded by Spanish, even though I grew up mainly in Wisconsin. My passion for Spanish started when I was young but really took full swing when I was about ten. One day my parents packed up our house for the umpteenth time and moved us roughly 2,000 miles away from Wisconsin, to the never ending deserts of Arizona. Although these places are still within the same country I still experienced my fair share of culture shock. During my time spent in Arizona I got the chance to see how valuable knowing a second language really is. Not only that, I got the chance to grow up in two different cultures. Fast forwarding about 3 years, I was back in Wisconsin and I had signed up for my first year of Spanish, which I continued to pursue for the rest of middle school, all of high school and even now at the university.
Italian
My Italian Story
Enticed by the ancient history and by the mythology, Italy had always been on my mind since I was about seven and started watching documentaries about Pompeii. Something about deadly volcanoes really just adds the cherry on top to the perfect vacation spot. Since then I had always been interested by anything and everything Italian, I started studying the language at the start of my senior year in high school (because 3 languages wasn’t already enough). Italian is a language I am self- taught in, and that being said, Wisconsin was not the greatest place to improve my Italian once I plateaued at an intermediate level. I decided the best way to improve my Italian was to move to Italy, which was exactly what I did. I spent 3 months in northern Italy working as an Au pair, and while my Italian may not be at the fluency I want it was definitely worth the risk.
Portuguese
My Portuguese Story
Although I didn't really live in an area where Portuguese was spoken that often it somehow managed to capture my heart anyways. Fascinated by the similarities and the differences compared to the other romance languages I couldn't help but being completely wrapped up in it. I started studying it independently when I was almost 19 and have been studying it (and dreaming of Portugal) ever since.
Chinese
My Chinese Story
I went to a relatively large high school, my graduating class had about 525 students, yet for some reason throughout most of my high school career my school only offered two foreign languages: Spanish and French. Of course I was deeply satisfied with my Spanish courses however I wanted to add to it. While perusing the course catalog for my junior year of high school I was introduced to a new class being added- Chinese. I jumped at the opportunity, since I had always wanted to learn the language. I spent two years in high school studying the language and now study it independently since it’s not offered at my university. During the two years I spent in high school learning it, my passion to be a polyglot grew even more, all thanks to my impulsive decisions and my love for Chinese food.
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