Sindarin is a fictional language that was the inspiration for The Lord of the Rings. As a great fan of Tolkien, I decided to give it a go. With Sindarin, it’s rather difficult to immerse yourself in the language, but if you read it and listen to it as much as possible, you’ll find that you soon get accustomed to it. I was learning on my own so I started writing letters and having conversations with imaginary interlocutors, like Legolas or Galadriel. My friends often claim there’s no point in mastering a language that can’t be used for professional purposes, but I’ve never been put off. I’m getting more and more confident and I’m planning to translate Macbeth into Sindarin.

I had studied Chinese for one year at university, so when I decided to serve two years as a volunteer, I hoped they’d send me to China. Instead, I was made to learn Korean to communicate with the Korean minority in Vancouver. I was really disappointed. Reluctantly, I did enter the training centre where I studied this language every day for twelve weeks before being sent to work with the Koreans. All my fellow volunteers had been sent to Korea, so I knew I’d have to study extra hard to master the language without being immersed in it. However, once I started working with the Koreans in Vancouver, I immediately took to the culture and the people.

On my university campus we had some deaf students. I thought it would be great to learn to communicate with them so I enrolled in free classes in sign language. Soon I got discouraged, though, by the fact that my deaf friends didn’t have much patience for slow signers who were just learning. Learning sign language has also taught me more about basic communication. It’s been useful to me since I was offered a position in Human Resources. I’m more aware of body language and facial expressions, which helps me a lot at work.

When I was with my friends on holiday in Tanzania, in some places there was nobody who could speak English. The signs written in Swahili were a mystery to me. I would hear snatches of conversations and I developed a habit of guessing their true meaning. It was an incentive for me to start learning this amazing language when my holiday was over and I got back home. The problem was that I’m terrible at learning languages without being immersed in them. So I tried to listen to music or newscasts in Swahili whenever I could. Finally, I understood that you can immerse yourself no matter where you are.