I’m a language guy.  I didn’t recognize this fact until learning Greek, but looking back I can see it was true.  In high school I opted to learn Latin, and really enjoyed it (though I’ve now forgotten most of it).  In college, when an opportunity came up to go to Peru, I wasn’t like most people who would say, “ok cool I’m going to Peru”, and leave it at that.  My initial instinct was to figure out how I could learn Spanish as fast as possible so I can communicate in Peru.  I had the option to take Spanish 101, but there was also an Advanced Spanish Immersion class the college offered, but it required a passing a placement test demonstrating basically a High School level of Spanish.  I decided I would get a Spanish Cliff Notes book, and slam through the material of Spanish 1 and 2 as fast as I could. I took a placement test and passed.

After my trip to Peru and a couple trips to Guatemala, languages kinda went on hold for many years until my friend Thom Chittom proposed the idea of Greek to me. Though, I initially jumped in so that I could resolve somewhat of an existential question about a potential career shift, I learned rapidly that I loved it and was good at it. I put 4 really hard years of intense grammar, syntax, vocab study paired with a LOT of Listening and Reading, and now I would call myself fluent in NT Greek reading, nearly fluent in Listening (depending on factors like the speaker’s pronunciation and speed), and am pushing more and more into Classical Greek.

About 2 years in to learning Greek, I knew I wanted to push into more languages, but was using my discipline to hold off my INTJ drive to learn new things.  My Language Bucket List includes: Ancient Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, Japanese, Modern Greek, Latin.  At that point, I dipped my toes in Hebrew just to learn pronunciation, but realized I couldn’t devote the time I wanted to it. About a year ago, I found Dreaming Spanish, and it was the fulfillment of the methodology I have been hunting for Greek, and gave me an opportunity to really learn it naturally with my wife, committing to 30-40 minutes of videos a day.  A few months later my daughter expressed just a faint hint of interest in asian languages, and I found CIJapanese, which operated off the exact same philosophy as Dreaming Spanish, so I started that with the kids, committing to 15-30 minutes a day. I’m now at an Advanced level in Koine Greek, Intermediate level in Spanish, and growing towards a mid-beginner level in Japanese.

This morning I was wondering about what motivates me to learn these languages and to put in the time and consistency to progress in them. What do I get out of it, and why did I pick these languages in particular? As I was thinking about this, I realized that someday in the relatively near future I’d be able to watch Anime in Japanese, and this produced a palpable excitement in my chest. I’ve gotten this excitement for each language at various times, all for different things. So, I started to think about what part of my personality each language draws on to provide this joy.

I find Greek draws on my love of knowing Scripture and my need to not have Truth mediated to me through other people.  I fear that their biases will crowd my understanding of the text.  Everyone has biases, including me, but by learning Greek, I mostly only have to wrestle with my own biases.

I find that Japanese draws on something of the fun and the nerd within me.  The idea that I could watch Anime and play video games in Japanese awakens my memories of playing Metal Gear Solid and hearing one of the characters talk about being an Otaku, and of playing Xenogears and being amazed at the anime cutscenes full of amazing Mech fighters.

Spanish, I think, draws on the free spirit in me.  The love of food and the experience of fun and beauty in the world.  It feels almost more of an artistic language to me.  Good food, beaches and bathing suits, music, colorful mosaics and fabrics all come to the forefront of my mind when I think about what Spanish reveals.

What do you think the languages you have chosen to learn reveal about your own personality?

Or what languages have you always wanted to learn, and what do you think draws you to that language?