World Refugee Day 2020: Reflections on learning a new language

To mark World Refugee Day on Saturday 20th June 2020, we have a guest post by Sudanese refugee Mohammed, who now lives in the UK, reflecting on his experiences learning English as a second language.

As we know our world became like a small village, as a result of the huge leap in communication technologies, especially internet, television, phones, radio and podcasts. This communication leap helped to advance the ways in which we communicate with each other and this made the world seem borderless. This reality in todays show us how its important to learn second language, or as the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said: “The limit of your language mean the limits of your world”.

I was born in Sudan. I grew up speaking Arabic language with Sudanese accent. When I  was undergrad I knew the importance of learning second language, because I found that it may help me to go forward and  improve myself, especially because in my field of study, mechanical engineering, a lot has been written in other languages then Arabic.  Unfortunately, in spite of this, I can’ t do anything at that time.

After I graduated from university I knew more and more about the benefits of learning second language. I knew the language skills can be a significant competitive advantage that set you apart from your monolingual peers. I knew bilinguals have the unique opportunity to communicate with a wider range of people in their personal and professional lives. People who speak more than one language have  been found to have improved memory, enhance concentration as well as display signs of greater creativity and flexibility. Learning second language boosted my confidence by putting myself out there and moving out of my comfort zone. Learning a second language gives me deep knowledge to the other culture, arts, and history of the people associated with that language.

I decided to read books, listen to music and watching movies every single day and improve my vocabulary by practicing five new words every day. According to my experience the process of learning English is not easy, sometimes I feel that I can’t speak English fluently, but it’s normal feeling for person like me. I work hard to keep new English words as much as I can. After a long time, I discovered that the most English words I kept were by wrong pronunciation. This confused me. Sometimes I also speak to someone in English and find myself thinking about what I am going to say in Arabic. This is very annoying to me. So, now am working very hard to speak English fluently, its my goal, because it’s my key for everything.