I am a linguistics student who learn programming.

Learning a language is very emotional. We put matter and abstract concepts in language. For this reason, language also contains the emotions and value judgments of those who contain it. This is why I became a linguistics student.

I’m a Korean. So the language I use has oriental values. The proverbs, etymology and grammar structure of Korean contain values, hatred, and fear that our ancestors cherish. I learned (so hard) the values of our ancestors for 20 years until high school. It was a little tired. So I choose something a little different. It was Spanish.

I enjoy meeting people. and I love to study and analyze others. If that person is a stranger, I go crazy. Spanish is very efficient in that sense. The only languages distributed over the largest geographical area are Spanish and English. Arabic and Chinese were also nominated. However, Chinese has a limitation in that it is an Eastern language. In Arabic, I gave up for the first time because I had so poor background knowledge about the culture(but, because it is as strange as that, I will definitely learn someday). So, I learned Spanish in university for five years.

For me, learning a language wasn’t academic. Rather, it is more experiential. Through Spanish, I learn how they see things and ideas. Why are they angry, and what makes them ecstatic. Of course, academic courses are also essential. But, over two years in Latin America, I realized that while learning a language, experience is essential. As I eat their food, learn to dance, and love, my understanding is completed. Now, there are words and sentences that have a ‘meaning’ that is so precious to me. When I think of the word ‘chino’, I remember the ‘mocking’, ‘contempt’ and ‘prejudice’ that I felt. On the other hand, I remember the compatriot consciousness I felt with the Chinese and japanese people I met in South America (at the same time because we were tied to the category of chino). In this way, countless words have been inscribed in my life. I hope I can tell you all those stories little by little.

In March of 2020, after a year of volunteer work, I returned from the Dominican Republic. I was used to feeling and experiencing while bumping into people. The non-face-to-face environment brought by the coronavirus collapsed everything. Now it’s hard for me to feel them abroad. It seemed like a conversion was needed.

The continuing pandemic clearly imprinted two beings on me. The first is family. Virtual classes and work environments have relatively increased contact with families. Some families said that this led to increased conflicts. It was good for me. I was able to get a deeper understanding of my family. But more importantly, it was the embossing of the second. It is the computer. The growing number of family encounters taught me how much I didn’t know about them. And the increasing use of computers also made me feel how ignorant of this. And it leads to deep thoughts.

How long should I spend with this friend in the future?

Obviously, I will have to spend time with this friend even after my family dies. The non-face-to-face and growth of the IT industry foresee this friend and I will inevitably become closer. By this point, the choice became clear.

“I must understand this friend.”

And I took a very linguistic approach.

“To understand him, I must learn his language.”

24.01.2021