He tells you jokes in tongues just outside of your grasp, giggles when you ask him to translate them. He perches over your shoulder as you read books in languages you don’t fully understand yet, offering dictionaries and a native’s knowledge when your brain trips on words and phrases you don’t quite know. When you get angry and words pour from your lips choppily, swearing and cursing even though your accent is not quite perfect, he laughs in delight.
When you finally interpret a conversation or translate that word you’ve been forgetting time and time again, he stands by your side with pride. When you finally hold a conversation with someone without having to resort to your native language, he beams with joy. When you watch a film with your newly found fluency, he sits there and watches with you, sharing in your happiness.
And when life gets hard, he whispers to you in languages you know as intimately as your own body, languages which have carved themselves into your muscle memory and scorched themselves into your bones.
Because sometimes, your native language isn’t the one that comforts you at all.
Hermes of Language Learning
Published
The Carving Witch 