Undertaking the challenge of building fluency in a new language absolutely shifts our perspective! Experiencing the discomfort of knowing what you want to say but being unable to articulate it reshapes how you see the world. We really take our ability to precisely express ourselves for granted.
To me, another transformative aspect of language learning is discovering new ways to express your thinking. An idea can take on much richer meaning when described in a different language.
Thank you for this revelation - I had never thought of language uncertainty in this way. It helps me understand my unease and discomfort when I forget a word or a structure, and should help me cope with that better.
As I'm learning a new language, I don't feel myself as dissolving as much as not yet having another version of self that maps/translated to the new language.
I wish someone had told me this when I was a teenager and had to integrate into Dutch society, learning a totally different language from (American) English and Filipino.
It's through that experience, though, that I learned not to rely on identity as a fixed personal & cultural construct.
And as I find myself dying to the extractive models of society and rebirthing into the regenerative field (the principles and language of living systems) with its own guidelines and language, it's the same discomfort and destabilizing feeling I experience as learning to integrate into a new society.
What a brilliant, profoundly delightful piece you've interwoven together from different fields through the context of language learning! Thank you.
I’m very grateful you took the time to share this reflection.I felt it profoundly as I was reading. I also experienced uneasy times of integration first into Polish society, then into Swedish. That feeling of your old self not fully fitting anymore, while the new one isn’t quite formed yet… it’s deeply unsettling.And your parallel with moving into a regenerative way of seeing the world feels very true to me too. The same discomfort, the same sense of ground shifting under your feet.
Learning a language doesn’t dissolve who you are
It challenges your attitude toward learning.
Feeling awkward, slow, or temporarily inadequate is not a collapse of identity.
It is a normal and necessary part of learning anything complex.
Language learning does reduce you, for a while, to simpler forms of expression.
But that does not mean the self disappears.
It means the learner is working at the edge of their current ability.
Confusing this phase with an “identity crisis” risks turning a practical learning process into an unnecessary psychological burden.
I speak four languages fluently.
I understand another one well, without any desire to speak it.
And I am currently learning two more.
I am also a foreigner in the country where I live.
Yes, language learning is hard.
Yes, it can be humbling.
And yes, there are moments when you feel less competent than you know you are.
But for me, language learning and language teaching have done the opposite of dissolving my identity.
They have strengthened it.
They have given me confidence, resilience, and perspective.
They have taught me patience — with myself and with others.
Most importantly, being both a language teacher and a foreigner has given me an understanding of my students that no degree or theory can provide.
You cannot buy that kind of insight through education alone.
You earn it by standing on the same ground as your learners.
Attitude matters.
If you approach language learning as evidence of inadequacy, it becomes misery.
If you approach it as a skill under construction, it becomes progress.
Feeling “a bit stupid” from time to time is not a failure of identity.
It is proof that learning is actually happening.
The problem is not that language learning destabilizes who we are.
The problem is when we expect learning to happen without discomfort — or when we interpret discomfort as something pathological.
Language learning does not take your voice away.
It lends it depth.
Slowly.
Imperfectly.
And honestly.
Undertaking the challenge of building fluency in a new language absolutely shifts our perspective! Experiencing the discomfort of knowing what you want to say but being unable to articulate it reshapes how you see the world. We really take our ability to precisely express ourselves for granted.
To me, another transformative aspect of language learning is discovering new ways to express your thinking. An idea can take on much richer meaning when described in a different language.
Thank you for this revelation - I had never thought of language uncertainty in this way. It helps me understand my unease and discomfort when I forget a word or a structure, and should help me cope with that better.
All this sounds very familiar. And globalization is making this phenomenon ever more widespread.
Beautiful reflection and true!
Thank you so much 😊 🙏 I appreciate your comment
As I'm learning a new language, I don't feel myself as dissolving as much as not yet having another version of self that maps/translated to the new language.
I wish someone had told me this when I was a teenager and had to integrate into Dutch society, learning a totally different language from (American) English and Filipino.
It's through that experience, though, that I learned not to rely on identity as a fixed personal & cultural construct.
And as I find myself dying to the extractive models of society and rebirthing into the regenerative field (the principles and language of living systems) with its own guidelines and language, it's the same discomfort and destabilizing feeling I experience as learning to integrate into a new society.
What a brilliant, profoundly delightful piece you've interwoven together from different fields through the context of language learning! Thank you.
food for thought
Hi Genevieve!
I’m very grateful you took the time to share this reflection.I felt it profoundly as I was reading. I also experienced uneasy times of integration first into Polish society, then into Swedish. That feeling of your old self not fully fitting anymore, while the new one isn’t quite formed yet… it’s deeply unsettling.And your parallel with moving into a regenerative way of seeing the world feels very true to me too. The same discomfort, the same sense of ground shifting under your feet.
Thanks again..
I wish you a beautiful day! ❤️🌺