One of my favorite pastimes is to learn new languages, especially from media like songs, movies, and shows. I grew up in a household in which my parents were consistently speaking a mixture of English, Hindi, and Telugu with a ton of code-switching. Because of this, I found that I would occasionally insist with all my might that a Telugu word existed in Hindi. Even with English, I remember initially saying “full-stop” instead of a period due to the fact my family lived in the UK for a bit. I do believe that this however was certainly a blessing in disguise; being exposed to a lot of different languages from an early age helped me soak in new languages soon after.
In elementary school, I went to a Hindi school to formally learn to read and write Hindi. My mom would tease me that I would use lots of non-colloquial words that would be archaic and incoherent all the time. It soon became apparent that to learn a language, I would have to hone in on its everyday nuances. Having adopted this newfound perspective on language acquisition, I set out to learn languages such as Chinese, Japanese, and Hindi. Soon, I developed an interest in examining the individuality and disposition of each and every language. Being able to understand and become a part of fluid conversations also incentivized me.
As a result, I began to tackle languages like Japanese with a rational mindset. I started to learn Japanese in seventh grade; I pieced together a combination of online resources such as JapanesePod101 and Mango Languages, in addition to reciting song lyrics by heart. I approached Korean the next summer in a similar manner. I had found out learning Mandarin Chinese through my school aided a lot with writing and vocabulary in these two languages and in real life as well. When I went to Kansas City, MO 2019 for Destination Imagination, I was able to utilize my Mandarin knowledge to communicate with international competitors directly from China. I am proud of how far I’ve come and aspire to keep improving my skills to connect with even more people.
It was not long before I soon became immersed in linguistics, IPA, and semantics thanks to my love for languages. With this newfound technical view on language as well as a practical, real-world view on language acquisition, I set out to create a conlang named Reoxe. I started in sixth grade and finalized it last year. I have contacted some experts in the field and am currently writing a book about it. I was able to recently get it published! Check out my Home page.
Contact Me:
Email: ravadhuta@wpi.edu
Snap: @pierre-reoxe
Instagram: @ronit.avadhuta