Learning a new language

A new country means new adventure, new places, new people, new experiences and of course, new language. Some of us don't like to get out of our comfort zone and start in a country where they speak the language, some of us like it harder. None of it is easier, however, not knowing the language is a little more challenging. Besides that the exciting adventures, new country means a lot of paperwork and it is not very easy if you don't speak the language.

I've started my PhD in November and knew that I would start a Dutch course (Hasselt University is located in the Flemish part of Belgium). I didn't want to rush for it, but also not keep on postponing it since time flies. I spoke with the international students in my research group to see how and where they were taking the courses. Usually, there are evening classes which are pretty intense but seeing my colleges speak pretty decent Dutch motivated me to start

I was told by my promoter that I was going to teach 2 classes in the Spring semester. I waited for the semester to start since it was my first time teaching and wasn't sure if I'd have enough time for activities like this.

Eventually, in late April, I started a Dutch course in the evenings. It is twice a week and approximately 4 hours each day. Yes, it is intense, but the teachers do their best (thankfully) to make it fun and easy to follow. Now that a few weeks into the language course, I started enjoying it.

There are many proven benefits of learning a new language on the brain, which is another reason to learn a new language. Since I've been attending the course, I feel like my days are more productive and I can concentrate for a longer time. In Turkish, there is a saying that "one language is one person" so the more you know, the more door it opens.