0:01 how many languages do you speak how many
0:02 languages do you speak how many
0:03 languages do you speak how many
0:04 languages do you speak how many
0:06 languages are spoken here at Oxford
0:11 out how many languages do you speak
0:13 currently I speak two and what are they
0:15 uh English and mandrin and how did you
0:17 learn those both those languages uh well
0:19 English is a compulsory language in back
0:21 home where I'm from which is Singapore
0:22 and mandin is also compulsory because
0:24 it's my mother tongue so like everyone
0:25 is like different languages based on
0:28 their ethnicity back in Singapore yeah
0:30 so cuz I'm Chinese so I do mandin and do
0:31 you speak Mandarin with your family
0:34 still nah not really mostly with my
0:37 grandparents but my family know mostly
0:39 we speak English one and what's our
0:42 language English how did you learn
0:45 English parents spoke it growing up so I
0:48 went to English school it makes sense M
0:51 and are your parents from from the UK my
0:53 mom is my dad's from Nigeria but he
0:54 moved here when he was 12 how many
0:57 languages do you speak I speak English
1:00 and probably basic to intermediate
1:02 French basic to intermediate French
1:03 sounds really fun where did you learn
1:06 French I learned French in Primary
1:08 School firstly it started in year six so
1:11 I was about 11 um and then I carried on
1:13 all throughout high school and then I
1:15 took it for a levels which is advanced
1:18 level from the ages of 16 to 18 how many
1:20 languages do you speak I speak uh
1:23 English I speak ancient Greek I speak
1:26 German and I speak Spanish ancient Greek
1:27 sounds really fascinating all of those
1:29 are fascinating but can you tell us a
1:31 bit more about ancient Greek and if
1:32 you've had any experience exploring that
1:35 out at Oxford or in your recent academic
1:36 studies I got into speaking ancient
1:39 Greek because I mean it seems crazy you
1:40 know it's a dead language or whatever
1:42 but in reality if you're going for
1:43 language acquisition for ancient
1:45 languages and if you're like me like I
1:47 started taking ancient Greek my first
1:50 year of college it actually is very very
1:52 important to have every part of language
1:55 acquisition platea whether it's Reading
1:58 Writing or speaking or reading
2:00 composition or speaking so if you're
2:02 ever stuck on either of those two it's
2:03 because you need the third and just
2:04 because it's a dead language doesn't
2:06 mean you can't apply the uh the third principle
2:12 there how many languages do each of you
2:14 guys speak uh I speak three languages
2:16 English Hindi and telu I'm from India so
2:18 I speak Hindi and telu is where the
2:19 language of the state that I'm from
2:22 Telangana I also speak three languages
2:24 obviously English and then I'm from
2:25 Mexico so I speak Spanish and I went to
2:27 French school so I speak French how many
2:29 languages do you speak currently I'm
2:32 only really fluent in English um I speak
2:35 some Spanish a really tiny bit of
2:37 Japanese and Chinese um but I wouldn't
2:39 say I'm fluent in those three languages
2:41 I speak
2:44 2.5 so English and Hindi are one in one
2:47 and a025 to Sanskrit that's really cool
2:48 so how did you learn each of those
2:50 Spanish I first went to some classes in
2:54 India and then I got this Chrome
2:57 extension of called tuken whenever you
2:59 did a Google search or you were on any
3:01 website it would Place some of the words
3:03 on the web page with Spanish words so
3:05 you learn from Context Sanskrit I'm just
3:07 beginning to learn what I'm doing is
3:10 watching this YouTube channel called the
3:13 Sanskrit Channel they go through old
3:14 books explain the meanings in Sanskrit
3:16 how many languages do you speak um one
3:19 and a half which are the one and a half
3:22 uh Spanish and English I assume English
3:24 and Spanish and how did you learn each
3:26 of those languages well I was born in
3:28 England so I grown up speaking that and
3:31 and then Spanish I a level and then I've
3:34 done a couple of language coures on it
3:35 since coming to Oxford I really like the
3:37 way it sounds and know it's really fun
3:39 to speak even though I can't roll my
3:42 eyes I think it's so cool to know
3:44 another language and Spanish is a great
3:46 sounding one if you guys could each wave
3:47 a magic one and become fluent in one
3:49 additional language what language would
3:52 you choose I would go for Japanese
3:53 Japanese why
3:55 Japanese beautiful language great
3:58 culture love the food yeah definitely I
4:01 would say Chinese are Arabic because
4:02 those are the hardest languages to learn
4:04 so it start at the top and slowly he
4:06 kind of move downwards yeah exactly I I
4:08 I want to go for a Latin language which
4:10 would be easier for me just Japanese
4:12 would be impossible at this point what
4:13 is Portuguese a Latin language yeah yeah
4:15 Portuguese and Italian like I can pretty
4:17 much understand Italian fairly well and
4:19 Portuguese as well so yeah I like to do
4:21 Chinese cuz it's the hardest also so
4:22 many people speak Chinese be pretty
4:24 useful the phonetics are quite different
4:27 to anything I'm used to I felt a really
4:29 strong sense of connection to Japan
4:30 growing up up I traveled there a number
4:32 of times lived there for 4 months when I
4:34 was 4 years old so many of my like first
4:36 memories are are from Japan do you have
4:39 any that you hold fondly honestly there
4:41 are some smells that you only smell in
4:44 Japan I can't describe it right now mhm
4:45 but it would have to be that actually
4:47 Japanese homes are very different from
4:50 western homes like there are no beds for
4:52 example you sleep under the tummy um
4:53 which is like basically like a little uh
4:55 futon or mattress just on directly on
4:57 the floor they don't have traditional
4:58 bathtubs in Japan or Western bathtubs
5:00 like you have like a giant it kind of
5:03 looks like a a hot tub more than a
5:12 obviously probably choose Portuguese and
5:13 also I heard like Spanish people could
5:15 understand you as well so I feel like it
5:17 wouldn't be as hard to learn Spanish
5:20 from that yeah plus I really like Brazil
5:22 culturally um I think it's really
5:23 interesting I love the music culture
5:25 there I'd want to go there one day i'
5:27 never actually been but I think it'd be
5:28 a good place I feel like French would be
5:32 most useful French yeah why French I
5:34 live we live close to it and also my mom
5:37 speaks French so be nice to take little
5:39 trips to France with that I really would
5:41 like to have know Biblical Hebrew
5:44 because Biblical Hebrew is somewhat
5:46 different I've been told grammatically
5:48 from the modern Hebrew that's spoke in
5:50 Israel today I mean it's it's a
5:52 classical language for sure there's a
5:53 lot of detail um there's like
5:55 cancellations in Hebrew that help you
5:57 like understand like how to recite it
5:58 how to sing it which is very similar to
5:59 ancient Greek with the accentuation and
6:01 The rhythms in the in the meter it's
6:03 just overall like a very information
6:05 Rich language and not to mention the
6:07 mythological aspects of it German I
6:09 think it's useful and like a lot of like
6:12 the languages in Europe especially in
6:14 Switzerland and Scandinavia some roots
6:16 are from Germanic languages so I think
6:18 it'll be quite useful as a language to
6:20 learn if you could teach us a word in a
6:22 non-english language that you know thank
6:23 you I guess that's the that's also
6:26 really useful what which is CS CS yeah
6:29 you got it I like buddhi it's the same
6:31 word from which we get Buddha Gotham
6:33 Buddha the like Buddhism cuz Buddha
6:35 means the awakened one or the enlighted
6:38 one and buddhi is just a certain type of
6:41 intelligence that your brain contains
6:44 mhm that becomes active when you're
6:46 enlightened when you're the Buddha does
6:47 it have a direct translation in English
6:50 so I think Budd means awake
6:53 buddhi probably doesn't have a direct
6:55 translation in English because all of
6:56 the faculties so so Sanskrit has a lot
6:58 of words for different aspects of the
7:00 Mind mhm and they just have sentence
7:02 like translations I would say buddhi is
7:05 just deep awareness I would go with itas
7:08 which is the Japanese word for Bon and
7:10 use that whenever you're about to eat
7:12 yes yeah exactly so every time um you
7:15 sit down for me you say I would like to
7:17 teach Hindi because most of Indians
7:18 speak Hindi you just go up to someone
7:22 and Sayo which means how are youo quo
7:24 yes wow I like that uh okay then I'm
7:26 going to do something in Spanish uh I'm
7:29 going to go with Viva Mexico viax which means
7:30 means
7:31 we're in Mexico
7:36 yeah very selfish there yeah yeah
7:38 yeah also so yeah there you go there you
7:41 go I like the word m in in French it means
7:42 means
7:44 cute and it is kind of nice to say as
7:50 well I like the word aor in Greek a omon
7:53 ro aor is one of the Greek words for
7:55 heart yeah for hearts but fascinatingly
7:59 enough the Greeks never ever mention the
8:03 heartbeat until the 4th Century BC
8:06 pragas of C cosos is the first person to
8:08 mention it in a medical text of all
8:16 people they never mention the heartbeat
8:19 so I like aor because it's one of these
8:20 many many words that the Greeks describe
8:28 heart do you think it's still important
8:30 for people to study languages today oh
8:31 yeah definitely languages are the way we
8:33 communicate super useful if you if you
8:34 know the more languages you know the
8:36 more people you can communicate with
8:37 that's the best yeah I think language
8:39 learning can be so fun and so rewarding
8:42 everyone should give it a short I think
8:44 it helps you realize how flexible your
8:47 mind is and how much you can change the
8:49 way you think just by changing the words
8:51 that you use MH and I do think that
8:52 people should do that I think that it is
8:54 very important to learn other languages
8:55 because when you travel to places like
8:58 Japan you realize how few people
9:00 actually speak English and sometimes
9:01 Google translate really does not come to
9:04 the rescue actually there there's still
9:06 like big barriers um when it comes to
9:08 talking to people I think so definitely
9:09 I feel like if you go to like Poland or
9:11 like Sweden then you start speaking at
9:13 least saying phrases and stuff I know a
9:14 lot of people get really appreciative of
9:15 that that you've like actually C the
9:17 effort in can just be good for like
9:18 General connection this is a personal
9:20 mission for us all I think I think it's
9:24 crucial that you think of language as a
9:26 key to help perhaps unlock parts of
9:28 yourself that maybe you don't understand
9:30 fully learning a language is very
9:31 important because it's more than the
9:33 language it's about the culture itself
9:36 because usually languag is also culture
9:37 shaped languages and languages shaped
9:38 culture so I think that way is super
9:40 important and the business school has
9:42 been so nice and I mean I don't know how
9:44 to say it sometimes it can get
9:47 overwhelming but 99% of the times it's
9:49 just a beautiful experience we have
9:51 people from 60 different countries in a
9:53 cohort something like that yeah and then
9:55 we're all so close to each other as a
9:57 cohort so I think this experience I
9:59 won't get anywhere else English is not
10:00 my F language I wouldn't be here if I
10:02 didn't know it so yeah life changing
10:05 absolutely and yeah it's undescribable
10:07 the the whole Oxford experience is just
10:09 very magical we're here in meriton
10:11 college one of the oldest if not the
10:14 oldest I would say the oldest there's
10:16 two other colleges fighting for it this
10:18 college was built in 1264 one of the
10:20 best Oxford colleges if any of yall ever
10:22 come to University of Oxford do visit
10:24 Marton College the best and the oldest
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