A life between languages

How learning new languages brings you closer to other cultures, unique versions of yourself, and the world itself.

Jun 03, 2026

When you speak another language, your world transforms.

You understand and live the world differently, more vividly. It’s as if another subtle version of yourself suddenly popped into the earth.

You get to experience the world around you in a entirely new way. Having names for things, feelings or situations you never had one for before, and struggling when you cannot bring them into another of the languages you speak.

It’s mind opening to understand how the way you speak is completely different in another, that some verbs simply do not exist or that there are many more than you ever taught possible.

It is a gift to be able to understand someone in their mother tongue and feel included in jokes and conversations.

It allows for a deeper appreciation of life that once was unfamiliar to you, and brings you closer to understanding and loving the world a little bit more.

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This is a space where I share about mindful travels and life experiences — the places, people and moments that inspire a slower and more intentional way of living.
You’ll find stories about destinations around the world, but also reflections from everyday moments along the way, mostly around Mexico.
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Growing up in Guadalajara and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, in a Mexican family, Spanish was my first language. The one we would always speak at home, with friends and at school.

And I remember the first time actually noticing how someone around me was speaking something else I could not understand. Both the confusion and interest were greatly felt in the way how someone was saying something in words I could not comprehend and that moment created such a curiosity in me that has never faded away.

English was never far away in the town of San Miguel. We have had a big population from the US and Canada for decades now on the city and you would frequently hear it around town. Some schools also were keen on teaching us, and on mine we would have plenty of English classes every day, so it became natural for some of us in town to learn English as a second language.

I still remember the thrill of learning new words, new verbs, new expressions and how, with time, they became more than just words but had such meaning when you could have a longer conversation. It was exciting to be able to speak in a language that was distinct to the one I had grown up with, like the world was opening its possibilities right in front of me.

As the years passed, I became fluent in English and that allowed me to live some experiences that changed my life forever. I was part of a program called CISV when I was fourteen and fifteen- an international educational program where participants from around the world come together for several weeks to explore topics such as sustainability, human rights, and global citizenship through shared learning and cultural exchange. I have talked before about the CISV camps in this article here, where I share how deeply these programs allowed me to become the person I am today. And it was in these summers that I got to truly speak more in that second language I had learnt, English, and what an experience that was.

Learning to express yourself in a language that does not feel like your own at first is challenging but so rewarding when you get to convey what you’ve been trying to. Hearing how other nationalities spoke English made it in a way a bit more challenging to understand too, as they all had different accents to the ones I had been used to listen, though at the same time I found it absolutely fascinating. The way someone from Jordan spoke was completely different from someone from Portugal of from the Philippines, and over the years, I became surprisingly good at guessing where people were from simply by listening to their accent when speaking English.

This new vocabulary and language I had learnt allowed me to make new friendships with people from all around the world, something a few years back I would have never dreamt of, and learn about their culture, their traditions and the way they view life, which eventually would expand my own way of seeing it too.

I attended two of these programs before agreeing on moving to France at the age of fifteen to live with my aunt and cousins in a town called Grenoble, near the Alps. The confidence that I gained from spending months with people I did not know from all around the world and eventually call them good friends, gave me the base to want to have more unique and challenging experiences. Moving to France though, proved to be more challenging that I ever imagined.

Arriving without knowing any word in the local language can be daunting. Thankfully my school was an American School mixed with some classes in the French side of it. No difficulty in the English part of it, but a nightmare at first when we had all-French lessons. It took some time and some help from people who were eager to lend a hand for me to start listening more to conversations, picking up a few words and eventually being a bit involved in conversations in French myself.

When you are as immersed in a place where the language is different to the ones you know, you usually have a choice. Either to be curious and want to learnt the language head on or simply don’t and find people that know the ones you already speak. I have seen this last scenario way too many times, especially in Mexico, where many people come to live here and do not bother to learn more than the basics, as English is widely spoken in some areas and so they decide to rest in comfort instead of trying a little bit more.

My choice has always been to learn, as I believe that when you choose to stay somewhere for longer, you begin to experience a place beyond its surface if you choose to immerse in the language. You gain a deeper understanding of its culture, traditions, and people. In many ways, it also feels like a small act of respect towards the place that has welcomed you in. And so, once I started with the French, it became so beautiful once again to understand all that was being said around me, to be able to answer back to the baker or the street stall vendor, to be part of conversations rather than just an observer.

I slowly began to see the world the way they did through their language, using words that made so much sense for feelings and situations that were not in the other ones I spoke. I became obsessed with the savoir-vivre- and art of living, knowing exactly how to act appropriately and gracefully in any social situation, un bon vivant- someone who lives life to the fullest, especially by enjoying good food, good wine, and great company and the retrouvailles- a joyful feeling of reuniting with someone you care for after a long time apart.

Just as it had been with English some years ago, the words I had been learning took on a new meaning when I could use them in conversations and understand the world around me.

I had a French-Portuguese boyfriend at that time, and so the challenge of languages became even greater when I met his family, as they mostly spoke Portuguese between them. The curiosity was there again on catching as much as I could and learning a few words that would eventually make sense to speak as a whole to them.

I lived for three years in Grenoble, using a mix of French, English, Portuguese and Spanish in my daily life. This was the base that would allow me to change languages quite fast in different scenarios and usually within the same conversations since then and throughout my life, proving to be one of my favourite abilities of all time.

Once returning back to Mexico, it felt strange to be surrounded mostly only by one language. Something I learned after leaving France, and eventually from Canada and even Australia and returning back to my country again, is that you never truly forget a language once you have learned the basics and spent time speaking it once. Even if years go by without using it, much of it remains somewhere within you, something that would prove true for me almost a decade later when I began speaking Portuguese again.

It would not be long before I was enveloped by many languages once again when I moved for a year to Vancouver, Canada, to study. The feeling of being around people that spoke many felt like home again, a way of living that I had become accustomed to after many years that way.

Even though we mostly communicated in English, Spanish was always present through my Mexican and Spanish friends, with whom I spent most of my time there. Being surrounded by people who naturally moved between different languages felt familiar to me. There was a certain comfort in being around fellow polyglots, people who understood what it was like to switch between languages depending on the conversation, the place, or even the emotions you wanted to express.

It was also always fascinating to hear someone speaking a language different from the one you were used to hearing them speak. A friend you had only ever spoken Spanish with suddenly speaking English, French, or Portuguese felt like a revelation of a different side of them, familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

This time in Canada allowed me to get deeper into English, and it was there that I realized how, when immersed in places that spoke a different language than Spanish, for over a certain period of time, my thoughts and even dreams would be in that language I was surrounded with most. It happened when I lived in France, it was happening here in Vancouver.

English became I language I felt extremely comfortable in, one that I felt I could communicate easier somehow, even shadowing Spanish in certain situations too. It had been a constant language throughout my life, and it proved to be that would allow me to communicate with a man who would end up being my husband.

I returned to Mexico after living in Canada and went back to work both in film and as a volunteer at the CISV programs. And it was during the summer of 2018 that I met the Brazilian man I would fall in love with.

His English was not very good, neither was his Spanish and my Portuguese was rusty but it was a mix of those three that allowed us to understand each other and have the most beautiful summer romance, which I thought would end at that. How far from the truth that would be.

My first visit to Brazil after meeting him would come six months later to spend a month together roadtripping around his naturally and culturally gorgeous country. We continued to communicate in English, slowly learning Portuguese words once again as I interacted with Brazilians we met along the way, with his friends and his family.

French also helped during this time, as his mother spoke the language and it was, in a way, easier to get back to it to find better ways to communicate.

We became inseparable that month. Learning about his culture and life, eating the kind of food he loved and enjoying a country that had a very beautiful energy to it. He had plans to move to Australia to become better at speaking English, and so, in the excitement of the moment, I decided to apply for an Australian visa as well. To my surprise, a few days later I had got one too.

We lived in Australia for around a year, and English was the language that connected us to it all. To the country, to the culture, and to each other. Along the way, we slowly added words and phrases from both English and Portuguese that would completely confuse the people around us, who could never quite catch what we were saying. It was a period of our lives that became the foundation of our relationship.

Today, back in Mexico, the main language remains Spanish, though I use English for almost all of my work-related tasks, and Portuguese with him and whenever his family or friends visit. At home, we tend to speak a mix of Spanish and Portuguese. And apparently, whenever I talk in my sleep, the words that come out are usually in French. A sign that languages never truly leave you once they become part of your life, even if you have not practiced them for years.

Now, speaking a mix of those three languages in my daily life allows me to continue seeing the world through different perspectives. To use words like saudade in Portuguese or apapacho in Spanish, with someone who truly understands them makes all the difference.

I am certain I will remain curious about languages for the rest of my life. Like the time I tried to learn Japanese but had to stop when my teacher moved cities, something I am sure I will return to one day. Or when I tried learning Arabic with my brother-in-law from Morocco, which lasted only a few weeks before I realized the complexity of the language was one best understood through full immersion in a country that speaks it.

What I would do to spend a year in Japan learning Japanese, a year in Greece learning Greek, or a year in Morocco learning Arabic.

Language shows us so much of the culture, of the people, of their way of understanding the world. It teaches us that there are infinite perspectives on the way we choose to use words and expressions, and even though a same language can be spoken in different countries or regions, there always tends to be something that, if you look closer, shows more of the local way of being and living, of their culture and traditions, of what they value.

I will forever be in love of learning, even if just a bit of a local language, everywhere I go. How I wish I could know them all. Because every language truly opens a door to a different way of seeing, living, and understanding the world around us.

Stories From a Slower World

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