Polyglot

Polyglot

/ˈpɒlɪɡlɒt/

adjective

              1. knowing or using several languages.

noun

              1. a person who knows and is able to use several languages.

Polyglot is a person who knows more than one language. Which is what I believe I am, maybe not a fluent polyglot but I know words. I'm currently studying Italian, I don't have any familia who are Italian, I myself come from a mostly Anglo-Saxon background (Mum is British/Australian with her family from England but she's a first generation Australian, Dad is Australian with his family from Australia, Grandpa likes to tell me that I'm part French, German, Irish and Scottish. Basically, I'm white). 

It's not like I wanted to learn Italian to connect with my Nonna, I began learning in year seven at my first high school and I picked up the language quite easily compared to Indonesian, a language I could only count up to ten and the world blue (now, I couldn't tell you what 1 is). But learning languages for me is difficult, with my learning disability it makes things quite complicated, but I grasp English pretty well, so I should be able to grasp Italian relatively okay? Just you know, the whole different words for the like la, le, l', gli, lo. I want to learn Italian because of the culture, mythos and history (maybe not so the middle of the 20th century), and hell, learning a language sure gives me something to do. 

I began playing Assassins Creed 2, Brotherhood and Revelations around the age of 14 or 15, these games take place over a period of time between the 15th and 16th century Italy (with some modern day settings, it's hard to explain the plot of Assassins Creed really) and it greatly influenced that love for the language and culture. I learnt it on and off with Duolingo and at my second high school where I could learn via a program where I did weekly workshops but I stopped doing it after finding out I have anxiety and just couldn't speak on the phone due to nerves, so back to Duolingo it was. Now I'm learning Italian at university after so long and it's great. It's tough, but I'm getting there. 

Can knowing more than one language (in my case, Italian) help or hinder my work? It could, I mean I can always self-translate my works (though I don't think I'll ever get to that standard of being able to translate every word), I can have Italian characters who speak Italian without having to Google translate. There could be a plethora of things. I don't think there's anything that could be hindered by my idea of it. Maybe there could be in the end, but I just haven't found it yet. I'd like to be able to find a hinder to it, and maybe I will, but for what it's worth, right now I can only see the positives. 

I find that the only hinder to my work is having Italian an hour break and then creative writing, with my mind being in Italian mode for 3 hours, I find it a bit difficult to switch out of it, so much so that when thanking someone who held the door open for me I said "thank you" in English and then thought "Shit, was I supposed to say that in Italian?" Because my teacher greets us in Italian or will say simple Italian words to get us into the mood of Italian "Ciao, ciao, buongiorno, grazie, prego ..." and I think that's my only hinder.