How English Has Transformed My Personality

Do you ever feel like you just cannot move on to the next level with the language you’re learning?
You’re putting in tons of effort but it just feels impossible to move off the plateau?

You have a large vocabulary, and you understand a lot but when it comes to speaking, you just keep
wondering why on earth you can’t sound like a native speaker?

Well, I had the same feeling with English when I started to learn it many years ago. It’s a language
radically different from my mother tongue, Hungarian, and after reaching an upper-intermediate level,
I was wondering if I would ever speak like a native.

I spent long, endless hours memorizing flashcards and going through grammar books. I diligently read
tons of articles to immerse myself in context. But somehow I felt very far from true mastery of the
language. I could manage everyday situations in English but I was hopelessly far from being mistaken
for a native speaker even for a fleeting moment.

How Linguistics Has Completely Transformed My English Journey

When I discovered cognitive linguistics and cultural semantics (more on that later), I went from one
aha moment to another. Soon, I realized why I was wrong about languages.

I used to look at learning a language as most of us are led to believe:

1. memorize many words and phrases
2. apply grammar to them to make sentences
3. practise with others to make your reactions automatic

Needless to say, it’s easy to get tired of this process and easily lose motivation down the road. It took
me quite a while to break free from this mindset.

Thankfully, after getting my hands on some of the best linguistics research I could find, a whole new
world opened up before me. I could now see a tremendous wealth of culture and imagination where I
had only seen a randomly connected sequence of sounds before.

I came to understand that the secret recipe for masteringing a language is the following:

Master every bit of the culture and you can achieve native-like mastery of the language itself.

That’s when my English studies gained momentum. Fast-forward to now. I can already write articles in
English for native speakers, talk at a conference without gasping for the right word and easily discuss
all sorts of ideas. (Okay, maybe not particle physics or rocket science but that’s another matter.)
Mastering English has been an incredible gift in my life. I received a new mindset, a new set of
emotions, and a new way of thinking. My personality has been subtly but powerfully impacted. I would
say I even took on a secondary identity. Cultural semantics has played a very important role in this
process. But what is cultural semantics, after all?

What the Heck Is Cultural Semantics?

To put it simply, cultural semantics is the study of meaning and its connection to culture. Many words
in a language are unique; they cannot be exactly translated into other languages. Every word has a
whole range of connotations, images, and associations that you cannot map to another language. The
English words “patronize”, “fun”, or “common sense” reflect English (and American) mentality and
culture. They cannot be simply translated into Hungarian, for example, because Hungarian people have
a different mentality, a different mindset and it’s also reflected in their language.

That’s one of the main reasons why memorizing words is not an option if you want to achieve mastery.
Instead of rote learning, one needs to go beyond the surface and uncover the hidden culture behind
words and phrases. It’s like cracking an exciting secret code, or connecting the dots in a detective story.

Let me now crack for you the secret cultural code behind a few common English expressions.

The Secret Cultural Code behind Everyday English Words

There are countless English words that have no exact counterparts in Hungarian, and as far as I know,
in other European languages either. The reason is that they capture an aspect of English or American
mentality that is not present in other European cultures.

reasonable: One can easily count tons of expressions with this one word alone: reasonable doubt,
reasonable guy, reasonable time, reasonable request and many others. There’s also a similar word in
Hungarian but I could never think of saying anything like reasonable request or reasonable doubt.
These phrases are deeply rooted in a society that admires science, reason, logic and common sense.
The word reasonable is linked to the idea that there is a certain common sense and everybody is
supposed to follow it. However, it’s a highly culture-specific concept together with common sense and
its range of use can be very hard to understand and master for a non-native speaker.

indirect: There’s probably few European cultures that can express meanings in such a subtle and
indirect way as English. Before saying something, you’re supposed to think carefully if it’s going to hurt
someone else’s feelings, or if your comments will be considered prying.

Many of the Anglo-style indirect and polite requests could easily cause confusion in some European
cultures where it’s not the norm. It’s enough to think of those funny phrase collections where you can
see how the British say something, what they mean and how other Europeans understand it.

For example, “quite good” is often understood as praise by most Europeans, while the British might
mean “it’s quite disappointing”. As an other example, “you must come for dinner” can often be said
out of politeness by the British, without implying an actual invitation. However, it can be confusing
because this phrase would be taken as an invitation in most parts of Europe.

I learned to be much more tactful, polite and sometimes indirect after mastering English. I would say
it’s one of the most obvious ways English has left its mark upon me.

softeners: A little bit, quite, rather, really, probably, presumably, I think, evidently, obviously, as far as
I know and many other so-called softeners lend a special character to the English language. If you don’t
use them, you can easily come across as abrupt, rude, or even uneducated. It was a revelation for me
when I first started to see how these phrases work. Interestingly, I also started to use them more and
more in my mother tongue. My family and friends even began to tease me for becoming too English.

make a difference: As far as I could see, Americans tend to have an innate desire to impact the world
in a positive way with their work and actions. The phrase to make a difference is practically non-
existent in most languages I know. There is some form of saying “to change the world” but it’s not a
popular dream shared by millions of people.

fun: I have never before come across a word in any language that describes such a wide spectrum of
enjoyable activities from shopping to listening to a lecture. If translated literally from English into
Hungarian, the words fun and enjoy can have a hedonistic overtone because we lack exact
counterparts to these words.

The word enjoy can have a stronger meaning in most European languages than it has in English. In
most of them it couldn’t be said, for example, enjoy your meal or enjoy your time. Maybe that’s why
English has given me a sense of casual cheer and a more easy-going mentality.

positive thinking: One can argue about the pros and cons of positive thinking but one thing seems to
be certain: thinking positively is an essential part of Anglo-Saxon culture and it’s also imprinted on the
fabric of the English language. It is also apparent from replacing negative words (e.g.: problem) with
positive and neutral words (e.g.: challenge or issue). Positive thinking is an all-pervasive idea. Some
authors, like Barbara Ehrenreich, even attribute large-scale social changes to this mindset.

As you can see, the connection between language and culture goes far deeper than a few
generalizations about the Italians being romantic and the Germans precise. Most words of a foreign
language reveal a specific mentality. It’s most easily felt when you translate from one language to
another. Maybe you know the feeling when a translation just doesn’t “feel” the same as the original
version. Through understanding everyday words and phrases from a native speaker’s standpoint, you
can unravel their culture in a very detailed and practical way, just like you can crack a secret code.

Do You Struggle with English (or any other language)?

Language learning is not about memorizing sequences of random sounds until you can utter them
automatically.

Language learning is not about sweating over grammar rules and trying to get them right every time
you speak.

Language learning is all about discovering the beauty of another culture. It’s like travelling to a far-
away, exotic country. Imagine being energized by the seductive charm of a new culture.

As you walk through new lands, you soak up the atmosphere of a different people. You immerse
yourself in their history, music and food. At every corner you come across something that makes you
stop, smile and wonder.

Mastering a language is exactly the same. No matter what language you’re learning, let the pulse of a
new culture run through your veins.

If you want to master English, then I’ve some good news for you. I have an email course to help you
see the culture behind expressions so you can easily speak amazing English. You can find out more
here.