Theodora V. F.

Major: International Studies

Certificates: Global Health, African Studies

Languages: French and Arabic

Graduation Year: 2017

What motivated you to study this/these languages?

Having studied French in middle and high school, I felt that continuing with French gave me an edge, and I wanted to capitalise on those years of hard work. Conveniently, it was also an international language, widely spoken across countries and regions (Europe and Africa). As someone who didn’t know what career I wanted yet, this range appealed to me. I selected Arabic for similar reasons, and in particular, because it was known to be a hard language. Many languages are grammatically easier (for an English speaker) and I wanted to take full advantage of the rigour, structure, and expertise that UW Madison provided. It was not a language I was going to ‘pick up’ from just watching TV or studying abroad.

What do you remember about your UW language classes? How were they different from other classes you took?

By reading the curriculum, flipping through required texts, and assessing the syllabus, you might think its an easy course. In reality, they were as stimulating and demanding as my most difficult classes. An outsider would think that you’re simply having a conversation, whereas any experienced language learner would quickly see the mental gynmastics – like weightlifting and juggling at the same time – that are happening behind the scenes: which tense, which auxillary verb, which of the three nearly identical prepositions is correct, intonation up or down, does this need an elision, is it a silent consonant, or both? You could easily do your homework and the vocab and verb drills, but getting the most from class? You had to come ready to perform, almost like a sport, and that takes a lot of energy and dedication.

How valuable were your out-of-classroom experiences? How did they add to your undergraduate experience/coursework?

I lived on the Arabic floor of Oschner House in Adams, and being around like-minded people was very rewarding. Also, it was very convenient living next to built-in study buddies. However, my study abroad proved even more valuable. I went to Tunisia to study political science and Arabic and lived with a host family that spoke the Tunisian dialet of Arabic and French. Because my French was already better, I found myself living in French – not Arabic – and so even though I had Arabic lessons, it was my French that improved drastically. It really solidified for me that you’ll only advance in a foreign language that you use frequently and to fill a need in your life (e.g. small talk with your very generous host family!).

What have you done in a professional capacity since graduating from UW-Madison?

I worked in the non-profit sector working on a variety of social and public health projects including disaster response, refugee resettlement, and public health. I currently work at an organisation that specialises in sexual and reproductive health services, and I’ve been assigned to a grant project that is based in the Sahel, all French-speaking countries.

What are ways, either expected or unexpected, that your language study has benefited you in your career?

Most directly, my current role requires French speaking, writing, and listening. I don’t think I would’ve gotten the role without those skills! Less concretely, my language skills were seen as relevant and useful transferrable skills when I joined a refugee resettlement agency. Though I wasn’t hired in a client-facing role that required foreign language use, nearly my entire team spoke English as a second or third language, and I was responsible for working with our subgrantees across the USA, most of whom where professionals with refugee backgrounds themselves and also spoke English as a foreign language. Being a life long language learner helped me work in this context, helped me speak to be understood and helped me understand and navigate miscommunications, which arose frequently. I didn’t get that job as a direct consequence of my language skills, but it demonstrated to my employer my cultural humility, willingness and interest in cross-cultural work, and my appreciation for the challenges faced by refugees (of which language learning is a major one!).

How have you maintained or improved your language(s) since graduation?

I have recently doubled down on my French language skills in order to level up my professional writing and comprehension. Conversational foreign language skills are extremely useful, but in some languages (like French), formal writing is very flowery and wordy, and I want to impart the right level of politeness and respect in my e-communication. I’ve joined online language classes (through iTalki), listened to French podcasts, and watched French TV series. I’ve started reading novels in French, but it is hard work!

What advice do you have for students who are studying language(s) about how to incorporate their interests and skills into their future goals?

1. Pick a language and commit. Shifting between languages may be fun and stimulating but its hard to keep each foreign language ‘lane’ in your mind pruned. For example, while at UW-Madison, I was so eager to maintain my Greek language skills – a family language – that I did a weekly coffee exchange with a Greek-speaking Cypriot immigrant at UW. On those Friday’s, I had 1 hour of French, 1h20min of Arabic, and then 45min of Greek all before 1PM, and then of course, the rest of my day in English. In hindsight, that was too much!

2. Connect your language to your career or personal life as soon as possible and invest in that connection. Having a foreign language hobby is usually not enough for most people. Loving French film will not sustain my language skills for the rest of my life, not even if I was a fluent speaker in childhood. Talk to people in your desired sector or language, or even older students, and scope out possible links between your language and your other life interests.

3. Live in your foreign language as quickly and as often as possible. You need to be forced to think and react in that language – that’s what builds the muscle! Find volunteer or work opportunities where you can surround yourself in the language. Dedicate your next 5 vacations to visiting places that speak that language. Find a penpal in your language. There 100% is someone out there wanting to work on their English as badly as you want to work on your [insert chosen language]. Find your local refugee resettlement agency and see if they need foreign language speakers. I stopped taking French courses in my third year of UW because I didn’t have the credit space, but instead, I had lunch at the French house once a week and forced myself to eat and socialise in French.

4. Start speaking as soon as possible and let go of the fear of sounding stupid. If you’re too afraid to speak, you won’t use it, and if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. Making mistakes may feel embarrassing, but its the only way to learn. It’s a misconception that if you make grammar mistakes you are less intelligent. What’s more intelligent than teaching yourself to speak another language?