Even though Out-of-Door may not seem very diverse, if you slow down enough to listen, you might think differently. ODA diversity is expressed in many ways, one of which is languages.

Students speak a variety of languages because they come from different countries or are learning another language here. And even though students hear these multilingual people and consider the complexities of those languages, many never think about the experience of learning English. English is a Germanic language (comes from Europe). It is the official tongue in almost 60 countries, and is the third most spoken in the world (behind Chinese and Spanish).

“English is a simpler than German, but it has many exceptions and just weird unorthodox things. I would say that German has more complex system of conjugations and there are many more exceptions to rules in English. I was relatively young when coming over, so I grew up in an English environment, although I speak German at home,” says sophomore Marius Bschorer.

“I would not say that English is easy, but being in an all English environment definitely helped me to learn it. Chinese is definitely harder than English, and it has a very different system.” says sophomore Emily Liu.

As one who grew up speaking Russian, not English, I have found English easy to learn. It is easier than German or Chinese, which I have also studied. Although I struggled in Russia trying to learn the language, coming over here has helped me the most. As Emily noted, being immersed in an all-English environment was powerful.

Learning another language can be challenging no matter which language it is.

“I love studying Russian, but it requires a lot of outside work. I cannot say whether it is easier or harder than English because I have never had to learn English as a second language, but in Russian you have to memorize all the rules, conjugates, the pronunciations, all that,” says senior Madeline Naylor.

“English is a complicated language, and there are so many exceptions to every rule. ‘cough’ ‘though’ ‘rough’ are all spelled the same way, but sound different, and ‘bough’ which is said like ‘bow’. I find it easier than Spanish. But that may be because I love it and am therefore more motivated to learn it,” says sophomore Julia King.

If you are studying a foreign language, and wish to learn it quickly, going over to the country where that language is wildly spoken to isolate yourself in that language is a good idea to help you with your studies. If you are having a hard time trying to learn Spanish or Chinese in your World Language class, remember that there may be a person right next to you who is immersed in a foreign language all the time: English.