Five languages in eighteen years is what Shera Ahmed, senior, has learned in her life so far. She speaks Japanese, English, Urdu (Pakistani), Arabic, and “a little French.” Ahmed described Japanese, English, and Urdu to be the languages she was “born with” in Yokohama, Japan to her Pakistani father and Japanese mother.
Ahmed said she lived in Yokohama for five years, then lived in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) until she was 13.
“I went [to the UAE] for my Dad’s business and for my education since I’m a Muslim,” Ahmed said. “I went to learn the Quran.”
When she completed her education through middle school, she moved back to Japan to go to high school.
“I went back to learn Japanese since I wasn’t that fluent in it,” Ahmed said. “I went to a Japanese school for two years and then an international school for one year, and then my junior year I came here.”
Ahmed said she wanted to go to an international school to learn English, but she said the cost of the international school she attended was not worth the quality of education she was getting there.
“I wanted to go to a better English school so I could be more fluent,” Ahmed said. “A lot of my dad’s family lives in St. Louis so they invited me to live with them while I go to school. I plan to graduate here and maybe go to college [in America].”
Besides adjusting to cultural differences, Ahmed has had to adjust to communicating in multiple languages. She said she does not have a particular language she is most fluent in, which may seem strange to many people who grow up knowing one language they become very strong in, but Ahmed said it is not weird to her.
“It’s how I’ve lived all my life,” Ahmed said. “I speak a mixture of different languages. Sometimes I get stuck; there are hard words and some weird grammar.”
Ahmed said she thinks in different languages and has to quickly choose and translate the words she wants to use in a particular language.
“I mix Japanese and English when I’m talking to people like my mom, who know both languages,” Ahmed said. “It’s not perfect. My language is made up of two, and I need both of them.”
Ahmed said the reason she has been able to pick up on so many languages is because she began learning them at a young age.
“Being born with three and having to learn two other languages still in progress, I notice it gets harder as I get older,” Ahmed said. “People might think I would get mixed up, but I just translate in my brain.”
As a third year French student, Ahmed said an advantage of already knowing multiple languages is that if she cannot remember what a certain word means in one language, she associates it with a word in another language she already knows to help her remember.
In addition to academic advantages, Ahmed said her knowledge has other advantages as well.
“Knowing English helps with travel,” Ahemd said, “I can communicate with all people and learn other cultures.”
