The world I live in

M.D. Anderson, where I work, is such an amazing international community. My boss and I ate lunch with some people who work in a lab on the floor below us. We got into the topic of language, and it was amazing to find out that one guy speaks Spanish, another girl speaks Portugese (she's from Brazil), and another lady speaks Russian. I felt very out of place (my boss is from Iran and is fluent in Farsi and English). All of these people speak English as a second language, and they all speak English fluently. It's almost embarrasing that I only speak one language! As well as I can speak German, I am certainly not fluent!

I think studying language is such a great thing. I wish schools put much more emphasis on that. Most people in Europe start learning a second language in grade school, whereas here most students start in high school, and then are only required to take 2 years. Studying another language gives you such a great perspective on other cultures. Learning German kind of opened my eyes a bit to another culture, and I'm hungry to learn much more.

Maybe I'll start learning another language soon. Once I'm fluent in German, I hope to conquer Spanish (or French, or Russian, or Italian or . . .)