How Learning a Second Language Made Me More Creative

Learning a new language turns everyday conversations into creative puzzles

For many Americans, learning a second language is a distant “I’ll do that one day” fantasy. Either a retirement hobby or a casual fling with Duolingo. It’s rarely a necessity, unlike in much of the world.

There is so much we miss out on when we don’t learn another language.

And while I’ve written before about the unexpected perk of learning a second language (spoiler alert: helping us to be more aware of how we talk to ourselves), the other unexpected perk is the creative benefit.

A Toolbox for Learning

I think of language learning as slowly filling a toolbox. Each new word, grammar rule, or local idiom is a new tool. At first you might fumble, unsure where each tool goes; lost without having many tools in your box.

As you get more comfortable, you reach for the tools without much thought. You fill out the previously empty spaces. You know where the tools go, you grab each one perfunctorily.

I tend to describe my language learning journey like the below:

Each step along the way involved it’s own unique creative process, and I continue to experience that to this day.

I’ll take a side of Creativity, please!

Language learning is a creative endeavor. It directly improves verbal adroitness to creatively express yourself.

Despite feeling fluent in Spanish, it certainly continues to happen to me on the daily and weekly that I’ll stumble into a conversation where I need to say a word I’ve never said before.

One that sticks out to be from the early days was when I hung out with a friend who I had cancelled on the week before. When we finally met up, I said I hope he didn’t think I was “flaky”. But I realized I’d never needed to say “flaky” in Spanish before.

So, I explained it.

“You know, that friend who always cancels last minute on you. Who says they’ll do something and then doesn’t. Who frequently changes plans.”

My friend Pablo looked at me, puzzled.

We don’t have a word for that.

“Como que no?” I responded.

He paused thoughtfully. He said, it’s because we almost always make planes improvisados.

Light bulb moment!

Another example was when I didn’t know the word for umbrella, paraguas, and so I said “un palo con tela que te protege de la lluvia”, a stick with fabric that protects you from the rain. My friend instantly knew what I meant.

PARAGUAS! she exclaimed.

I’m sure people could think of even more creative and fun ways to describe umbrella (ideas welcome in the comments), but that one sticks out to me because it was one of the first times I became aware of that occurrence.

When I don’t know a word, I think of how I can describe it with the words that I do know.

You mentally open the toolbox of vocabulary that you have, pull out the words you know, and arrange them in a way that will get to the mystery word. And then when the mystery word is shared, you can put the new word safely back to your toolbox, to be used in the future.

Creativity, Part Dos

My dad was visiting this weekend in Madrid, he’s currently in Sevilla taking Spanish classes (side note: due to career changes I’m now splitting my time between Madrid and Sevilla).

My dad has already been in intensive classes for 3 months. He told me he had a recent realization. He decided that instead of trying to say things exactly as he would say them in English, he has decided to utilize the words and verb tenses that he already knows to express the same idea in a much simpler way.

I loved this! I told him I’d been working on this post (meta moment) and that it was another example of this tool box idea.

My dad has less tools in his toolbox right now. Instead of getting stuck because he doesn’t have as many tools as he’d like at the moment, he has learned how to get creative with the ones he does. To say things more simply.

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Living in a language that isn’t your own native language, that you learned later in life, is a perennial journey. I’m fluent but that doesn’t imply that I never get lost in a conversation, or need people to repeat things, or find myself wanting to say a word I don’t know. I still have to reach for missing words.

And when I do, I return to the toolbox. I imagine, I play, I invent.

It’s not a static endeavor. It’s not just about memorizing words, you learn a language, check the box, and you’re done. You learn to think differently and creativity imbues your every day.

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash