26 Language Teaching
Of Many Tongues Speaker, Learner, Teacher An Inter view with Aline Verduyn
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
September 2021
TEACHING & LEARNING
It is not very often that we run into a person who is a speaker of many languages. It is even rarer to meet a polyglot who has had formal instruction in not only learning languages but also in teaching. Our interview here is with one such person living amongst us here in Gwangju: Aline Verduyn. She has much to offer on speaking, learning, and teaching multiple languages. — Ed.
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nterviewer: Thank you, Aline, for consenting to do this interview for the Gwangju News, especially since I know how busy your schedule is. To begin with, could you tell us a little about yourself in your pre-Korea life? Aline: My pleasure! I always like to make time for the Gwangju community! Born in Belgium, I took my first flight at 10 weeks! I had attended 18 schools in six countries (Nigeria, Egypt, Cameroon, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Belgium) by the time I graduated high school. We speak Dutch at home, but I attended international schools (taught in English), hence my native-like level of English. I have been an expat most of my life, a third-culture kid. Growing up, my family moved for my father’s job; now, I get to choose the countries I live in. My first choice will always be Korea. Interviewer: Having lived in so many other countries around the world. What was it that attracted you to Korea? Aline: A question so often asked! And yet, it is so hard to put my finger on it. I have had Korean friends in almost every school I attended. It was only in 2001 that I had the chance to land at Incheon Airport myself. My father had started working in Busan, which gave me the chance to discover Korea in all its glory. For me, Korea was not a strange, far-away country; rather, it felt like coming home. So, what did attract me? The snazziness of the technology, the cacophony of lit-up signs on every floor of every building, the bright green and red colors of the temples, the hanok houses, the cherry blossoms, the convenience of life in general (including 300-won coffee vending machines, clean subways, and free public restrooms), and then there is just… the universe pulling me towards Korea. So in a nutshell, and this answer I give to most Koreans, “I think I was Korean in a previous life.”
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Interviewer: I have heard that you are quite a polyglot. What languages do you speak, and how did you come to know them? Aline: Dutch is my mother tongue, which I only speak with my family. Since we lived abroad, school, friends, and the environment required me to speak English. Then there is French, another official language of Belgium, and a language I love. Besides learning it at school, we always had at least one French friend in every country to keep up our conversation skills. Living in Cameroon (a French-speaking country) as a teenager for two years also helped. In every country we lived in, we would pick up the basics of the local language. In Egypt, I learned to sing the national anthem in Arabic, and in Sri Lanka, I could sing it in Sinhala. In Vietnam, we learned the names of the fruits by going to the market, etc. We always knew our stay in each country was limited, so we could never fully learn a language, much to our regret. In high school, I studied German, which is not difficult for Dutch speakers. Spanish was my personal self-study project. When coming to Korea, I really challenged myself in learning a language that was in no way even remotely similar to any of the languages I had learned until then. But the previous languages helped. Some grammar reminded me of French, the sounds are almost all the same as Dutch, etc. When working in Dubai, I challenged myself yet again to study Arabic academically. So, that has given me “awareness” of seven languages. Three years ago, I returned to Korea in order to master Korean once and for all. Interviewer: So many languages you have learned, and from a young age! That brings me to my next question. When English was first being introduced at the elementary school level (Grade 3) in Korea in the late 1990s, there
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