Looking Back, Looking Forward — Our Community Voices
🌸Life fell like petals
Grief overflowed, like spring rain
Yet, here, we still are🌻
12 months ago, we stepped into our new decade brimming with goals and aspirations:
In our giveaway back in January, @ahmixxa said,
“in 2020 I’ll continue learning Korean and start Japanese in order to be able to get around when I move to Korea later this year and visit Japan hopefully soon after.”
@reinaparisr said,
“in 2020 I will learn to speak Japanese fluently and learn Mandarin, Italian, continue Korean and beef up my Spanish. I plan to talk to my friends in their native tongues and visit these countries!!”
Now, we are stepping out of a year ravaged by grief, death and tension.
Yet, despite all odds, there is much to salvage and the tunnel glows with hope, as we usher ourselves into 2021!
In our latest Mini Giveaway, you all shared with us how learning a language has transformed you as a person. We were so awe-inspired by your answers that we compiled a few of our favorites below:
“Language learning gave me perspective on how other people view the world. Language and culture are deeply tied together and you can learn how a culture operates by the words and phrases they use. It’s insight to a whole new world! It makes me realize that the world is so much bigger than what I know.” — said @korean_study_time.
@pachyfito said, — “Before I started learning Korean I was very sad and recovering from hard things happening in my life, I couldn’t find something that would make me happy and keep me occupied. But once I picked up the language, everything got so much better for me. It became my special alone time, an activity I could do just with myself, and I liked that. Learning Korean became my “me” quality time 🙂 ❤️ so it is now my happy hobby! It has also helped me deepen the understanding on my own mother language (Spanish) and think of how fascinating languages are in general, so yeah, Korean is my new joy 💕”
@lisslearns — “Before I was terrified to answer a call in china, every time my phone rang I would ignore it or hand it to a friend or colleague to answer for me. fast forward to now and I always answer and can (usually) successfully figure out what they talk about and handle the problem. in fact, whenever my other foreign colleagues order takeout at work, they always hand the phone to me if the restaurant calls for some reason, or when the delivery driver calls!”
“@lingodeerapp I already have a subscription but I just wanted to say, when I started in April I could only say a couple words of Japanese、でも今は日本語が上手じゃない。そうして、ありがとうございます！ I’m going to start Korean in the spring so wish me luck! Again thank you for creating an app that will help me pursue my dreams.” — @silas_west04
“Before I felt I was missing something, a passion, an enjoyable routine – something to keep me productive, to constantly inspire me and motivate me. And I found it in languages. After I found this passion, I became more productive and organised, learned to properly manage not just my time learning languages but my time overall. I found a form of happiness. And of course, learned more about other cultures. I thought that I will be stuck knowing 1 and a half foreign languages but who knew I will be eager to learn more!” — @hauxyan
Were you inspired?
This year, we have become more introspective of ourselves as humans beings in the face of diversity.
This year, we have failed goals, but have continued to make new ones.
And this year, our increased time at home has given us opportunities to learn and be productive in ways we never thought we could be.
As we prepare to wave #bye2020 and welcome 2021, Deer would like to thank YOU ALL for being the amazing human you are! And we hope you will continue to indulge us with stories of your inspiring journeys~
P.S. There are only a number of days left before our BIG, BIG, BIG Holiday Bundle and Giveaway ends!! Secure yourself a lifetime deal now before it is gone forever!
