"New Language, New System" by Corinne Wingate
Hello, my name is Corinne Wingate and I’m a rising junior at Phillips Exeter Academy. Though I attend school in New Hampshire, I live in Brooklyn, New York. When I first came to Exeter, I was struck by how international it was compared to my experiences in New York, even as a city known to be very international. In the end, this is of course not all that surprising—for one, my school had both the ambition and ability to provide a much wider breadth of education.
Phillips Exeter also (quite uniquely) offers Japanese language classes, and I was very lucky to be able to continue studying Japanese here. And the more I studied, I started developing a “language learning bug”. Often, other people’s reactions to me saying that I was studying Japanese was something along the lines of “Wow, isn’t that really difficult? Why didn’t you choose a language that you could learn a lot more quickly?” Unfortunately for me, it was exactly because Japanese is so different from English (and therefore hard to learn) that I found it much more exciting.
However, at some point I realized that the aspects of studying Japanese that I loved the most, such as the completely alien grammar and ways of saying things, could also be found in other languages. And after hearing all about Arabic literature and word roots from a faculty member in my dorm, I was sure that I wanted to learn it.
This will be my first time traveling alone, and even though I’m already feeling a bit tired thinking about the flight to Amman, I cannot be more excited for these next eight weeks. It will also be the first time I will get to be immersed in the language I’m studying! I have heard that immersion works wonders for pronunciation and speaking naturally, so I just hope I can be confident enough to use as much Arabic as possible when I am there.
When I’m not in class, I’m always drinking tea. I love learning about how different teas are prepared in different places, especially since some countries’ “tea cultures” are so prominent and unique. I’m going to be bringing a lot of tea from home over, but I also hope to take recommendations and try new ones on Jordan. Whether we’re studying, practicing Arabic, or just drinking tea together, I’m excited to get to know both my host family and my peers once I get to Amman!
Until next time!
Corinne Wingate is a Junior at Phillips Exeter Academy and is participating in the Intensive Arabic Program this summer at Amideast Jordan.
