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Language Learning Community | A Little Culture with Anil | Ep 2

By Anil

 


Hey, so, about last Thursday. I know I said weekly drops, and then…crickets. My bad. Life happened, brain went on strike, you know the drill. Anyway, to make up for it, double feature this week. You're getting two posts.

Alright, so, I didn’t fall in love with English.

Not at first.

It wasn’t a romance. It was a necessity.

Engineering college didn’t give me a choice—English was the only language spoken in classrooms, on exam papers, in textbooks. If I wanted to pass, to survive, to not feel like I was two steps behind everyone else—I had to figure it out.

And I remembered how I’d picked up Hindi as a kid. Just by watching TV. No pressure. No rules. Just vibes. So I figured, why not try the same thing with English? I surrounded myself with it. Movies, songs, vlogs, books—whatever felt fun, I dove in.

Somewhere along the way, it stopped feeling like a chore. I started enjoying it. Rewatching scenes because a line hit hard. Googling words mid-conversation just to understand them better. Practicing on Duolingo like it was a game I needed to win.

Whole nights went by like that. Headphones on, screen glowing, brain firing on all cylinders. I’d sleep after breakfast, eyes tired but mind racing.

Then came the rabbit hole—Korean dramas. Japanese anime. Chinese shows. I picked up bits of Tagalog, Spanish. Joined a Discord server to get better at Korean. Met people who talked about grammar and snacks and life in the same breath.

See, here's the thing. I'm not built for crowds. IRL. The whole 'eye contact, small talk, pretending you care' thing? It's a hard pass. Social anxiety's a bitch, and it makes leaving the house feel like gearing up for a boss fight. But on Discord? Screen between us? Different story.

These strangers, these language nerds, they just…got it. No pressure to be some charismatic dude. Just me, stumbling over verb conjugations and dropping snack recommendations. The weirdest part? I felt…seen. Like, actually seen. Not judged for being quiet, or for my brain doing mental gymnastics every time someone spoke to me.

It didn’t last, the server, but those convos? They stuck. They proved that human connection doesn’t have to be a sweaty, awkward mess. It can be…chill.

Indian languages pulled me in too. Films from every corner—Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Malayalam. Subtitles on, original audio blazing. There’s something powerful about hearing a story in its mother tongue. Honest. Raw. Unfiltered.

And mastering English opened doors beyond storytelling.

I taught myself web development, grinding through tutorials, forums, and blogs. Built a career on skills I picked up from strangers on the internet who never knew they were teaching me. The digital world? It speaks English. I had to learn it to navigate it. And I did.

But now it’s more than a skill. It’s a habit. A comfort. A quiet kind of therapy.

Languages give my mind something to chew on. They ground me. They challenge me. They remind me I’m not done growing.

Every new word is a win. Every sentence, a small battle fought and won.

Maybe I’ll never stop. Maybe I’ll keep stacking languages like bricks, building a version of myself that’s wider, deeper, sharper.

One who sees the world in subtitles and still chooses to listen.

And honestly?

I like it here.

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