During my childhood and later during my high school and college years, I was always drawn to learning languages. For me, it was always comparable to discovering a completely new world and then drawing parallels to the origins of different languages. It was always good fun and experience and I loved it.
Cartoon Network
This was my first English language teacher. Growing up in Serbia, we had access to a few foreign channels, and Cartoon Network was one of them. There was no Serbian subtitle but nevertheless, I really liked the channel and this is when I let the English language start planting its roots into my brain.
Video Games
I always loved playing video games. Of course, all of them were in English so I got used to reading and writing in English.
Philological High School of Belgrade
This is where I continued learning English but where I also started extensively learning the Italian language and literature.
Faculty of Philology
This was my next stop when it comes to learning languages. I polished my English language skills and I dove deeper into Italian.
Italian Call Centre
During my 4th year, I started working in an Italian Call Centre. Looking back, I am fairly sure that this is when I actually really learned Italian. Speaking to Italian folks every day for 8 hours allowed me to level up my Italian skills 🙂
Devana and Automattic
I’ve already described the path I took in the IT industry and this is where I got a chance to use the English language on a daily basis.
Enter Duolingo
A couple of years ago, I learned about the Duolingo app and I got completely blown away. I always wanted to learn some French so I used Duolingo and I got to the A1 level fairly quickly. I also took a few private French lessons and I was surprised how much Duolingo actually taught me.
Even though my French faded quite a bit (I stopped learning after a ~5 months), I never forgot Duolingo and the potential it has when it comes to learning a new language.
German Language
Since my wife is German, I’m currently living between Germany and Serbia. We still haven’t decided where we’re going to settle for good but nevertheless, I had to start learning German. I started with Duolingo again and this is the result I achieved in November 2021:
During this time, I also borrowed a few books from the Goethe Institute, I practiced my German speaking skills with my wife, and I watched movies and tv shows with German subtitles.
I have passed the official A2 German exam in November. I am currently preparing for B1 💪 and I am on a 469-day streak in Duolingo.