“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives.It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

—Charles Darwin

I used to master 1.945 kanji. It began from mastering one kanji, though. Yet, I need to keep practicing them in order to remember all of those kanji because I’m unlike Wolfgang Hadamitzky and Mark Spahn who authored The Kanji Dictionary and became kanji gurus.

Anyway, soon I will be going to Dominican Republic with my wife. She will study ophthalmology, and perhaps I will study audiology. Imagine: I graduated from Japanese language faculty, and will study Spanish to be an audiologist! Indeed, my wife is a medical student and a doctor, yet she also knows nothing about Spanish! It’s kinda being robbed when you study new things, while the old stuffs still on your bag.

We do speak English, and it is fine already to travel the world only with English. Mastering English is mastering the world. And my neighbor said that mastering Latin, mastering the languages—because all major languages were derived from Latin. I love Latin language, too. Yet, Spanish is one new challenge to learn! But, me and my wife will try anyway.

Why Americans are smart? Because since they were children, they have learned English. You know, we Indonesians usually speak more than two or three languages. My mother-in-law learned Batak Karo language. She’s a Javanese, which is hard to study Karonese language. But, she did manage to learn and master it, even has become more likely as a Karonese! While me and my wife able to speak four (or more) languages: Javaese, Bataknese (Batak Toba and Karo), Sundanese, Indonesian, Japanese, and English. And now we will have to study Spanish.

If Viktor E. Frankl—a psychologist—could learn new things and become a pilot; if a friend of mine, Lincoln Ali, who studied international relations, could study abroad and learn to skiing; if Jim Whittaker—a climber—could sail across and explore the sea; then we can learn new things or languages, too!

Anyway, shall I leave the 1.945 kanji? Should I forget my English? Not necessarily. We can use our old knowledge due in time needed. My wife said that there’s a man who is able to speak in 17 different languages! Is it possible? I wonder. But, if a man could fly a plane, if a genius could master every math’s formulas, then someone could be a master in language. And you gotta be in love with language in order to master many languages. But, the most important thing that I long to master is the eloquence of beauty of languages.

Leave your comfort zone. When you want to learn new language, sometimes it also means to be away from the same language community. You cannot be advance in studying new fruits of tongue if you stay with the same people who sing the same old song.

Learning new languages also requires new attitude—a readiness to face new things. Fear not of losing your old languages, but of not becoming flexible. The greatest enemy is oneself, and the deepest prison is the prison of the mind. The important thing you should conquer and free from is yourself and your mind in learning new languages. After all, it is better for you to change your attitude first before you learn new language. If you are approaching with new attitude, then learning new language will come easy. I did't say that learning new language will be easy. But, your heart will love to learn.