Tartous-Sana
Her love for learning foreign languages from a young age prompted Catherine Youssef, a master's student in the Department of Renewable Energies at the Faculty of Technical Engineering at Tartous University, to learn 7 languages, which she started with the English language in the early stages of pre-school years.
Youssef said in an interview with SANA Youth Newsletter, "I was influenced by my mother, the English language teacher, who was always listening to foreign songs. That stage was my starting point towards the world of languages, especially after my mother used to speak to me in English at home."
Youssef is fluent in French, German, Spanish, Russian and Turkish, in addition to English, and has recently begun to learn the Chinese language, considering that communication with the world and openness to the cultures and civilizations of peoples is the basis for learning any language, as well as contributing to changing and developing capabilities and a pattern of creative thinking and enhancing self-confidence.
Youssef, who studies a number of these languages in some of the governorate's schools and universities, benefited from social networking sites to learn these languages more, as these sites were the only source for her to learn the Turkish language, while she benefited from some references and educational courses to learn a number of other languages, she said.
Youssef saw the Internet as a supportive means of education that enabled her to develop her languages and constituted an important reference for obtaining books and articles at the master’s level. She said, “With learning each new language, I discover the beauty and richness of the Arabic language and its value, so I am keen to persevere in it by reading novels and books written in the classical language.”
Youssef directed her message to the Syrian youth to learn different languages, as it has become a necessity for work in all fields, and considered that the most beautiful characteristic of language is that it gives the individual an added value and a special advantage.
Fatima Hussain
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