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Aline Nicolai

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I have French genes, but my appearance is the only European factor about me! I was born
 in Tamil Nadu and have spent most of my life in the south of India being chased by cows. I think I have had a very
 “blended” upbringing – a concoction of European and Indian influences that has shaped my worldview in a unique way.


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 My passion for languages probably developed first from the fact that I lived in a bilingual household, and also in a
 country where most people speak at least two or three languages. The environment sharpened my ear to hearing,
 interpreting and recreating unknown sounds. When I started interacting with a sea of international people, it irked me
 not to be able to communicate with them in their own languages, and it seemed unfair that they were the only ones
 putting in effort to be understood. So, I started picking up any language I could get my hands on and ended up trying
 Spanish, Tamil, Hindi, Mandarin Chinese, German, Russian and Italian. I have varying grasps over these languages and
 it is tough to remember them when there is no one to practice with.

When I do have the opportunity to practice, I enjoy it so much, and when I don’t have a
 class or language partner, I use websites or texting applications to practice with native speakers. I really need to
 feel the drive from inside to sit down, learn and improve myself.
My current vision is to work at the UN, a multicultural and multilingual environment. It
 took me a while to realize that I could use my passion for languages as more than a hobby, and now I’m ecstatic that
 this is a possibility.
I haven’t really felt a compulsion towards any one career path, so I don’t have fixed
 career plans, and I am open to living in any country and culture. Given that, there is one thing that I know I
 couldn’t do without, and that is meditation. Keeping that part of my life has proved challenging, especially in the
 West – being a 20-year-old who is vegetarian and doesn’t drink is already enough to set me apart. I have had a hard
 time balancing out that spiritual side with my everyday life, so much so that the discrepancy between the two has
 sometimes shocked me into stopping my practice. That isn’t the solution though, as I have found that being less
 centered makes it harder to deal with conflicts and stressful situations.
So, although I don’t have a specific dream to follow, I know it will pan out in time. I
 try to remind myself to focus on developing myself in the present so that I will be ready for any situation that
 arises along the way.
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<h4 style="text-align: center;">Article by ALINE NICOLAI</h4>
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