The passion for languages and the constant learning them started early in school in my native Vilnius with lessons of Russian, English, German and Latin, which were later followed by the studies of English philology comprised of deeper study of other Germanic languages including Swedish and overall linguistics (the study of language and its structure), then after having moved to Norway, learning its native Norwegian, graduating from the University with a degree in Russian language and literature, working as a foreign language teacher, joining a Sunday Chinese school to learn Mandarin Chinese, picking up some Dutch for personal and family reasons, and for the latter reasons moving to and currently living in Denmark and learning Danish, while at the same time having had a need to understand some Portuguese for professional reasons and not giving up on it due to the annual vacation in the southwestern beauty on the Iberian Peninsula, and finally, for years nurturing my absolute love and passion for French. And I cannot help stop learning. It just never seems enough. And it seems that it’s easy to explain it.
Although some are simply curious and enjoy the process of learning new things, apparently, there is a part of the brain, the ventral striatum, somewhere in a grey matter which gets stimulated when learning new words and trying to decipher the grammar of a language so that a reward processing occurs and works the same way when, for example, we win the lottery. This part of the brain is sometimes referred to as the brain’s pleasure center.
Once I heard this theory, I instantly fell in love with and believed it. I find learning languages quite addictive and rewarding. Mostly, I see how it affects my life on a day-to-day basis and in a broader sense, and how, in some ways, has helped me personally to get through some rough patches in life.
So, the interest in languages and learning them can be rewarding, therapeutic, innocently addictive, extremely useful for communication, and simply something that makes one feel content and even happy. I also somewhat compare it to eating chocolate, which, by the way, I am quite addicted to as well.
By writing Ventral Striatum blog and teaching languages, I mean to share my passion, almost turned into a slight obsession, that I have for languages, topics, learning and teaching experiences, and more – everything related to the subject of language. And, hopefully, following it will be for you an enjoyable, positive, and maybe even inspirational experience.
Yours,
Asta Važgauskaitė, language learner and teacher
Ventral Striatum 