As a literature student, I always wanted language to be more than just a school subject. I joined OVFRIENDS and befriended Kenji and Emma. We created a private chat group and started a challenge: each day, we would write a short entry about our feelings in the native language of one of the others.
I practiced writing in Japanese, Kenji tried his hand at English and Emma struggled with Vietnamese. We not only corrected each other’s mistakes but also empathized with the stories behind the words. I realized that the sadness of missing home or the joy of discovering a new coffee shop shares the same emotional heartbeat, no matter what language it is expressed in.
Learning a foreign language was no longer a pressure but has become the way I connect with the souls of friends thousands of miles away.