One of the most frequently asked questions we receive while abroad is: “Where are you from?” When people ask this question they usually tend to satisfy their desire to know – Who are you? What’s your nationality? What’s your native language? And why do you look the way you do? – all at a time.
However, imagine if you had to answer this question every day, even in your home country. Well, it’s possible to be born in a country where the official language is not your native one, while your native language may belong to a country whose nationality you don’t identify yourself with. In this case answering to the aforementioned questions with a single word, without adding a detailed explanation, can be a challenging endeavour.
The freedom to travel, immigrate, and the opportunity to learn any language to a native-like level intensifie the complexity of the issue.
In this talk, I’ll share my story of searching for my language identity and how I discovered a helpful winter coat metaphor. By finding simple answers to those complex questions, I was able to turn all the languages I speak from enemies to allies and calm down the crazy rush to trully identify myself to any of them.
If you can relate to the search for self-identification through language, I invite you to join me for this talk.

Veronika Ismailova is a Polish and Russian language teacher with over 12 years of experience teaching those languages to native speakers of other Slavic languages as well as foreigners learning Polish or Russian as their second or third Slavic language.
She holds multiple qualifications, including a BA in Arabic Studies and a PGCE in teaching Polish as a foreign language. Her particular interests lie in comparative grammar and language acquisition of mutually intelligible languages.
In addition to being a teacher, Veronika is an avid language learner. This year, she completed her fourth half marathon. In her free time, she enjoys reading historical novels. Website: beacons.ai

This video was recorded at the Polyglot Gathering 2023 (https://www.polyglotgathering.com).