Koľko rečí vieš, toľko krát si človekom

In Slovak we have this saying "Koľko rečí vieš, toľko krát si človekom" which translates as something like "You are as many times human as is the number of languages that you can speak". I have to admit that until recently I didn't really understand the meaning of this saying. I simply thought that speaking other languages makes you more human, since you can understand more people.

yeah, I know many of my friends hate this pose :)

But as I came to Korea I realized that there is more to it. Or maybe that I completely misunderstood it. Did you ever realized that when the same person speaks different languages their personality changes. Or maybe it's not really their personality, but they come across differently. It's not that the person becomes someone completely else, more like some other part of themselves is allowed to come through different language, something that could not be expressed through another language.

Natalia and I trying out our 애교

For example (예를들으면) (it's always easier notice it on other people than yourself) I have this friend here in Korea from Central America, her mother language is Spanish, but she is really good in English since she studied at the international school while in her country. So from the beginning we would talk together in English. We have another students here whose mother language is Spanish as well, so I had a chance to observe her while speaking with those people, and I realized that while she speaks English, she is really calm and down to earth but as soon as she starts speaking Spanish, she gets really animated, uses her hands a lot either to gesture or to touch people while talking with them, a lot more emotions could be seen as compared to when she spoke in English. We were here together to study Korean so as her Korean skills were improving I could notice another change. When she would speak Korean she would speak in much quieter voice, and her gestures became little different. She would act in a more cute way than in her English or Spanish self.
So than I started wonder if I am the same way, and I have to admit that I realized it's exactly like that and the same goes for other people. 
Just try to watch yourself more carefully. The more fluent you get in a language, and the more natural it becomes for you, the better you are able to express some other parts of your personality, you become an "another human". Which I realize that a better English translation of the mentioned Slovak saying would be "You are as many times a person as is the number of languages that you can speak."

My Christmas card this year

I often wonder what would my friends from US and Slovakia say if they seen me speaking in Korean. Dad of one of my friends said once "키가 커도 귀여운 점이 있네" (Even though you're tall, you have a cute side to you). I never thought of myself as cute, but I guess the Korean 애교 (aegyo) is getting to me as well, so I'm sending you some of it.