Learning a second language opens doors to new possibilities — new places, new cultures, new connections with people you would likely never meet. Although English has become the world’s de facto lingua franca, college students across the U.S. are increasingly discovering the benefits of language learning and the many opportunities it provides.

“College is a really good time to get involved in activities that can transform how you think about the world,” says Matt Ryan, associate director of UCF Abroad. “Immersing yourself in another language is a great way to enhance your diplomatic and professional skills while painting your life with unique and interesting experiences.”

This was certainly true for Jacqueline Zamitalo and Alex Nash, two UCF students who were selected this summer for prestigious language programs with the U.S. Department of State.

Nash, a senior, was a 2024 participant of the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program, which partners with universities and nonprofits around the world to provide American students with an opportunity to gain language and cultural skills that enable them to contribute to U.S. economic competitiveness and national security.

Recipients spend eight to 10 weeks over the summer in a host country studying one of over a dozen critical languages: Arabic, Azerbaijani, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Turkish or Urdu. The scholarship requires demonstrated competency in one of these languages and is highly competitive: This year, roughly 500 American students at U.S. colleges and universities were selected from over 5,000 applicants.

To help students gain an advantage in the selection process, the CLS Program developed CLS Spark, which provides virtual lessons, facilitated by native speakers at a host institution abroad, to undergraduate students with limited experience in three of the critical languages: Russian, Chinese and Arabic. Participants of CLS Spark receive automatic consideration as semifinalists for the CLS Program.

Zamitalo, who participated in CLS Spark this summer, plans to continue developing her language skills in the upcoming months to increase her chances of being selected into next summer’s CLS Program.

With two months of immersive language learning under their belt, Nash and Zamitalo are excited to take their skills to the next level. Read on to learn more about their experience learning a second language and what’s in store for their future.

Japanese as a Way of Life

From a young age, Nash was drawn to Japanese culture. He particularly enjoyed anime and found that many of the video games he liked were from Japan. A love of dance deepened his appreciation of the culture and made him want to learn more.

When he was a sophomore in high school, he found a textbook on Japanese, and, with commitment and patience, taught himself the rudiments of the language. Taking Japanese courses at UCF, one of the many languages the university offers, honed his skills further and undoubtedly helped with his CLS application.

Although Nash was looking forward to studying abroad, he says it was also “a little scary,” given that he had never lived outside of Florida, let alone the U.S.

“But there was also a huge amount of excitement and wonder,” he says. “I was very excited to learn a language where people speak it.”

Nash’s CLS experience took him to Okayama University in Japan, where, with other CLS participants, he engaged in rigorous academic courses for three hours a day — all taught in Japanese. Throughout the two-month program, Nash’s cohort learned about SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), traveling to different areas affected by climate change and interacting with locals there.

“Things like that are incredibly empowering to learn, because, as humans, we directly have control over what happens in our environment, no matter how powerless we may feel,” he says.

A computer science major with a minor in dance, Nash plans to continue practicing Japanese and hopes to work with gaming companies in Japan to develop products for a wider audience. He would also love to learn more about the country’s dance styles and bring a “global perspective” to the dance community.

For Nash, being immersed in a new language isn’t just about intellectual growth; it’s about broadening perspectives and understanding how culture and environments can shape the human experience.

“When you’re learning a foreign language in your home country, you do it because you love it, because you’re interested in the language. It’s a very conscious effort,” he says. “But when you are learning a second language in that native country, it feels less like language learning and more like living.”

Discovering the Beauty of Mandarin

Zamitalo learned about the CLS Program at UCF’s Study Abroad Fair. Because she didn’t have experience with any of the languages offered in the program —nor did she have time in her busy schedule to take language courses during the fall and spring semesters — Zamitalo applied to CLS Spark, where she could receive more focused language-learning instruction and practice her skills over the summer.

Like Nash, she’s a computer science major, so she naturally gravitated toward Mandarin, a common dialect spoken in Taiwan and China, where “computer science is huge,” she says. “I’ve always been interested in Asian cultures, but being able to speak Mandarin would be super useful for me in my career.”

While CLS Spark is designed for students with no formal experience learning a second language, the classes — held five days a week, for two hours a day — were still demanding, leaving students with up to three hours of homework a night. Zamitalo participated in virtual online instruction, led by a facilitator in Singapore, and engaged in one-on-one learning sessions with native speakers. One of her favorite parts of the course was the weekly cultural activities, some of which included calligraphy painting, kung fu lessons and a virtual tour of a tea shop.

Zamitalo recommends that anyone learning a new language embrace it as a fun challenge.

“You can feel your brain growing as you’re doing it,” she says. “When I was in the program, I found myself saying a sentence and thinking, I can’t believe that just came out of my mouth.”

Reflecting on her language-learning journey, Zamitalo recalls a quote from the great 20th-century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein: “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”

“When you know more languages,” she says, “you can experience so many different cultures and talk to so many different people in their native tongue. You can break down a lot of cultural and language barriers.”

With CLS Spark completed, Zamitalo is looking forward to applying to next summer’s CLS Program, where she is hoping to study abroad in Taiwan. She also plans to apply to the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Program upon graduation and “would love to do it in a Mandarin-speaking country,” she says.

If accepted into the CLS Program, Zamitalo will waste no time in Taiwan.

“I can’t wait to explore the country, the culture, the food,” she says. “I want to experience all of it.”