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Revisiting a language you haven’t spoken in years is a humbling experience. At least, it has been for me.

Words and sentences that I used to say so freely now get stuck halfway through. Grammar that was previously natural now feels clunky and awkward.

But as difficult as it’s been to review what I’ve forgotten, it’s also been reminding me why I fell in love with the language, and learning it, in the first place.

While I was in college I studied Arabic, which wasn’t exactly the easiest language I could have chosen. One of the biggest reasons was that my university didn’t actually offer any Arabic courses.

But Arabic was the language that interested me the most. Not only did it fit with my area of study, but I also genuinely found the language beautiful. The flow and the texture of Arabic and its phonetics captivated me.

I started my journey to learn Arabic on my own, and eventually, I was able to get into a formal course through another program. After a few years of studying Modern Standard Arabic and Moroccan Darija, I knew enough to make my way through daily life and casual conversation.

But once I graduated, Arabic fell by the wayside. Life was moving fast and I didn’t make the time to keep up my proficiency. Before I knew it, it had been two years since I had regularly spoken, read or even listened to Arabic.

Around two months ago, however, I got the inspiration to pick it back up. I dusted off my old textbooks and since then I’ve been studying on a regular basis.

And it’s been hard.

It turns out two years is a long time. While it’s slowly been coming back, I’m having to fight for it.

There was a point when I first started relearning the language that I nearly gave up. I’d found an essay I’d written in one of my Arabic classes and I could only read half of it.

It was uniquely discouraging to not be able to understand something that I’d written myself just a few years ago. But it also felt like a challenge, and it was one that I decided to take up.

At different points, my motivation has come from that sense of frustration or a desire to challenge myself, but it’s also come from the commitment I’ve made and the time I’ve put in.

I think most importantly, though, it comes from remembering what inspired me to learn the language in the first place: it’s interesting, challenging and it’s fun.

As I’ve been relearning Arabic I find myself enjoying studying and I look forward to sitting down to review grammar rules and conjugations. Things are coming back to me and while I still have a long way to go, the journey is exciting.

I know it’s hard to keep up the motivation to learn a language, especially when the study is self-driven. I hope that if you’re in a similar situation you’re able to remember the joy of learning and what got you interested in the language when you first started.

For my mom, who’s been studying Danish for nearly 10 years, it’s the language’s connection to family — both to feel close to her ancestors who lived there a century ago and to communicate with our relatives who still live in Denmark.

Her enthusiasm for the language was strong enough that it even inspired my dad to start learning Danish, even though his family is from Italy.

I’m still testing the strength of my inspiration for Arabic, but I’m hoping that one day it’s as strong as my parents' and that I can continue to enjoy studying the language for decades.

And I hope that if you’re learning a language, whether it’s Spanish, Swedish or Ojibwe, that you’re able to find a strong enough inspiration to keep you motivated as well.

Readers can reach Pioneer reporter Nicole Ronchetti at (218) 333-9791 or nronchetti@bemidjipioneer.com.