How Georgetown Feeds My Multilingual Obsession
By Radiyah Ahmed (GU-Q’28).
If there’s one thing people figure out about me pretty quickly, it’s that I have a soft spot for languages. I speak seven so far, emphasis on so far, and I’m always picking up new words, accents, or phrases from whoever I’m sitting next to. That’s why Georgetown Qatar just fits. You walk through campus and it’s like a hundred different worlds sharing the same space. Arabic, Urdu, French, Tagalog, Somali, Korean, it’s all there, blending together in the halls and classrooms. Every conversation feels like a new story, and honestly, that’s my kind of music.
Growing up in Qatar probably set me up for this obsession. You can’t live here and not notice the way the world sounds. Every taxi ride, every classroom, every café table is its own mix of languages and voices. It’s this constant reminder of how diverse the country really is, kind of like the UN but with better karak and shawarma. I’ve always been fascinated by how differently people can sound even when they’re speaking the same language. Two people can both speak English, and it’ll feel like two completely different worlds. So I started paying attention; mimicking accents, learning phrases from my friends’ families, and getting lost in the rhythm of how people talk.
Coming to Georgetown made that fascination even better. With students from over seventy nationalities, you never really stop learning here. One lunch table can turn into a full-on language lesson without anyone even trying. My friends constantly put me on to shows and movies in their languages, and I’ll proudly admit I’ll spend entire weekends bingeing them under the noble excuse of “education.” It’s honestly the best thing; you learn about cultures, humor, slang, and those untranslatable words that say more about a place than any textbook or app could.
The best part is that GU-Q doesn’t just allow my hyperfixation, it encourages it. Every student here has to reach proficiency in a language other than English, which means we’re all in this together, conjugating verbs and crying over pronunciation drills. And I swear, GU-Q students are the definition of multitalented. Everyone here has something they’re passionate about: music, art, debate, photography, baking, coding; you name it. So when I start nerding out about phonetics or the way Turkish and Urdu share roots, I’m not even the weird one. If anything, they start nerding out about their favorite mountain ranges right after.
What’s special is how language connects to what we study here: global affairs, culture, politics, communication. It all ties together. Understanding someone’s language, even just a few words, changes the way you see their world. It’s empathy through sound.
Here at Georgetown University in Qatar, every day feels like one long, multilingual, multicultural conversation. You come in thinking you’ll just learn a language and end up learning about people, places, and perspectives you didn’t even know existed. It’s like being in school and traveling the world (minus the jet lag)! That is the beauty of the design of this curriculum.
So yes, I might be a certified language nerd, but if there’s any place in the world to be one, it’s right here in the middle of Doha, surrounded by accents, stories, and a campus full of people who sound different but somehow all feel like home.