“We slip into different identities depending on the language we speak.” — Manjula Dias-Hargarter

What happens to our identity when we build a life in another language?

In this episode, I reconnect with my old Bryn Mawr friend, Manjula Dias-Hargarter, an educator, editor, writer, and art historian who has lived in Germany for nearly three decades. We first met as Italian students in college, never imagining that we would both eventually make our lives on opposite sides of the Alps.

Manjula shares how a plan to spend one year in Germany became a marriage, a doctorate, a family, and a life. We talk about the moment a foreign place begins to feel like home, and what happens when the country you left no longer feels entirely like home either.

At the heart of our conversation is Manjula’s current essay project, Language as a Lens for Living. Her work explores how language influences the way we define ourselves, judge our abilities, make decisions, and imagine what might be possible. A discouraging comment from a teacher can follow someone for decades, shaping careers and limiting opportunities long after the original words were spoken.

We also explore the strange in-between identity that comes from living abroad: feeling more intelligent or funnier in one language, developing a different relationship with humor and sentimentality, and discovering that friendship, privacy, and belonging mean different things across cultures.

Using the image of a tapestry, Manjula invites us to look beyond the polished surface and consider the knots, effort, contradictions, and unfinished threads on the other side. Language can be a bridge or a barrier, a vision or a mirage, a carrot or a stick.

Biography

Dr. Manjula Dias-Hargarter is an editor, educator, and writer based in Hamburg, Germany. She holds degrees from Bryn Mawr College (B.A.), The University of Texas at Austin (M.A.), and Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität (Dr. phil.). For over two decades, she has shared her expertise and enthusiasm about the English language and art in settings ranging from museums to production facilities to Fortune 500 companies. Throughout, her mission has always remained the same: to offer pragmatic yet elegant solutions by engaging meaningfully with her clients, understanding their needs, and demystifying topics that appear inaccessible or intimidating.

Her contributions to art, architecture, and culture appear in over 50 publications, including The Bible of Caravaggio, Time to Travel – Travel in Time, and Licht-Raum-Farbe. She is currently at work on a series of essays about language as a lens.

www.words-count.com

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Podcast Producer: Andrew Niklas Curtis

Recorded via Zoom, post-production Lorenzo Maiani, Faminore Sound Agency