Abstract: Science is done in many countries worldwide and international collaboration is encouraged. Surprisingly, despite the international nature of science, the benefits of learning and using languages other than English are hardly ever discussed.

This talk is a personal story about combining two passions: how languages help a scientific career, and how a scientific career helps language learning, “killing two birds with one stone”.

My goal is to motivate anyone interested in languages to start using them in their collaborations, not just to increase their scientific output, but above all to experience the joy of connecting with other people in their languages and make a difference in their careers.