There’s bilingual, trilingual, quadrilingual—and then there’s Annabella Armstrong (12). She started learning Japanese in middle school and since then, she has added French, Latin, Italian and American Sign Language (ASL) to her toolbelt of languages.

“I was into anime; that was kind of why I started Japanese originally,” Annabella said.

Annabella ventures far beyond simple grammar and vocabulary when learning a language, immersing herself in the culture. The summer after her freshman year, she visited Japan for a homestay with the organization People to People International as part of their student ambassador program.

“Sometimes you’d be in city areas and sometimes you’d be in [rural] areas. In the city areas, you’d have super high tech stuff. The rooms would be super tiny, but you’d have a big TV and fancy toilets and all that,” she said. “You could go to the ones that were more far out there, and they’d have roll-out futons and tatami mats for the floor that you could set up.”

During her trip to Japan, Annabella noticed how cultural differences between Japan and America were reflected in their languages.

“Japanese has more levels of formality, there’s more intricacy to it,” she said. “There’s a difference between your boss and your teacher, or a teacher you know well. Here [in America], you can just have a conversation with anyone you find at the bus stop. No one’s going to think you’re weird for it; you’re having a conversation. It would be significantly weirder in Japan.”

To further her understanding of Japanese culture, Annabella watched Japanese films by Hayao Miyazaki, a Japanese anime screenwriter and producer.

“[The films are] slightly more true to the original meaning,” she said. “The inflection, voice, or tone or pitch relate to that language, and [they give] us a slightly better understanding of how [the language] is supposed to be.”

Annabella’s Japanese teacher Yumiko Aridomi believes that she has a talent for languages.

“She’s very diligent at her work [as a] student,” Aridomi said. “She is a very cheerful girl. She was very quiet when she was in Japanese 2, but when we got to know her, she became much more friendly. Now, I think she’s comfortable.”

Annabella plans to continue adding to her language repertoire, as she hopes to learn Hungarian. She enjoys forming connections between multiple languages, as well as discovering new ones.

“I’ll get drawn to certain [languages],” Annabella said. “If you know one, it’ll help you with others.”