Poet, novelist and essayist Andrei Codrescu from National Public Radio spoke about the importance of learning many different languages at the Memorial Union Theater Monday night.

Codrescu’s speech was the second installment of the Distinguished Lecture Series, which will be running all fall featuring several other prominent speakers.

Codrescu centered his lecture around the theme of “swimming between languages,” which he classified as a daily transition between thinking in one language and acting in another.

“I don’t believe in alienating people to one language,” Codrescu said. “I also don’t believe if you write well in one language, you have to stick to just that one; this is the act of ‘swimming.'”

Codrescu added he always knew he wanted to write poetry. During his lecture, he said no matter how little English he knew, he was going to become a poet.

“I was ‘swimming’ at first [upon moving to the U.S.] because I was thinking in Romanian and French, but being a primitive kid in English,” Codrescu said.

Although he didn’t learn to speak English until his adult years, Codrescu is now fluent. He also speaks other languages including German, Hungarian, Romanian, Italian and French.

Codrescu said he enjoys speaking in English the most because it is the language he writes in most often.

He has found through his extensive work in poetry that many art forms often translate into other art forms.

During the time of Hurricane Katrina, Codrescu wrote poems reflecting on the tragedy. These poems were then translated into songs performed by artists throughout the country.

“We live in a world of translations,” he added. “We don’t belong to one language in particular but we translate many languages to be parts of our everyday lives.”

University of Wisconsin freshmen, Andrew Turner and Joey Younkle, said they attended the speaker because they were members of a First-Year Interest Group on campus, and as a part of the group they have been reading some of Codrescu’s work.

“There is an intellectual boundary that you have to cross,” Turner said. “When you learn another language, you learn different phrases that can translate into daily life to better convey ideas.”

As a speaker of many languages, Codrescu strongly advocates college students learning as many as possible.

“It is a world where many languages are spoken and many students will travel all throughout the world,” he said. “It is also important to know people in their heart [through their first language] despite English becoming the main language of the world.”

Younkle said he had similar thoughts.

“Students should learn multiple languages to better communicate with people all around the world and to better understand their culture,” Younkle said.

Codrescu engaged the audience with some examples of his poetry and brought a strong sense of humor to the Union Theater.

“You need language to get by everyday, and also to be able to speak to girls,” he said.