Apart from English, Dania can speak French and Spanish. There are wide opportunities to practise the latter here in the U.S., but not so many for French at least in her university community. Having a lot of Chinese people at UMass Amhurst inspired Dania to take up Chinese, which she has been enjoying so far.
Dania admits she feels sorry for people who can only speak English as a foreign language. Learning five or six languages (rather than twenty) is going to enrich ones life immensely. For example, knowing Arabic opens doors for Hebrew, which also facilitates learning Turkish, etc.
Dania feels different in any language she speaks and that even affects the way she dresses. When she is in a romantic mood, she unconsciously dresses in the way that makes people go, «You look so French today!».
Her experience here in the U.S., which has been her longest stay abroad so far, has been rewarding in many different ways. She feels absolutely positive about learning a new language here at the age of 27. She encourages everyone to learn languages at any age as once you realize how many gigabytes of information our brain is capable of storing, there is no stopping you. Besides, it is widely known that learning a new language prevents the risk of developing Alzheimers at an older age.
I felt somewhat ashamed of myself for having fewer languages in my linguistic repertoire than Dania who wasnt even a linguist. But she inspired me to carry on with my humble efforts with other languages that I had been making in the U.S. She is a stellar example of how someone can seamlessly incorporate languages into their live just as landscape architects know exactly how to arrange space and make it work to create that «wow» effect.
After completing her studies Dania went on to get a job in Europe where I am sue she is working on expanding her language repertoire.
Navigating the multilingual New Jersey
(Alejandra, Colombia)
Languages spoken: Spanish, English, some Hebrew.
Field of study/career: Foreign Language Teaching.
I met Alejandra from Colombia in Union City, New Jersey. She was in a class of one of the professors of Linguistics Id met at a Christmas gathering here in NJ as well. This professor has taught Russian and French and her husband is Russian-speaking, so bilingualism is one of the topics she is hugely passionate about. She kindly invited me to give a talk about my project in one of her classes. Alejandra was the first ones to have volunteered to participate and it was a pleasure to hear her story. Union City, which is just about 20 minutes ride from Midtown New York, is a linguistically and culturally vibrant area where walking along these narrow streets with Catholic churches and statues as well as cafés selling all sorts of Latin American specialties, one can mostly hear Spanish rather than English being spoken.
Alejandra is doing her Masters degree in Education at New Jersey City University. She is also a teacher of her native language Spanish. Alejandra started learning English at school, but it was not until she was around 20 or 21 that she applied for a job that required English. That was how she was able to improve her skills. Back at school she remembers struggling with understanding simple structures or even writing a simple word. As a result, she grew to hate the subject and had no idea why she couldnt succeed. At some point, she started seeing this language as a challenge that she was determined to overcome. That was a native speaker that she once met who helped her understand some simple grammar rules and that discovery was a turning point. As for speaking, there werent many activities offered to improve it. She wasnt still very confident about her English after she had got that job, but it involved talking and helping others and by taking risks, she eventually started making a more significant progress.
Nowadays in Colombia people are making an effort to learn English. Schools are trying to offer more than what used to be purely grammar classes as in order to land good jobs, people have to prove they are actually capable of speaking the language. In terms of continuing working on improving her English, living here in New Jersey is a bit challenging for Alejandra as a lot of Spanish is spoken and she has to find ways to practise her English. Living with American families and teaching people Spanish has been a great opportunity for her to speak English while sharing her culture with them.
No matter whichever language Alejandra is speaking, she always tries to be herself and others perceive her in the same way as well. Overall, being here and teaching Americans Spanish has been an amazing experience. Alejandra finds it incredible how people here are ready to embrace the culture and let go of some stereotypes. There are a lot of schools in New Jersey where people can learn Spanish. There are economic incentives for it as well as a lot of people in business speak Spanish as their first language.
Being one of the most frequently spoken languages in the world, Spanish has a lot of local varieties and according to Alejandra, Americans are enthusiastic about learning the Colombian Spanish as they think the accent is easier to grasp. She doesnt believe there are too many differences except some vocabulary as Spanish speakers from different countries can pretty much understand each other.
Alejandra has also had some experience of living in Israel and learned to read some Hebrew there. She was able to read the Bible and for her that was a mesmerizing experience. Even though she didnt continue to study the language, she is still happy whenever she hears some familiar words in Hebrew. In the future she would like to take up Chinese as she finds it really astounding how many people speak it.
Finally, she believes that finding a good teacher to guide you through the basics is essential if you want to succeed in learning a new language. This is what she thinks you should do before you invest into actually going to a country where your target language is spoken. «Make mistakes, be confident, take risks, then buy your ticket!», says Alejandra.
I was really amazed by Alejandras enthusiasm for teaching and sharing her language as she offered me her help with Spanish, which was the latest language Id tried to learn before my brief trip to Spain back in 2016 following my attempts at Italian and French. Being a foreign language teacher myself, I found it inspiring to hear how much faith and trust is put into us in our effort to make a difference in our students lives.
A routine life in Spanish and English
(Samantha, USA)
Languages spoken: English, Spanish.
Field of study/career: Linguistics.
I also met Samantha through the same professor I did Alejandra, my previous interviewee. That was my first online interview (if only we had known it would become «a thing» just a couple of years later!). Samantha is a first-generation immigrant as both her parents come from El Salvador (a country in Central America). She was also the first person Id had in this project who had had this type of experience.
Samantha works at New Jersey City University. She grew up here in New Jersey in a Spanish-speaking family, but had had an opportunity to pick up some English before she started learning it at nursery school at about the age of 3. Her father, who was born in El Salvador and moved to the U.S. in his twenties, spoke to her mostly in Spanish. Her mother used English more and Samantha would use Spanish with her grandparents as well as other relatives. She doesnt remember having any difficulties growing up with two languages, it was just «a routine». Picking up English and using it on a daily basis was very easy as she would use it all the time with her teachers and classmates at the public school she attended. The only difficulty she remembers having early on in her studies was with some letters. Overall she cant say she was learning English as a foreign language. Now she calls it her primary language and doesnt feel that she has any foreign accent at all even though shes met some people who say she does.
According to Samantha, she sometimes feels she has a foreign accent when she uses Spanish. As for her nationality and identity, she prefers to call herself Hispanic, but the problem is that this nationality is often not listed so she chooses «white» instead. Spanish is still part of her life as she would still sometimes uses it at home and sometimes has difficulty remembering English words for some things, e.g., vegetables. Her Mum watches a lot of soap operas in Spanish and Samantha finds it amazing how she can switch between the two languages and understand them without even realizing it. In her job Samantha uses Spanish with some international students. Generally, she doesnt feel discriminated against based on her ethnicity as in this part of the country in particular, there are a lot of people who were born and raised here but have another linguistic and cultural origin that they identify themselves with. Therefore Samantha finds being able to speak two languages advantageous as she believes bilingualism is regarded as something valuable despite the current political reforms in regards of immigration.
Overall she thinks that Hispanics are having an easier time adjusting to the U.S. culture these days than they used to. Her advice to anyone trying to make a living in the U.S. is to «push on through» remembering about the long-term benefits they are going to have. Using the example of her own father, she argues it might be hard to start feeling fully integrated here in the U.S. especially after coming here at an older age. As grateful as he is for all the benefits he has enjoyed after moving here, he hopes to be able to spend more time in his home country of El Salvador during the retirement.
In her talk Samantha outlines some issues facing first-generation immigrants and their parents which include those pertaining to adaptation and certain identity struggles associated with it. The U.S. is known to be a nation of immigrants, but obviously full accommodation to living here is a long journey that not everyone is resilient enough to complete. The immigration policies enforced by the Trump administration also sent waves and it remains to be seen if they are going to have any far-reaching effect on the countrys language policies.
A researcher experiencing bilingualism in Asia and the U.S. (Suqin, China)
Languages spoken: Chinese, English.
Field of study/career: Clinical Psychology, a Fulbright scholar.
As I did a lot of other fellow Fulbrighters, I met Suqin from China at a One To World event in NYC. Later on we would spend more and more time together. Then she invited a group of Fulbrighters to get together for Lunar New Year celebrations in Chinatown. This part of New York is so enticing and intriguing for all senses: those smells of fresh fish, Chinese spoken in every corner, those red lanterns lining the streets and waving lucky cats in every shop window, people elbowing their way through the crowds Even though my country borders China, I have never felt closer to it than I did right here in Manhattan. Walking through some of the Chinatown streets on the way to our big dinner at a Chinese restaurant after seeing a traditional parade, I asked Suqin whether what we saw, heard and smelled brought her back home. I watched as she took a moment to think and went, «It kind of does». That made me wonder what visiting Brighton Beach, a part of NYC heavily populated by Russian speakers would feel like
Happily stuffed with lots of Chinese dumplings and seafood, we sat down in Columbus Park in front of a monument to Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Republic of China, to have our talk.
In China students begin learning English from middle school. The major focus of instruction is writing and reading. It wasnt until Suqin started her PhD in Hong Kong that she began to use English as the main language, which she feels was a turning point on her journey. At the beginning she used to only resort to the phrases she knew how to use but then there was more focus on what idea she was looking to express, so she was searching for appropriate ways of getting her message across. That was how Suqin knew she was improving.
At Chinese middle and high schools only paper tests used to be administered back when Suqin was a student, so there were no difficulties. At college speaking skills started being tested and that was when some problems were encountered. The teachers did their best to encourage their students to speak, but no one in class dared to speak up. Later on an oral test of English was also introduced.
As English is compulsory for college entrance exams as well, it is learnt more as a science or «Chinese Math». There is never a goal to develop skills to eventually use this language.
In Hong Kong where Suqin has been studying for her PhD English is spoken as a second language from kindergarten, which encourages bilingualism. As Hong Kong used to be governed by British people, high-status citizens speak good English. That is what everyone else aspires to be so they might even prefer it to Chinese.
When it comes to attitudes to English in China, according to Suqin, there is no need to promote it there as the country is so big. It is literally useless in China to speak English in order to achieve a better life.
Suqin uses English predominantly for her research which requires her to get in touch with colleagues from around the world and have her papers published in international journals. English is also a tool for self-branding as the better she speaks, the better impression she makes. Her PhD research looks at bereavement and grief where most theories are developed in Europe and the U.S.
In the past Suqin wouldnt notice any personality changes as she switched between the language. Now she becomes «Westernized» while speaking English and uses more gestures. She is also bilingual in Mandarin and Cantonese. Her family moved when she was 9 and Suqin learnt Cantonese from then on. She feels quite fluent but seldom uses very local phrases. At home she speaks a dialect of her province which is similar to Mandarin but some tones and slang are a bit different.
Suqin started learning German two years ago just as a distraction from the pressure of her qualification exam. She could have chosen Spanish as well, but a lot of studies in her field are in German, which made the choice obvious.
To anyone struggling with their speaking Suqin recommends doing what worked for her once as well, which is focusing on what to express rather than how to do that.
At this point of my project I was able to see how Chinese was one of the languages my interviewees were eager to learn due to this countrys ever-growing economic influence. Suqins thoughts echoed the ideas of Chinas self-sufficiency despite effort being made to teach English. There have been speculations as to whether Chinese might replace English as the worlds lingua franca or least whether people outside China are going to have to master a special variety of English used in China. With the currently shifting world order, we are going to have to wait and see how things pan out linguistically and how this is going to affect language learning and teaching in the long run.
I am one of those individuals who isnt up to the challenge of learning Chinese. I even refused a job in China which I was offered a few weeks after my return from the U.S. But of course, this decision has nothing to do with specific people. As a reminder of our friendship Ive been keeping a red envelope with good-luck wishes she gave as a present for Lunar New Year 2018.