Welcome to my blog about languages, multifaceted identities,
and building bridges of understanding and communication between people of
diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds! Here I hope to share my thoughts
and personal experiences relating to multilingualism, multiculturalism, and
multilocalism in this increasingly interconnected world society.
The first order of business is to give you, my readers, a
bit of background about myself so that you can better understand the context of
my viewpoints as expressed in my posts. I am an American woman with Colombian
parents. My two native languages are Spanish and English, and I am also fluent
in French, all three of which I read and write in. I have taught at the
university level both in the United States and France in the subjects of anthropology,
French, and English, and have additionally coached music ensembles at the
primary- and secondary-school levels, as well as serving on a graduate
committee for a masters student in orchestral studies. I play the violin
professionally and am an amateur player of the four-stringed domra, a
Russian-Ukrainian instrument of the lute family. I have played in two balalaika
orchestras and one Irish folk band, have dabbled with bluegrass, and am a great
lover of all manner of world music, hoping one day perhaps to play with a
Middle Eastern music ensemble. My love of music is also expressed through
singing (of the shower and karaoke kind, though I have sung at a wedding, too) and
dancing – of the salsa and belly kind, mostly! I also currently serve as an
interpreter-translator primarily for law enforcement, but have also worked in
this capacity for the justice system, the medical field, and international
science fairs.
I begin my blog, then, with an opinion on the value of
multilingualism, not primarily for business or money-making, but for feeling
more intimately connected with a much greater number of fellow human beings,
for being able to embrace different cultural truths encapsulated in the very
structures of the languages that carry them, for feeling more ALIVE and UNIVERSAL.
Feeling like our identity is broader and more complex.
I believe many, if not most, people (at least in the
countries that I have visited) intuitively understand this value and wish to either
acquire fluency in another language themselves or create the proper
circumstances for their children to do so, even better, natively. I have asked
myself over the years why, if such a demand and desire exist, most public
schools in the U.S. do not offer “foreign” languages until high school or
middle school. Could something be done to change this? Ideally, these languages
would be introduced in preschool or kindergarten and continued throughout a
child’s schooling for a true bilingualism as seen in many countries around the
world. And sometimes parents who could speak to their children in another
language at home and therefore give them the gift of bilingualism (or more) do
not choose to do so for fear that the children will not then properly learn the
dominant language of the society. How wonderful it would be to create a
far-reaching educational campaign to disabuse people of their false notions about
multilingualism in children. How wonderful it would be to promote
multilingualism across the board so that we are all learning each other’s
languages and it is not ever a one-way street for immigrants and international
business people. How wonderful if real money could be put into introducing
languages at the primary school level or earlier.
Just some beginning thoughts. More to come later…
Congrats on your first post! Most everyone would agree learning multiple languages is the way to go. But when schools are struggling with basic science and math. (Let alone music and art.) How can school administrators justify the cost? I think you are right that multilingualism should be introduced even before primary school.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your warm welcome, Stay In Focus! I believe you are right. The problem that we all need to brainstorm as a nation, as parents, and as responsible global citizens, is how do we fund the introduction of "foreign" languages in our preschools and elementary schools, and of course their continuation after that?
ReplyDeleteMore and more, people complain about the uselessness of placing so much emphasis on standardized testing that does not seem to actually help kids and young adults out in life after school. Languages, however, WOULD, undeniably. If we can budget so many millions of dollars for other causes, including testing standards, etc., it seems we should be able to divert even a bit of that funding towards something as imperative as producing competent global citizens who do not have to rely on the citizens of other countries to learn their language. International businesspeople whom I have spoken to agree that even when foreign partners speak English, they LOVE it when you at least try to speak THEIR language. This helps to bridge cultures and, more concretely, close business deals.
So I suppose the real question is: How many parents would be interested enough in raising multilingual kids to rally together and actually lobby for it? Are we truly going to put our money where our mouth is, so to speak? Do we start small, at a local level, one school at a time? Do we appeal straight to the people at the top? What arguments do politicians and national school officials want or need to hear in order to feel motivated to make this a reality? That it will bring more money and opportunities to the U.S.? I welcome everybody's constructive comments on this subject and thank you for reading!