At Emory University, I took a socio-linguistic class taught by Dr. Tamasi. Our biggest discussions was often about how common it is for many immigrants to make a language shift and assimilate to English by the second or third generation in America. We typically discussed the debate behind bilingual and monolingual policies, bilingual education, and the absence a standard English in America (yet we keep pushing it on people!) .
The discussion of bilingual education was again brought to my attention while I was in my English course that focused on Multi-lingualism. I, as many of you guys can probably guess, fall into the third generation that typically suffers a monolingual shift in America. Many would wonder, why are families so likely to shift? Why not continue to teach your kids the language of your home country or heritage? In my case, like many others, my family was in a way pushed towards shifting. When my aunt started elementary school she was bilingual (she spoke English and Japanese). However, when my aunt would use Japanese in school, this made the teachers grow quite upset. They couldn't understand her, so they didn't like it. After a couple incidences, the school angrily called my grandparents and told her that she needed to speak English only in school. I strongly believe my Babka (grandma), who is from Japan, took this greatly to heart. Today, if you asked my aunt, she will tell you that she forgot Japanese, and my mom, the youngest of my Babka's children, never learned it. When it came to me I learned Japanese as a toddler since I was always with my Babka. However, she would have me read every day and listen to English tapes. She'd often say things like, "Jalyn I want you to go read with your tapes. I can't teacher you much in English right, but one day you'll be smart enough to teach me." I literally thought, "Babka I could do this all day in school... I want Japanese at home". So why is it that the school system is so discouraging for bilingual education? Is it because of political interest? Nationalism? Feelings of unrest towards immigration? I truly admire Motha's proposal in her book Race, Empire, and English Language Teaching in the United States. "Terrain of English can no longer be seen as benign...Must empire and racism inhibit the teaching of English? (xxii)". In her writing she calls on teachers to make sure they have more of a critical awareness of the pro's and cons of teaching English; Teachers should be able to pass on to their students the sufficient knowledge so that English learners can "make their own decisions about their own acquisition.(xxii)" I am glad I know English, but It angers me that the American idea of English literally killed the ability to speak Japanese amongst my family, and many others. Did my aunts teachers not think it through when they called my grandparents encouraging my aunt to only use English? My goodness.. Yes, I understand that heritage languages can preserved by heritage programs, bilingual newspapers, bilingual readings, the internet, etc. However, support in the public school system and ESL programs would be of big help too. Instead of converting the students to English, why not think of teach it as, adding the ability of speak English into their students vocabulary of language? I love the fact that Motha targets the English teachers! Typically, people fight in vain to push bilingual education that the government has a trend of rejecting over the recent years. Motha's proposal is simple enough to help people see the non-biased picture of what English is actually capable of. It is a idea that can be pushed for NOW. No governmental policies are needed to kick Motha's ideas off. Hopefully, more support will go towards language maintenance in the future.
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Currently, I am at an Eng: 101 class at Emory University themed Multi-lingualism. The reading have had me reflect a lot on my own childhood. Our most recent reading was Trans-lingualism by Canagarajah. I was born and raised in at town called Fort Wayne, Indiana. From birth to kindergarten, most of my days were spent with my Babka which is polish for grandmother and Dudic, which is polish for grandfather. My Babka, who is full Japanese, and used to teach Japanese songs, and we used to speak Japanese and English during my toddler years. After my Dudic passed away, she moved to Ohio. I only had the Japanese culture remain constant, as I was no longer in contact with her on a daily basis. After my Dudics’ passing, I would hear many stories about him as people reminisced his memory. They would talk about all of his work as a linguist in the air force. He spoke 6 languages and worked as an interpreter and translator. Eventually, I forgot the language of my toddler years and could only remember small bits and phrases of Japanese. During the summer before entering middle school, Babka requested for me to sing one of the Japanese songs she taught me during my childhood. To both of our heartbreak, I had forgot the lyrics of my childhood. Moments of forgetfulness and stories of my Dudic fueled my passion to learn Japanese once again and to study language in general. I began my serious studies of Japanese and linguistics at a university called Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) my junior and senior year of high school to study. After diligent work, I regained my fluency, only lagging in my writing skills. In Trans-lingualism Canagarajah argues against the traditional view of language that multi-lingual competence is qualitatively different from that of mono-lingualism, and that code switching and code mixing required bilingual competence. He states that “bilingual competence is not always needed to code switch” (page 10). I however, would like to challenge this view. During my polyglot conversations with my Babka, my monolingual friends do not understand the conversation we are having. They simply are missing the knowledge of Japanese to keep up, and it turns into a guessing game. However, if I am with another bilingual speaker and we hear people code switching in Japanese we have the background to understand the conversation fully. Although we may not know some vocabulary, our background of Japanese can help us understand the theme of the conversation. Needless to say, some of our elders in the Japanese community could see us as “incompetent”, and our linguistic insecurities may fester. Yes, there definitely is different levels of language skills. Bilingual speakers either grew up with the languages or worked hard to learn the languages at some. However, a multi-lingual’s understanding of meaning is different from that of a monolingual. They simply lack knowledge of the other language to understand the code meshing of the conversation.
First Post Coming Soon Currently researching, learning, and writing. Stay tuned! Release date: 1/23/15
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April 2015
J.RadA college student obsessed with the magical world of linguistics. This page focuses on multi-lingualism. Categories |