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.
5 Comments
1/25/2015 02:26:31 am
I love how you used specific details of your childhood to make this post more personal. One commentary on Canagarajah that stood out to me was in the last paragraph when you said " 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." I think this is a very powerful statement because in spite of your Japanese elders who view your form of language as "incompetent," translingualism is not an inferior form of communication. We have been guided by our peers and elders to view code-meshing as an inferior form of communication, but it is not; it simply is different. Your post/ experiences remind me a lot of my own!
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Brandon Amirian
1/25/2015 11:52:01 pm
I also spent my toddler years with my Persian grandparents, although I am lucky enough to still have them living down the block from me. My parents always tell me that my first sentence as a child was in Farsi and it was when I wanted my Grandfather to come sit next to me. I admire your drive for wanting to know more of the Japanese language, as I was content with knowing enough Farsi to have basic conversations with my family. I too have a problem with Canagarjah arguing that code-switching does not require bilingual competence because many times when taking to my parents in front of my friends they look at us as if we are from another world and have a very hard time following the conversation. So I do think that in order to code-switch some amount of competence is requires but one does not need to be fluent.
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Selwyn Hernnandez
1/26/2015 04:16:39 am
There is so much that I can relate to with your story. Growing up with these kinds of language barriers for most your life must have been really difficult. And to see how culturally diverse your family is, there must have a been a number of challenges that you had to grow up. I also understand your point of view with the Canagarajah text. I saw from the point of conversing with people from my native background. But I did not consider others who do not have at least a tiny taste of the language, so I thank you for that point of view.
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Erica Fischer
1/26/2015 04:38:59 am
This is so interesting J.Rad! I think it is amazing that you have been working so hard to relearn the language of your relatives! I only speak english with my family and I and jealous and think it is amazing that you can speak to them in more than one language. I also this it is amazing that your Dudic could speak 6 languages! I remember talking to you about how you wanted to know that many languages or more! I think thats fabulous! I also think it is great that you aren't afraid to disagree with Canagarajah. When you write, "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," I think that is great evidence against Canagarajah and what he is saying. You make a great point!
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1/28/2015 03:00:26 am
I find your post very compelling and can see you'll have a host of personal as well as scholarly experiences to draw on in our class. However, I would charge you and your classmates to read Canagarajah more carefully. What he actually says on page 10 is, "to codeswitch, bilingual competence is not always needed." The word "always" is very important there. He is NOT claiming that bilingual competence is NEVER required; instead, he suggests that it sometimes is (as in your situation) and sometimes is not (as in some of the examples he discusses). As we discussed in class, elsewhere he claims that "all of us have translingual competence, with differences in degree and not kind" (8). That "differences in degree" phrase also speaks to your experience of being able to engage in some translingual practice and then improving your ability as you improved your competency in Japanese.
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April 2015
J.RadA college student obsessed with the magical world of linguistics. This page focuses on multi-lingualism. Categories |