How are Language and Culture Related?

I wanted to start off this post by briefly describing what inspired me to write this post. I am the kind of person who likes to write from the heart and who writes about what I have observed and have learned over the years, especially when it comes to languages. I recently had the privilege of having two internationally well-known Spanish authors come into my Spanish classroom (their names are Ana Merino and Manuel Vilas) who shared their experiences of what it means to be a writer and what languages personally mean to them. My fascination of linguistics and what languages can do to others is what I want to share with you.

One of the most important points that the authors made was that each language has its own, unique grammar and ways of being able to express yourself. Depending on which language you speak, you will have to adapt and change the way in which you think. You cannot simply rely on translating passages literally from your native language into another language, because that is not what languages are about. Instead, languages are a way to understand other cultures and have a deeper and to have a better understanding about the world around you.

Manuel Vilas gave us an excellent example about how careful you have to be when you try to translate sentences into another language. In Spanish, “I love you” is “Te quiero” or “Te amo.” The pronoun “yo”, which means “I”, is often omitted whenever native speakers use this phrase, because it is redundant. In Spanish, we oftentimes omit personal pronouns, because we can tell about whom someone is talking by simply paying attention to the conjugation of a verb. In this particular phrase, the person who you love is more important than the person who loves another person in Spanish, but is the opposite in English. This does not mean that one language is more correct than the other, but it is curious that Spanish speakers think about love in a different way. That being said, I will talk about some of the most memorable sentences that these authors told us in their mother tongue, Spanish, and will translate what they said in parentheses.

 “Cuanto más conocimiento tienes, eso es ser mas libre” (“The more knowledge you have, the freer you are”). I thought that this quote was incredibly powerful. It shows that knowledge is power and that power is language. If this is true, then that means that languages are a means to deepen and change your lenses on how you view and perceive the world. “Las culturas no se pueden perder…la literatura te da la capacidad de generar ideas” ("Cultures cannot be lost…literature is what give you the ability to generate ideas"). One could argue that it is not necessary to speak other languages in order to be open-minded and have a true appreciation for individuals who believe or practice something other than with what we grow up due to globalization. However, globalization has created an even bigger necessity to understand others, because our world is more interconnected than it has ever been.

 “El aprendizaje de los idiomas [es] la forma lingüística de la lengua… [que te da] pensamientos diferentes [que] son complementarios… [uno aprende de culturas a través de] la literatura…[tienes] posibilidades infinitas de comprender el mundo [y te da] un crecimiento de la libertad [que es] la base de las humanidades, [junto con] un enriquecimiento [en] la vida [porque] vez el mundo a través de otra lengua…una sintaxis construye la identidad”.

*Learning other languages [is] a linguistic form of language… [that allows you to have] different thoughts [that] are complementary… [you learn about cultures through] literature… [you have] infinite possibilities to understand the world [and it gives you] a growth in freedom [that is] the base of the humanities, [as well as] an enrichment [in your] life [because] you see the world through another language…a syntax creates identity.”

“[La] teoría fusión [dice que] la motivación incrementa [cuando uno aprende un idioma] si puedes pensar creativamente…[la] biculturidad lingüística [te ayuda a] tener oído. [La literatura te ayuda a acceder] la identidad de una lengua. Aparece la historia de una lengua. [Cada país tiene] identidades históricas diferentes…”

*[The] fusion theory [says that] your motivation increases [when you learn another language] if you can think creatively… linguistic biculturalism [allows you to] have a good ear. [Literature helps you to access] the identity of a language. The history of a language appears. [Each country has] different historical identities”.

As I have only recently started to grasp, there are only so many friendships that I could make, and only so many places that I could visit if I only spoke English. The beauty of speaking 6 languages is that I have friends from 6 continents and islands, allowing me to have connections around the world. I believe that you can only truly understand a language if you understand its cultures and that you can only truly understand cultures if you understand their languages. You can try to inform yourself about all of the current events about a country and make friends with people from that country, but you will miss out on key details that cannot be explained as easily, or as precisely if you cannot understand that country’s language.

In order to understand disasters, or accidents, we must be able to communicate with the enemies, or with those who thought that something was morally right when we think that it was the opposite. Remember, that no one language or culture is better than another, but each one is different. In my opinion, the best way for our world to become a safer and a happier place is if we learn to hear each other out and learn about each other in each other’s mother tongues (not through translations, or transcriptions), because that would leave more room for error, or misunderstandings. That is the power of language.

Why Study a Critical Language?

Most of you who are reading this post have probably learned a foreign language at some point in your academic careers; however, most of you have not had the opportunity to learn a critical language. This is by no means your fault, but rather, a fault in the academic system. Over the years, I have noticed that the American educational system is very Euro-centric, and rarely offers you the opportunity to study non- European languages. Now that we live in an ever-changing, competitive society, it is more important to study critical languages than it was two decades ago. The West’s relations with the rest of the world continue to become more confusing, and more complicated, making it difficult for effective communication to take place to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems, such as wars, aid, and terrorism.

According to Heather Carreiro’s article What’s a Critical Language and Why Study One?, a critical language “is a term used in the US to designate languages for which there is large demand for language professionals but little supply.” Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Chinese Hindi, Farsi, Hebrew, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, and Urdu are all considered critical languages by the American government, giving you at least sixteen different languages from which to choose. You may be wondering which critical language I decided to start studying in college. I chose Russian.

Before answering the question: why learn a critical language?, I am going to give a little bit of my background as to how I became inspired to learn a difficult language like Russian. In high-school, I had the opportunity of taking three languages, and happened to have a German, and a French teacher who had learned Russian in college. Oftentimes, they would write in Cyrillic on the board, so that their students could not understand the mysterious messages, or notes that they found to be important. This not only intrigued me, but also made me want to learn more about the Russian language, and about the cultures associated with it.

My high-school had offered two years’ worth of Russian study for many years, but, due to budget cuts, was cut out of its curriculum. Being the passionate language-learner that I am, I was upset by this loss. I could not believe that it had decided to take out one of the most widely-spoken, and important languages in today’s world. Curiously enough, my German teacher had taught both levels of Russian, and had a degree in teaching this language. Although my efforts to bring Russian back into its curriculum failed, my teacher was kind enough to teach my Honors German III class how to read and write in Cyrillic, as well as some of the basics of the language. Many of my classmates became fascinated with a language that not only had a different alphabet, but that also had grammar, and words completely different from English. This intrigued many of us, and our love for it continued to grow.

Last summer, I was blessed to go to Concordia Language Village’s Russian language village in Bemidji, Minnesota for its 12 day high-school summer immersion program. I had already attended the French, German, and Italian language villages in previous summers, but wanted to go a critical language’s language village before turning 19 (you can only go to their villages as a villager until you are 18). Since I had already had some experience with the alphabet, I decided to continue with Russian. Other than knowing some basic words and phrases, and feeling relatively comfortable reading and writing in Cyrillic, I had never been surrounded with the language for more than just a few minutes. 

I was placed into the second level with younger villagers who had already learned other languages. After just a few days of singing in, learning food vocabulary, and only being surrounded by Russian, I started to translate what both of my teachers were saying from Russian to English, and from English to Russian. This is because I learn best when I am completely immersed in a language, and when I am forced to express myself, and ask questions in my target language. One of my teachers was older, and lived in Russia, so her English was very minimal. This gave me an appreciation for the culture even more, and pushed my brain’s limits to speak in more than just broken Russian. I will forever be thankful for her kindness, and patience with my class, and with all of the girls’ in my cabin.

After those twelve days were over, I gained incredible friendships. I had met a girl whose goal is to be the first astronaut to Mars, a girl who was half Russian, a girl who had been adopted as a baby from Russia, a girl who had pointed to Russia on a map as a young girl and who had loved learning about Russian culture ever since, and a girl who had been adopted as a teenager from Ukrainia. I had trained my brain to learn a completely new alphabet, and to start learning vocabulary that was very distantly related from both of my mother tongues. I had gained a greater appreciation for misunderstood, and misrepresented countries, and had disregarded most of the stereotypes that had been ingrained in me at a young age.

Last summer, my family was fortunate enough to get a first taste of Russia by visiting Saint Petersburg. Despite my limited Russian, I was able to read menus in Cyrillic, and to understand signs that were around me. I was even able to understand most of what the security guards were saying at the airport, making me less nervous to travel to Russia. Fast-forwarding to now, I am currently in my second of Russian. Having had several years of experience with German, I had the advantage of understanding Russian grammar before even learning it. For example, both languages have a case system. Most of my classmates had never learned the Cyrillic alphabet, and had never learned cases. This made me feel more comfortable learning difficult grammar, and words that were completely foreign-sounding. My knowledge of five other languages has facilitated, and sped up my learning of Russian, despite many of the roadblocks that I have already faced.

Going back to the question: why study a critical language?, it is completely life-changing. It opens you up to a world, and to cultures that you would have never otherwise fully appreciated, or understood. It allows you to meet incredible people who come from all kinds of backgrounds (as I have already mentioned above), and to meet others with whom you would not otherwise be able to communicate. Most people who speak one of the fourteen critical languages recognized by the American government do not speak English. In fact, most of them only speak their native language. Learning a critical language would not only set you apart from your friend group, but also from your peers, and from your colleagues. Very few people take the time to learn one, allowing you to set yourself apart.

I have found that studying Russian at the university level has an even more rewarding experience than all of the other languages that I have learned. This is because I have made progress at a slower pace. Whenever I improve, it feels as though I have made leaps and bounds in terms of progress. Every time that I understand material, it makes me realize that, with a positive mindset, drive, and dedication, anyone can master a critical language. 

Another perk is that there are only nine of us who are learning Russian at my level. Our classroom sizes are much smaller from those of more commonly taught languages, making it easy to have strong relationships with our professors. If you are thinking about learning a critical language, college is the perfect time to do so. I have already gone to Russian Table to practice my conversational Russian, have watched Russian films, and have labs for an hour once a week for extra practice. There are thousands of scholarship opportunities for you if you study a critical language. You have the whole world at your feet. 

Have you now been convinced? Do you want to push your brain’s limits, and step out of your comfort zone? Russian is by far the most difficult language that I have learned, but have learned it in a very safe and supportive environment. Learning a different alphabet has made my brain more malleable, and more willing to learn completely different material.  I have developed a new personality, and, most importantly, have learned that Russian-speaking countries are friendly, welcoming, and very happy that you are taking the time to learn more about them. It is time for the word stereotype to not be a word that is in our vocabulary. Instead, we should take the time to learn about cultures different than ours, and explore that they are not as different as they may seem on the surface.