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.
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