Hello, everyone and welcome back to my blog! Though it has been a while since I last posted on here, I am excited to talk about a topic that I hold very dear to my heart: practicing multilingual worship to grow in my faith as a Catholic. No matter what your religious background is, I highly encourage you to read this post in its entirety, as it may benefit you, or someone you know.
For those of you who know me, I am very involved in our Christian and Catholic groups on campus. In fact, I am currently a Worship Team leader for our Intervarsity chapter on campus. So far, our worship team has sung songs in Spanish, French, Italian, German, and many different African dialects, but I hope to make our space even more diverse and inclusive during my last semester at Dickinson.
I have found that my faith has been spiritually, physically, and emotionally healing over the years, especially this past year, as I have been suffering from chronic migraines. That being said, I found worship music and specifically contemporary Christian songs to be my saving grace.
While I was abroad, I lost one of my grandfathers in Italy and had to pray for over a month for my health to get better in Cameroon. Though both of these instances were very emotionally draining, music healed me. It gave me hope that someday I would be cured and that I would feel better.
Given that languages are one of the most important parts of my life, I find international Christian music to be even more empowering. Not only am I increasing my vocabulary, but I am also working on my pronunciation, cadence, and tone. As I am sure most of you have noticed, learning a language is hard, but singing an entire song in a language that is not your first language is even harder, but even so, if you push through the highs and the lows throughout your language-learning process, you will persevere. You can even learn how to change your voice and the rhythm of a song when you become fluent in a language. That is one of the most rewarding parts of the process for me.
A lot of you have asked me what means the most to me and that is hands down my faith, so if you are currently on a faith journey, feel free to join me in this journey together. You may just be in the process of understanding what Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, or another religion means to you and to your identity, or you may be comfortable with that part of who you are. No matter where you find yourself, I highly encourage you to start incorporating worship music into your life.
You may be asking yourself, "That's great, Laura, but exactly how can I do that?"The easiest way to do so is by typing up "([INSERT RELIGION] worship songs" in your target language. Start listening to some songs that pop up. They will most likely be some of the most recent, or popular worship songs for your particular religion and once you start feeling comfortable with some of the songs that you listen to, make it a goal to learn a song by heart.
Start off by looking up unknown words to slowly build your vocabulary. Practice it consistently and take it as slowly as you need to. It may take you a day, or three months to fully memorize a song, but the point is to never give up. Who knows? Maybe you will even develop a closer relationship with God, or with a higher being in the process.
As a bonus, I am sharing the link to my favorite Italian worship song that I sang while I studied abroad in Bologna, Italy in Fall 2017 (SEE ABOVE).
Starting at a young
age, I have been fortunate enough to be exposed to different kinds of people
and places around the world. I will admit that, at the time, I did not think
much about it and simply embraced it as an important part of my everyday life.
Over a decade later, I am sharing my personal experiences and stories of what
has arguably been the most powerful gift that I have ever received, and, that
is the power of language.
Language is what I look
forward to as soon as I get up in the morning and before I fall asleep at night. It
is what keeps me motivated and what gives me drive in everything into
which I put my energy and in everything that I want to accomplish. Language is
what allows me to reach to communities and individuals that I otherwise would
simply pass by without having any kind of interaction.
Language is what allows
me to be flexible, curious, independent, and a good teammate. Language is the
glue that holds my family together. It is what keeps us alive, healthy, and
positive. It gives up hope for a better tomorrow, hope that we will someday reunite
despite the distance that separates us.
Language is what has
set me apart from most of my classmates. It is the tool that I have used in
order to hear others out in times of distress and in times of hopelessness. It is what I listen to whenever I am teary-eyed and miss my parents while at college.
Language is what keeps me alive and what allows me to think about situations
through different lenses. It is what could allow me to talk to over 1.4 billion
of the world’s population. Now, that, is incomprehensible, powerful, and
unique.
Throughout my life,
and, especially now that I am an adult, I have had a hard time coming to terms
with what I consider to be my identity. The United States considers me to be
Hispanic or Latino, but, when someone asks me who or what I am, I respond that I
am Colombian. As much as I want to fully consider myself Colombian, I have
never lived there and mostly know about my homeland through my parents’ stories
and through the trips that I have had, yet I do not completely feel American,
and do not completely feel Colombian-American. One day, I talked to my mom
about my confusion and asked her for advice. She said “Laura, if you do not
consider yourself any of the above, you can tells others that you are a world
citizen.” Although I only heard those words once, they completely changed my
life. Whenever I feel lonely or frustrated with who or what I am, I say that I am
a citizen of the world. I can say that because of my gift to communicate with
many people around the world.
Now that my freshman
year of college is almost coming to a close, I have never felt more like myself
or happier than I do now. I no longer have to hide part of myself, or pretend
to be someone with whom I do not feel comfortable. I have enjoyed
going to German and to Russian Table on Tuesdays, to Italian and Spanish
Table on Wednesdays, and to French Table on Thursdays. I have watched films, have eaten
meals, have written, spoken, and read in 7 languages. I have written essays,
read novels, have analyzed, and have had to think critically in 4 languages,
and continue to keep in touch with my friends who live in over 20 states and 20
countries in 5 continents.
In high-school, my family hosted students from New
Zealand and from Thailand, and have childhood friends from Puerto Rico, Colombia,
Mexico, and Venezuela. I am blessed to have gone to a bilingual elementary school
for Spanish and English and to have studied 3 languages in high-school and 3
new ones in college. I have also become closer with the teaching assistants and
professors from different countries by speaking to them in their mother tongues.
It is what gave me a scholarship to college, it is the reason why I was
recognized for academics in high-school, and it is why I am who I am today.
As the video above
says, language is what bridges gaps in communication and in cultural exchange. Precise
meanings of what you are trying to convey oftentimes get lost in translation,
but feeling and thinking in another language can help you get beyond that. Language
is what reaches to other people’s hearts and what allows you to have another
shoulder on which to cry. I cry, ponder, question, respond, and react in a
different language depending on the situation in which I am and with who I am.
The
beauty of it all is that I do not have to rely as heavily on someone else to
get out of a situation, or to understand what is happening around me. Whenever I
am in a diverse city, I overhear fragments of conversations around me, allowing
me to have the world at my hands.I, along with other polyglots, are nowhere
near perfect, but we do share something in common: the ability to reach out
to others no matter what their needs are.
Now, more than ever,
we need people to live in peace together, but we cannot even begin to solve our
world’s problems if we cannot communicate with each other. Communication is what
has bridged gaps and has taught me the importance of being patient and
respectful of individuals who practice, believe, or think differently than I do.
Over the years, I have learned to become more tolerant and adaptable to almost
any kind of situation. Even a simple “have a nice day”, or “I hope that you
feel better” can make all of the difference in the world and can brighten up
somebody’s day. It can make someone who is homesick feel loved and welcomed, or
can help someone escape his or her country. It is hard, time-consuming, and
requires patience, but that is what makes it rewarding and worth it.
Language is by far the
most powerful tool that my parents gave me and that I have fostered. It is not
only a part of me, but it is also what I embrace. For better or for worse, I know
that I can continue to bring individuals closer together and avoid confusion
and misconceptions from taking place. I believe that this world can become a
happier place and know that we can change our lives and the lives of others by learning
to respect each other. Language is what will ultimately make this dream become
a reality. Dream. Believe. Achieve. Now, that, is the power of language. I will end this post with my all-time favorite quote by Nelson Mandela: "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart."
