Book Review of "Through the Language Glass", by Guy Deutscher

Hello, everyone and welcome back to my blog! For those of who you are new, my name is Laura and I’m a polyglot. Throughout my life, I have studied and spoken a total of 7 languages. In fact, I love languages so much that I’m a college senior majoring in Italian Studies and minoring in French and Russian Language. But even so, as much as I enjoy what I study, I acknowledge just how urgent and important it is to preserve all languages and their respective cultures- not just those that are commonly studied and are considered “dominant cultures”, or “world languages.”

Given my passions, my mom gifted me a book titled Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages, by Guy Deutscher for Christmas. As I first started reading it, I was a bit hesitant as to whether or not I would like it, but decided to push through. I’m so glad that I did.

Despite traveling for 20 days total over break, I finished this book in about a week, which is fast for a slow reader like me. I simply enjoyed what the author had to say and could not take my eyes off the page. 

This book is about more than just linguistics and language. It’s about the beauty and power of celebrating cultures different from your own. If you read all 239 pages of the book, I can guarantee that you will have a better understanding of how culture influences our thought processes and way of life and vice-versa. You will ultimately have a better grasp on how we think and why we think the way we do.

Guy Deutscher explains these phenomenons primarily through the following concepts: the perception of color, the perception of space, and how gender influences how we view the world around us. He is by far one of the most well-read and clever linguistic authors I have come across so far, as he combines bits of history and culture to formulate his thoughts about and draw conclusions on how diverse and rich languages are on all corners of the planet.

This book’s chapters are quite long, but I didn't mind them, given that each chapter has a very detailed analysis of the study of linguistics and how it has evolved over time. I especially enjoyed the examples that he gives of languages that I have studied, as I was able to understand the cultural and historical context behind certain words, or sentences without having to look up their English translations.

However, I must admit that my favorite passages were those that mentioned tribal languages and “non-world-languages” about which you rarely learn in school. After finishing this book, I realized that though we are more similar to each other than we would think, we should not discount the millions of ways in which we can perceive the world. It’s not always black and white, or as standard as you would think. For example, many languages don’t have cases, two genders, and nouns. Some languages don’t even have a past, or future tense.

When thinking about these examples through a western lens, it may seem odd, but once we break down cultural and linguistic nuances of certain languages, we often find ourselves questioning how our own mother tongue functions and why it functions the way it does. These are the kinds of puzzles and mind-games that you will be able to solve if you get your hands on this book. I promise that you won’t be disappointed.

Until next time! // Hasta la próxima! // Jusqu'à la prochaine fois! // Bis zum nächsten Mal! // Alla prossima volta! // до следующего раза! // Até à próxima!

Love,

Laura

Review of The Novel “Mother Tongue”

I am very excited to say that this is my first book review on this blog. Although I have read many books about languages in the past, I had not started my blog then, but recently read a novel, which I was thought was worth sharing to any aspiring language-learner. The reason why I decided to review “Mother Tongue”, written by Christine Gilbert, in particular was because I could see its relevance to anyone who happened to find this blog.

Starting off with its cover and its description “My Family’s Globe-Trotting Quest to Dream in Mandarin, Laugh in Arabic, and Sing in Spanish” automatically catches your attention and makes you curious about how she reached to that point in three completely different, and what are oftentimes considered to be difficult languages for native English speakers. Christine takes you on a journey living in Thailand, China, Lebanon, and finally in Mexico by dedicating an entire part to all three countries, as well as mentioning her occasional temporary visits and stays in Thailand. Her commitment of doing so demonstrates her careful attention to detail, and all of the research that she had done prior to writing the book about multilingualism, bilingualism, the cognitive benefits of acquiring languages by a certain age, and about polyglots.

What is quirky about this book is that her mission was to raise her child bilingually, so that he could speak at least two languages natively as a child. Without spoiling too much, her journey takes its twists and turns as she realizes the challenges, the rewards, and the peaks of teaching herself some of the world’s most highly spoken languages almost completely from scratch. My favorite lines that I believe best summarize the novel are: “The gift of language is…opening up your worldview. If we want to prepare our children for the future- one that will no doubt be more globalized than ever- then that broadened sense of identity is the most useful tool a young person can have. It makes them adaptable, it helps them think about issues across cultures, and it will be a required skill for the next generation of workers” (Gilbert, p. 270).

You may be asking yourself what distinguishes this novel from other language-related novels, and this what I have to say. Christine’s and her family’s experiences differ from most in that she and her husband were monolingual before embarking on a lifelong journey and commitment to living in communities with their locals abroad. Instead of simply living in Beirut and only interacting with Americans, Christine made a sincere and conscious effort to use her Arabic skills in markets, in restaurants, and, most importantly, in her everyday life.

If you were looking for an enjoyable read that mixed scientific data and findings about multilingualism, along with real-life anecdotes of a monolingual who eventually became multilingual in many respects, then I would highly recommend this novel. Feel free to write your personal opinions after reading this novel in the comments down below.

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.

Raising Your Kids Bilingually

In my opinion, one of the most beautiful gifts with which you can grow up is being raised bilingually, whether it be having parents who have two separate mother tongues, or parents who share the same mother tongue. In my case, I grew up with Colombian parents who started speaking to me in Spanish since the day in which I was born. Many of my friends have been surprised to find out that I did not start learning English until I was three years old, mostly by watching television shows, and by having American friends in pre-school.

My parents played music, bought me books, and read to me in Spanish. They taught me the most important Christian prayers, introduced us to our family members at a young age, watched movies, and watched television series in Spanish. All of these simple activities are activities that you do in your everyday life, which shows how easy it is to raise your children bilingually, especially in the United States, where you have access to many books, music, television series, movies, and other items in other languages. Due to globalization, you can buy almost anything in another language if you feel that you do not have enough resources, or toys for your children in your mother tongue right around the corner.

Most importantly, my parents were never ashamed of being immigrants, of being Colombians in the United States, or of speaking Spanish to their children. It was a normal everyday occurrence for me that I will forever treasure, especially now that I have many friends who did not have this opportunity growing up. Having connections to my family, and communicating with my parents in Spanish gave me strong enough reasons to never resent this ability, and made my overall learning experience more special, and meaningful. I associate Spanish with my family, and with many of my bilingual friends growing up. It has also helped me set myself apart from many of my classmates, and has strengthened many of my friendships with other Hispanics who shared similar experiences growing up.

Although I do not have experience as a parent, I wanted to share my personal experiences of how my parents raised my sister and I, as well as share some reasons why I believe that it is a shame that some bilingual parents do not raise their children bilingually. Below, I will give you simple solutions to solving some of the most common problems that I have noticed many bilingual parents make with my friends, or acquaintances. In many cases, it is resentment, or conforming to societal norms that shies many parents away from doing this, but may also result from the popular belief that raising your children bilingually will end up causing more harm than good, primarily because it “confuses your children”, and “slows their progress in the language of the country in which they live.”

There is no doubt that some of these myths are true on a case by case basis; however, I believe that if you start to speak your mother tongue to your children from the very beginning, you will end up with very satisfying results: children who can comfortably switch from one language to another. You should only speak to them in your mother tongue, and avoid using the language of the country in which you live as much as possible, so that your children do not think that they can, or should respond to you in that language. For example, my parents never spoke to me in English, and have only started to say certain words in English until recently (since they have lived in this country for over two decades). This never gave me the assumption that they spoke English well, or that they should simply use English instead of Spanish when speaking with them.

I will give you a short list of some of the most common mistakes, and how you can fix them:

1. Giving Up Speaking Your Mother Tongue to Your Children After Several Years

There have been many people that I have met throughout my life who have told my family that they spoke their mother tongue to their children until, let’s say age three, and then decided to only speak to them in English. One of the most common reasons is, because their children would often respond to them in English, which made the parents feel offended, or frustrated. In this particular case, what ends up often happening, is that the parents give up, and start incorporating more English, and less of their mother tongue as the years pass by. Although it can be a lot of work at times, I encourage you to find friends, or talk to people who have successfully raised their children bilingually, or who are trying to do so. In this respect, you will have emotional and moral support, and can get tips from parents who have already experienced what it is like to raise children bilingually, and can learn more about the benefits that it can give your children.

2. Not Speaking to Your Children in your Mother Tongue Because It Will Confuse Them

Despite the fact that some research has shown that this is sometimes the case, one of the easiest ways to avoid this from happening is by only speaking to your children in your mother tongue from the start. For example, if your children speak English in school, and with their friends, but speak Spanish with their parents, they will eventually separate the two languages, because different parts of their brains will associate specific sounds, and words for each language. If you find that your children are having a hard time distinguishing the two, and mixing them up, you can put them in language classes (ex: Chinese School, or take them to French lessons at a nearby institution for children).

If you are lucky enough to live in an area that has bilingual schools, then that is an even better option, and will allow your children to have a complete immersive experience in both languages. In my case, I went to a bilingual elementary school for Spanish and English, and had all of my subjects in both languages. This allowed me to have a strong foundation in reading, writing, speaking, understanding, vocabulary, and grammar in both (feel free to read my blog post titled "5 Benefits of Bilingualism: Why You Should Be Bilingual" if you want to read more). You can also have playgroups if you are lucky to have friends who also speak your mother tongue. Playgroups are groups with parents who have children who speak the same language. I went to playgroups for Spanish when I was little, and was able to speak to my friends in Spanish in a fun environment: through play, which did not feel like work to me.

3. “My Partner Does Not Speak my Mother Tongue, so I will not speak it to my Children”

This point is very complex, and a bit trickier than the first two, but there are still ways to successfully get around it. For example, if you have a dad who is a native French speaker, and a mom who is a native Spanish speaker, the most ideal situation is that the child is spoken to in both French and in Spanish. How you would best go about this situation is by having your children speak to their dad in French, and to their mom in Spanish. If the children speak to both parents at the same time, you can compromise in several ways. 

If you live in the United States, where English is spoken, you can have your children speak to you in English, or you can choose either one of your mother tongues. This situation may sound confusing, and you may think that it could confuse your children by having them speak three languages at once, but many parents have done so with little to no problems. I had a friend growing up who spoke French to her dad, Spanish to her mom, and English with everyone else, and is considered trilingual. This would give your children an even bigger advantage in life.

    4. Wanting to Conform to Societal Norms and Speaking Your Country’s Language

It can be very tempting to not want to speak to your children in your mother tongue, especially if you are a first or a second generation individual, or if you are mostly surrounded by families who only speak the language of the country in which you live. You may be afraid that you are not going to fit in, that you are going to be looked down upon, or that you will have a harder taking making friends if you spend most of your time speaking your mother tongue instead of the other language. Believe me, it is hard, and there are many excuses that could discourage you from doing so. However, you should try to resist any temptations, even if you are the only family in your neighborhood who speaks your mother tongue. 

If you are afraid of being discriminated against, you can decide to switch to another language in uncomfortable situations, but retain speaking to your children in your mother tongue elsewhere, especially at home. You can also gain support from your family, friends, or neighbors who have a love for, or who speak that common language. The gift that your children would receive would be much more rewarding than throwing it down the drain simply because you, as a parent, were too afraid of doing so.

5. “I am not a native speaker of [language], so I cannot speak to my children in [language]”

This point is interesting to bring up, because it is oftentimes not mentioned. There is a common belief that you can only raise your children bilingually if you, and or if you, and your partner speak a common language as a native speaker. If you classify yourself as a bilingual speaker, or as someone who speaks more than one language fluently (most likely the national language(s) of the country in which you live), you are just as qualified as, or more qualified than native speakers of a language. 

Oftentimes, individuals who group themselves into either of these categories have lived in countries where their languages are spoken, have studied abroad, or have done intense language study. If this is the case, then you can speak to your children in the language in which you are fluent, and continue improving in it. Even if you do not know as many words, or idiomatic expressions as a native speaker, you are still capable of easily expressing yourself in another language, and can elaborately express yourself in it. Raising your children bilingually would allow them to develop a passion for language learning early on, because they would find out that their parent(s) decided to dedicate a lot of time into becoming fluent in another language, or becoming a bilingual individual.

Whether you are a current parent, a future parent, a bilingual speaker, or a speaker who speaks more than one language fluently, you have all of the resources, and all of the knowledge that you need in order to raise your children bilingually. As I mentioned above, you do not have to be a native speaker of more than one language in order to do so. If you take away one point from this blog post, it will be that it is important to think twice about why you are considering never teaching your children your mother tongue, (or another language), or stopping yourself from doing so after a while.