Why Being Bilingual is Beautiful: Beautifully Bilingual

Hello, returning and new readers and welcome to my latest post. Before getting into this week’s post, I wanted to apologize for my lack of content these past few months. As a  second semester sophomore in college, I wanted take everything in and fully enjoy one of my last semesters on my college's campus before embarking on a journey to study abroad for an entire academic school-year. That being said, it is now summer, which means that more consistent content will be on its way. I am planning on posting once a week from now on and am excited to say that I will be writing blog posts about my experiences in France and Italy, in hopes to reach fluency in French and Italian, so make sure to stay tuned for them. 

“Testing one two, one two, yeah, not one, but two, como tú. You know it’s true. Dos idiomas son más and it’s getting big, we’re reaching critical mass. Nuestro mundo de dos mundos será el mundo. When mundane is something unknown and nobody feels alone…”

I have recently been thinking about topic ideas for this week’s post and have come to a realization about just how much being bilingual has impacted my life. To this day, I thank my parents for every waking hour spent with me speaking to me in their mother tongue. I thank them for their patience, love, and dedication to never give up despite what societal norms may be thought out to be. I thank them for taking me to music lessons with a native Spanish speaker, for enrolling me in a bilingual elementary school, and for prioritizing language classes above everything else. When I say this, I hope to not give anyone the impression that I was not brought up in a household that valued a well-rounded education, but rather am thankful for having parents who supported me to take three foreign languages at my high-school and now two new languages at the college level when nobody else encouraged me to do so. At my school and in numerous other occasions, being bilingual has been looked down upon, it has been misrepresented, and, worse yet, has discouraged millions of once bilingual Americans to give up their mother tongues in order to fit in, or so they believe.

If you gain anything out of this post, I want you to know that there are millions of other bilingual and multilingual individuals out there who have faced some kind of discrimination throughout their lives, but who have persevered despite all odds and any obstacles that may have come their way. In the society in which we live, it is almost impossible to not have a week go by without having someone questioning you and your choice to preserve a part of your culture that you hold so dearly to your heart. I am here with you. I am here for you if nobody else is to tell you that being bilingual is beautiful. It is a gift with which you were born, or that you have cultivated with so much passion that you deserve to share with others and to to the rest of the world. If you are bilingual, you know that you may not belong neither here nor there, but rather to at least two different, yet completely unique worlds. As I have mentioned in another one of my posts, one of my most defining moments growing up was when I questioned my own identity. At that moment, my mom reaffirmed my love for both my English (American) and Spanish (Colombian) self and told me that I was a world citizen and she was right.

As a bilingual, you are prepared with the necessary tools to have an open mind, an open heart, and most importantly, the ability to understand others’ thought processes when nobody else can. I am still a firm believer that the most thought-provoking, deep, and meaningful conversations of my life have all been when speaking to another person in their native tongue. Even though we have technology and dictionaries, I have never been able to replace any of those tools with real human interaction. I will give you a short anecdote of a recent experience that I had this past semester when teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to a Salvadorian family. Despite gaining more experience teaching English and practicing English with the family with whom I worked, what I learned the most was the beauty that bilingualism is. My most memorable moments working with them were not when I saw their improvement in their English-speaking abilities, but rather when they asked me questions about America, our way of life, and any doubts that they may have had in their mother tongue. You could tell that any kind of barrier that that had existed prior to that moment had been completely erased. The mother instantly lost any kind of physical tension that had prevented her from speaking from the heart. Those are the moments for which I live.

When other students, or adults ask me what my future career path will be, I prefer to be transparent and say that I have no idea. On the other hand, something that I do know is that if I could leave my footprint on this world by doing one good deed, I would choose to be a mentor, a friend, and a companion to anyone out there who has been negatively affected by the current stigma about bilingualism, multilingualism, and multiculturalism. All of the negativity, the hate, and the hurt that has brought millions of other bilingual individuals down should be replaced with a constant source of love and support. My experiences teaching and mentoring children, adolescents, and adults in Spanish, French, and Italian have made me become a more tolerant, compassionate, and patient individual. I have witnessed others about to burst into tears due to fear or confusion of what was to come, because they simply could not express themselves as fully, or as transparently as they could in their mother tongues as they could in English. When nobody else encouraged my friends to continue to pursue a language full-time, whether if it was through a job, or by declaring a language minor, I was the friend to lend a helping hand. Whatever your life goal may be, let the fire and passion within you transform your life vision and dedicate your life to making that goal become a reality. You are our future. We are our future.

We need more bilingual individuals to share their compassion, their understanding, and their creativity in order to solve some of the world’s most complex twenty-first century problems. Mistranslations can often lead to misinterpretations, tension, and uncertainty instead of mutual comprehension, a genuine desire to understand other points-of-view, and most importantly, the incredible ability to reach others’ minds, souls, and hearts. Being bilingual is a feeling that you cannot describe. It is a way of life like no other, allowing you to have full communication with family members and friends around the world with little to no boundaries. I hope that you continue to share your gift with others and to not be ashamed of who you are: every living particle that makes up your being, including all of your mother tongues.

If you are interested in reading more of my posts about my bilingualism, make sure to give these previous blog posts a read:

5 Benefits of Bilingualism: Why You Should Be Bilingual: http://switchinglanguages.blogspot.com/2016/02/5-benefits-of-bilingualism-why-you.html 

Raising Your Kids Bilingually:

http://switchinglanguages.blogspot.com/2016/03/raising-your-kids-bilingually_2.html

How are Language and Culture Related?:

http://switchinglanguages.blogspot.com/2016/04/language-and-culture.html

The Power of Language:

http://switchinglanguages.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-power-of-language.html

Personality Changes When Speaking Multiple Languages:

http://switchinglanguages.blogspot.com/2016/02/personality-changes-when-speaking.html

How Language Brings People Together:

http://switchinglanguages.blogspot.com/2016/07/how-language-brings-people-together.html

The Power of Language

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." 

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.