Language
In different households everyone has their own way of communicating. From the first glances of a smile and loving eyes as a baby to the fumbling of words in our later years, language has a necessary impact in our daily lives.
The words we hear and choose, identify us and mold our understanding of yourself and others. The words you speak at your home differ from the ones you use to interact with the rest of the world. Yet everyone has their own way of communicating whether it be from a different nation or time, language is a universal connection that unifies us but can limit our understanding of each other.
Language influences you in many ways. Some subtle like the surprised stares from others when you speak your mother tongue to some that manifest in ways we might have not noticed. People play a significant role in each other’s lives, think of how you speak to those closest to you and now think to the shift in dialogue and candace in your voice when speaking to a superior or colleague at work. Experiences and events of the past can show us the dismissive and sometimes devaluing attitude in society toward people not fluent in English.
Similar struggles are echoed through different people and time which come together to form a familiar experience amongst immigrant families. Recently I read Amy Tan’s ‘Mother Tongue” and it amazed me how these struggles are reflected in the world and ripple through different cultures and people. Stories out of her life seem to be coming out of my own although being in different parts of the world. Amy Tan recalls “My mother has long realized the limitations of her English as well. When I was fifteen, she used to have me call people on the phone to pretend I was she´. Memories like this resonates with myself and many others who have also felt desperation and inadequacy while trying to quickly translate bills and issues of documentation over the phone. The frustrated sighs on the other line and parents asking “what it really is we learn when we go to school” rushes feelings of urgency and difference in a child. Amy Tan also suggests that “students, as a whole, always do significant better on math achievement tests than in English. And this makes me think that there are other Asian-American students whose English spoken in the home might also be described as “broken” or “limited.” Whether conscious or unconscious, a forced perspective is pushed on impressionable children and warps how they view themselves and their place in the world.
When someone uses this dismissive and devaluing attitude toward someone it can cause feelings of depression, anxiety, and alienation in anyone. Children who are then exposed to this discrimination in their community, can stifle their healthy expressive upbringing. This shows not only when speaking with native English speakers but also when expressed with other groups and usually leads into adulthood. People, specifically immigrants shouldn’t have to give up on who they are or give up their culture in order to conform to the standards of American society, doing so is a loss of identity and culture.
However, this has also helped to bring us closer. Through language we have been able to share new information, to explore different worlds and cultures through our ears. Even now we share memories with other people and feel more connected with immigrant families all over the world who have gone through similar experiences without even knowing them. I have been able to find something more which is personal yet universal with many others who have felt the same. Language as we see has various impacts on us, it can broaden but limit our way of thinking with the outside world but brings us closer to the people who have felt similar feelings. They add defining qualities to our character, which take form in the actions that we take every day and in the way we present ourselves in the world, whether by feeling connected with people of similar values or seeing the differences in others. Knowing this helps to put them into perspective and give some explanation to them and ourselves. A unifying factor is the similar experiences we have lived and how they come together to make one, language helps create a new set of culture in the immigrant lifestyle in which we are able to connect with people and feel empathy because we have felt the same as them. Language becomes a portal to crossing nations and time that brings us closer to understanding each other.
Appreciating its role in constructing our mental lives brings us one step closer to captivating the very nature of humanity. These personal experiences with language resonate with many of us and it makes me think of everyone who has gone through the same thing in their households and the different factors that change their environment and who they are today? How will this now shape us and how we will teach our children someday? Language represents oneself and adds definition to our thoughts. Communication is essential to our upbringing and everyday expression; speech shapes us and helps bring us closer to our identity as individuals and as people.
