Language as a Literacy

 At a young age, I was always fascinated with the fact that various cultures around the world had different lifestyles. I would ask my parents questions (often annoying them) when I wondered why a stranger in public wore different clothing or spoke differently than I did. “Weird” my young self always thought. “Why don’t they speak the same way I do or dress in a t-shirt and shorts?” My young self failed to understand the diversity a completely different culture can offer, especially in terms of their language. Everything from grammar, syntax, and even phonemes (the smallest unit of sound in a language) assemble to create a language that is just as unique as the people that speak the language. 

We’ve all grown up learning a language that is specific to where we were born or the type of family we were raised in. And then, of course, as we develop and our minds begin to grow more and more complex, we learn the different ways to construct our words, and sentences, which then develop into paragraphs, a richer vocabulary, and beyond. Once you reach a certain age, you become so proficient in that language you feel that you can communicate with the world around you just as easily as your parents once did when you were learning how to walk. However, one language is just the first piece of the puzzle. You understand what is going on in your language and culture, but what about the strangers you saw at a young age that spoke and dressed differently than you? Do you understand what they’re saying? Do you even know why they dress like that? These are questions I am still trying to answer as I travel to other countries and interact with those from unique backgrounds.

At the beginning of my 7th-grade year, I first began learning Spanish on an educational level. No, it wasn’t quite a flight to another country, but it was the start I needed. The “Spanish 1” class I took in Junior High School introduced me to the language fundamentals, which I quickly picked up on. I can still recall the
song Señora Schelp taught us to remember the alphabet and the days of the week. I would shout, “LUNES!, MARTES!” to the top of my lungs, followed by “Ah, bay, say, che, deh, eh, efe” as my curiosity for the language began to show. At that point, I thought I was already ready to take the next step and start speaking Spanish to my friends at school. I wanted to understand what it felt like to speak Spanish and communicate with the families of my friends that I’ve grown up with for years. “I know how to speak Spanish! Now I can understand what my friends at lunch are saying!” I would think to myself. I was sorely mistaken. As I mouthed sounds of the Spanish alphabet to my Spanish-speaking friends, I realized that I had only scratched the surface of having an in-depth understanding of the language. From that point on, the process of learning another language changed from an educational level to interacting with those who know the language best. In order to actually comprehend the language in the context of its culture, I had to identify with native Spanish speakers. My Spanish teacher, Dr. Towson, put it best, “In order to fully interact with a culture in another language, you first have to understand the cultural context of the language”. 

So I sought to do just that. At the age of 15, I went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic with my church, where I took every opportunity I had to fully surround myself with the native people. The experiences I had eating the food home to the Dominican, visiting the homes and churches of the Dominican people, and actively talking with them in sports, religious talk, and family made learning a new language clear to me in a new way. It's like I was actually able to see the words I recently learned come to life. It was almost like a play. Sounds become words. Words become people. Then people speak words back at me to which I then responded. Being able to just say a few words here and there does not even begin to encompass the bigger picture of learning a new language while also diving into the context of sentences and words as it pertains to its culture. This is the key to grasping the deep attributes foreign languages and cultures offer.

These experiences that you go through not only uncover the hidden meanings within both the culture and language but also become unique to you. Another person can learn the same language you learn, however, he/she may take a totally different approach than you did. They may have lived with a family that speaks a certain language in order to learn the language while also living a similar lifestyle. Another may have grown up learning two languages but is lacking the ability to speak one of them fluently. Either way, the way you approach understanding language/culture allows you to think about the world in a different way. Native Spanish speakers, for example, have a lifestyle of Hispanic culture. They are raised eating the food, learning the dances, and wearing the clothes that have stuck with their family for generations. They BECOME part of their own culture while also contributing to a culture that is ANCESTRAL. Being born into the culture gives one a sense of possession, belonging, and responsibility to identify with your people and pass down your heritage. For Native English speakers, however, it's different. As stated earlier, looking from the outside in is completely different than interacting from the inside. English speakers rarely see the lineage that runs within Hispanic culture. Of course, they see a diverse lifestyle, however, they sometimes fail to realize what it means to be a part of the bigger picture. They can still interact and participate in the various practices, however, they are partaking in something so that they can understand it. They aren’t fulfilling their generational duties that come with being part of a culture, but are rather identifying and then grasping the idea of passing traditions down generations.

From all of the experiences I’ve had interacting with native Spanish speakers in order to better understand the Spanish language and culture, I hope to one day be able to speak fluent Spanish so that I have a deeper connection between myself and the native culture. I hope that in be able to speak fluent Spanish, I can communicate more effectively with other Spanish-speaking people at a future job as well as offer a median between my own culture and theirs.