Author: Abel Nguyen
In Shivanii Mangali’s Project 1 assignment, she discusses how learning different languages allows one to connect with other people. Her father taught her that languages introduce people to new cultures, and it opens peoples’ eyes to new perspectives about life and other aspects. Language is a bridge to making other connections with people. Shivanii can understand her father when he speaks Sindhi to her, but she can’t even produce a single sentence in Sindhi herself. In Canagarajah’s book, Translingual Practice, he talks about the ever growing mixing of languages in today’s world (Canagarajah 2). As people of different places and backgrounds begin to mix and interact with one another, languages and cultures begin to interact as well. Shivanii and her family use two different languages, Sindhi and English, that are completely different from each other, and to better understand each other, her family comes to a sort of median between the two. Her parents can understand and speak English and Sindhi, but Shivanii, born in America, can only understand Sindhi. Growing up, she was around it constantly and her parents would speak to her in Sindhi all the time. This coincides with how Canagarajah talks about “polyglot dialog,” which is the mixing of languages for intergenerational contact and community solidarity. He describes that this is enabled by the “receptive multilingualism” that we all have. People understand more languages than they can actually speak (Canagarajah 5). But how does this mixing of languages really affect the interactions between people? Does it bring them closer or set a kind of distance between people? People all over the world are introduced to new cultures and languages and how they adapt and learn from it determines how well they will integrate into their new environment.
As well as applying to many others, this also really applies to my family. My parents moved to America with their families when they were only twelve years old, and my parents and all of my grandparents and aunts and uncles can speak fluent Vietnamese. As I was growing up, I was constantly hearing Vietnamese spoken around me. I never officially “learned” the language, but I could understand it whenever someone spoke to me. However, if asked to say something in Vietnamese, I would go blank. As I got older and as my family became more “Americanized,” my parents started speaking less and less Vietnamese to me. Instead, they would use a mix of Vietnamese and English to communicate to me, and I would understand perfectly. Shivanii and I process communication equally among two different languages and this doesn’t hinder us from understand our two different languages. Instead, it helps us generate more of an understanding of what has been said, thus proving Canagarajah’s statement, “the influences of one language on the other can be creative, enabling, and offer possibilities for voice.” Canagarajah also goes on to say that, “As speakers bring their diverse varieties of English to the interaction, they are developing strategies to communicate with each other without shifting to a shared variety. While using their own varieties, they adopt strategies to negotiate intelligibility and co-construct situational norms with speakers of other varieties” (Canagarajah 5-6).
People all over the world are experiencing the mixing and meshing of different cultures and languages, and although many people think this is harming traditional cultures and their identities, Canagarajah states that “languages are not necessarily at war with each other; they complement each other in communication” (Canagarajah 2). In Shivanii’s paper, she talks about how languages introduce people to different aspects of different cultures. It helps people better understand cultures in a way that couldn’t be achieved through the limited boundaries of one language. Because many people in America are from different parts of the world, it is important to not only adapt American culture but also to also to never forget your old culture. This is key because this is what defines America as a country. America is labeled as a “melting pot” because of its large diversity in culture and different backgrounds, and it is important to keep that pride in one’s past culture or language.
However, Canagarajah does not account for how people accept this median of language. Although many people find themselves within this median of two different languages or cultures, like Shivanii and myself, they are still not truly accepted at either ends of the language spectrum. Although I can understand what my relatives are saying, and even if I learned how to speak Vietnamese, I know that I still wouldn’t be fully accepted in the Vietnamese community. Although I look the same as many of them, they always give me that look of non-acceptance. The look that says, “You aren’t one of us.” And on the other end of the spectrum, Americans do not see me as a “true” American even though I was born here and speak perfect English. They still see me as “that Asian kid.” My best friend, whose parents are from Columbia, was born in America and can speak what I perceive to be perfect Spanish. However, whenever he speaks Spanish, my friends who were born in native Spanish speaking countries such as Mexico laugh at him because as they would say, “He speaks Spanish like a white boy.” Like Sedaris in Me Talk Pretty One Day, its not that I don’t have the capability to learn Vietnamese to bridge that void between my two languages, but I am too afraid to even try (Sedaris 171). I feel that it is to late for me, and I fear the laughter and criticism from my relatives if I even attempted to speak Vietnamese. However, Shivanii talks about how it is important to put oneself out there when it comes to learning new languages. She had never understood why her father was so adamant at teaching her Sindhi, but realized it after the experience she explained in her paper. She also realized that her father had to go through the same process but with English. Finding a median between American culture and her own ancestral culture has not only helped Shivanii become closer to her family, but also has helped her family become closer with their new environment as well. She describes how her father diligently learned English when he first moved to America so that he could understand American culture better. He didn’t shrink from the idea of learning something new, and instead, he took it on just so that he could come to that median between English and Sindhi so that he would be better accepted by American people.
It is important to try and get over that gap as best as possible just like Shivanii’s dad did. Although it is impossible to completely get rid of that void, continuing to further expand our knowledge and understanding of both sides will lead to further acceptance. Canagarajah discusses that “children are not developing advanced proficiency in their heritage language of Tamil, but adopting languages of their new “homes”, such as English, French, and German”. The Sri Lanka Tamil youth ‘’codemesh’’ bits and pieces of Tamil into their other languages and this brings them closer together to different aspects of different cultures. It opens their eyes to different understandings of life, people, etc (Canagarajah 5). This concept helped Shivanii’s parents as well as my own. They had to learn a completely new language and culture when they moved to America, and Canagarah describes how the process of “codemeshing” helped them ease into their new environment.
Annotating and analyzing the Canagarajah piece helped me better understand different aspects of Shivanii’s Project 1 assignment and also different aspects of my own life. He introduced simple ideas that I never thought about, such as the integration of different languages and its affect on people, and it helped me to better understand and expand on ideas from Shivanii’s project.
Works Cited
Canagarajah, Suresh. Translingual Practice. New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2013.
Manglani, Shivanii. Learning Sindhi...A Nuisance in my Childhood, A Connection in my Future. 5 September 2013. 6 October 2013 <http://shivaniimanglani.weebly.com/writing-assignments.html>.
Sedaris, David. Me Talk Pretty One Day. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2000.
In Shivanii Mangali’s Project 1 assignment, she discusses how learning different languages allows one to connect with other people. Her father taught her that languages introduce people to new cultures, and it opens peoples’ eyes to new perspectives about life and other aspects. Language is a bridge to making other connections with people. Shivanii can understand her father when he speaks Sindhi to her, but she can’t even produce a single sentence in Sindhi herself. In Canagarajah’s book, Translingual Practice, he talks about the ever growing mixing of languages in today’s world (Canagarajah 2). As people of different places and backgrounds begin to mix and interact with one another, languages and cultures begin to interact as well. Shivanii and her family use two different languages, Sindhi and English, that are completely different from each other, and to better understand each other, her family comes to a sort of median between the two. Her parents can understand and speak English and Sindhi, but Shivanii, born in America, can only understand Sindhi. Growing up, she was around it constantly and her parents would speak to her in Sindhi all the time. This coincides with how Canagarajah talks about “polyglot dialog,” which is the mixing of languages for intergenerational contact and community solidarity. He describes that this is enabled by the “receptive multilingualism” that we all have. People understand more languages than they can actually speak (Canagarajah 5). But how does this mixing of languages really affect the interactions between people? Does it bring them closer or set a kind of distance between people? People all over the world are introduced to new cultures and languages and how they adapt and learn from it determines how well they will integrate into their new environment.
As well as applying to many others, this also really applies to my family. My parents moved to America with their families when they were only twelve years old, and my parents and all of my grandparents and aunts and uncles can speak fluent Vietnamese. As I was growing up, I was constantly hearing Vietnamese spoken around me. I never officially “learned” the language, but I could understand it whenever someone spoke to me. However, if asked to say something in Vietnamese, I would go blank. As I got older and as my family became more “Americanized,” my parents started speaking less and less Vietnamese to me. Instead, they would use a mix of Vietnamese and English to communicate to me, and I would understand perfectly. Shivanii and I process communication equally among two different languages and this doesn’t hinder us from understand our two different languages. Instead, it helps us generate more of an understanding of what has been said, thus proving Canagarajah’s statement, “the influences of one language on the other can be creative, enabling, and offer possibilities for voice.” Canagarajah also goes on to say that, “As speakers bring their diverse varieties of English to the interaction, they are developing strategies to communicate with each other without shifting to a shared variety. While using their own varieties, they adopt strategies to negotiate intelligibility and co-construct situational norms with speakers of other varieties” (Canagarajah 5-6).
People all over the world are experiencing the mixing and meshing of different cultures and languages, and although many people think this is harming traditional cultures and their identities, Canagarajah states that “languages are not necessarily at war with each other; they complement each other in communication” (Canagarajah 2). In Shivanii’s paper, she talks about how languages introduce people to different aspects of different cultures. It helps people better understand cultures in a way that couldn’t be achieved through the limited boundaries of one language. Because many people in America are from different parts of the world, it is important to not only adapt American culture but also to also to never forget your old culture. This is key because this is what defines America as a country. America is labeled as a “melting pot” because of its large diversity in culture and different backgrounds, and it is important to keep that pride in one’s past culture or language.
However, Canagarajah does not account for how people accept this median of language. Although many people find themselves within this median of two different languages or cultures, like Shivanii and myself, they are still not truly accepted at either ends of the language spectrum. Although I can understand what my relatives are saying, and even if I learned how to speak Vietnamese, I know that I still wouldn’t be fully accepted in the Vietnamese community. Although I look the same as many of them, they always give me that look of non-acceptance. The look that says, “You aren’t one of us.” And on the other end of the spectrum, Americans do not see me as a “true” American even though I was born here and speak perfect English. They still see me as “that Asian kid.” My best friend, whose parents are from Columbia, was born in America and can speak what I perceive to be perfect Spanish. However, whenever he speaks Spanish, my friends who were born in native Spanish speaking countries such as Mexico laugh at him because as they would say, “He speaks Spanish like a white boy.” Like Sedaris in Me Talk Pretty One Day, its not that I don’t have the capability to learn Vietnamese to bridge that void between my two languages, but I am too afraid to even try (Sedaris 171). I feel that it is to late for me, and I fear the laughter and criticism from my relatives if I even attempted to speak Vietnamese. However, Shivanii talks about how it is important to put oneself out there when it comes to learning new languages. She had never understood why her father was so adamant at teaching her Sindhi, but realized it after the experience she explained in her paper. She also realized that her father had to go through the same process but with English. Finding a median between American culture and her own ancestral culture has not only helped Shivanii become closer to her family, but also has helped her family become closer with their new environment as well. She describes how her father diligently learned English when he first moved to America so that he could understand American culture better. He didn’t shrink from the idea of learning something new, and instead, he took it on just so that he could come to that median between English and Sindhi so that he would be better accepted by American people.
It is important to try and get over that gap as best as possible just like Shivanii’s dad did. Although it is impossible to completely get rid of that void, continuing to further expand our knowledge and understanding of both sides will lead to further acceptance. Canagarajah discusses that “children are not developing advanced proficiency in their heritage language of Tamil, but adopting languages of their new “homes”, such as English, French, and German”. The Sri Lanka Tamil youth ‘’codemesh’’ bits and pieces of Tamil into their other languages and this brings them closer together to different aspects of different cultures. It opens their eyes to different understandings of life, people, etc (Canagarajah 5). This concept helped Shivanii’s parents as well as my own. They had to learn a completely new language and culture when they moved to America, and Canagarah describes how the process of “codemeshing” helped them ease into their new environment.
Annotating and analyzing the Canagarajah piece helped me better understand different aspects of Shivanii’s Project 1 assignment and also different aspects of my own life. He introduced simple ideas that I never thought about, such as the integration of different languages and its affect on people, and it helped me to better understand and expand on ideas from Shivanii’s project.
Works Cited
Canagarajah, Suresh. Translingual Practice. New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2013.
Manglani, Shivanii. Learning Sindhi...A Nuisance in my Childhood, A Connection in my Future. 5 September 2013. 6 October 2013 <http://shivaniimanglani.weebly.com/writing-assignments.html>.
Sedaris, David. Me Talk Pretty One Day. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2000.
Living Multilingualism by Abel Nguyen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.