Today I ran into an old college classmate from a French course I took fifteen years ago. Oddly enough, I was conducting a children's program in French when she spotted me. We tried to think of people we knew in common. The only people we could come up with was a French family we each had lived with as exchange students. It got me to thinking of what opportunities I have been afforded simply by knowing another language. Not only have I had the opportunity to live in another country, but I've also taught the language. The impact I may have had on those children's lives pales in comparison to what they gave me. I befriended a Cameroonian refugee a few years back who spoke no English. French was our common language. He's since gone on to immigrate and owns a moving business. French has also served as a common thread in some cases. I hired a contractor who spoke French with a heavy Brooklyn accent -- his mother was from Bordeaux, and a Chinese guy who replaced our windows had worked as a waiter for a couple years in Luxemburg. Imaginez!
Languages are all around us and yet the dominant monolingual culture remains steadfastly just that: monolingual. Our newly ranked largest ethnic minority hails from Spanish-speaking descent, yet most Americans insist on pledging allegiance to the language, indivisible with liberty and English for all. A French proverb says that a man who knows two languages is worth two men. If that's true, I wonder what will happen to the now-dominant English-only speakers who are quickly being encroached upon by bilinguals. Something tells me those who choose to succeed will learn a second language. Those who don't will continue to argue over something so trite as [ask] versus [ax].
Sunday, 21 August 2005
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