I was catching up on my reading at The Root and read Rebecca Walker’s ruminations on the languages she might teach her son, Tenzin.
I’ve always loved languages.
I learned Spanish in high school by translating passages from One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. My mother bought a house in Mexico around the same time, and between my high school teacher and Miguel Partida, the man who managed the house and with whom I spent many hours discussing roofing tile and hot water heaters, I became fluent. I talked my way out of a Spanish prison with my Spanish (don’t ask), and expressed my admiration to former President Vicente Fox and his wife Marta when unexpectedly seated next to them at an event.
Years later as an undergrad at Yale, I studied Swahili because I had traveled to East Africa and fallen in love with someone who spoke Swahili, but also because I was studying post-colonialism and underdevelopment, and thought I might later work in that part of the world. From my knowledge of Swahili, I was able to pick up a tiny bit of Arabic, and now, following my love of language, I can say “hello” and “how are you” and “your child is beautiful” and “thank you” in about a dozen languages, including Thai.
All this to say, we’ve been talking about languages for Tenzin. I met Nathalie Jorge of Professor Pocket at a speech a few years ago. She gave me her Spanish for kids CD, and it has since become Tenzin’s favorite. He loves to sing about “los animales on la granja” and how there are no “dinosaurios” on the farm. I’m looking forward to bringing him with me to teach a writing workshop in Barcelona this summer for full immersion.
But we’re thinking about languages for the future. Read more…
Walker’s article made me feel embarrassed. Embarrassed–because while I think achieving fluency in languages other than one’s mother tongue makes interacting with and understanding other cultures easier, and that it is the height of arrogance and a mark of racism that most Americans can speak English (barely) and nothing else, the knowledge I gained during my six years of Spanish instruction some 20 years ago has faded. I can still read a little Spanish–enough to understand most advertisements targeting the local Latino community, but not enough to hold a conversation with a real human being. My tongue trips over the language that I learned, but never really used. A great example I am to my stepson, J., who is studying Spanish now. I can preach about the importance of learning at least one other language, but I’m not such a sterling role model. So, yeah, I’m embarrassed.
But Walker’s post also gave me an epiphany: Understanding another language and making sure that your offspring does too should be one of the fundamentals of anti-racist parenting. What better way to encourage respect for other races and cultures? Being able to greet someone in their native language is a very basic way to saying “I value you and what you have to offer.” So, it’s not too late to polish up my Spanish and maybe branch out into other languages. I can learn along with my son. We can watch telenovelas together and rent Spanish films. Ha! Looks like I’ve got another New Year’s resolution brewing.
Walker asked her readers:
What languages are you teaching your children and why? How are you teaching them? How is it going?
I’ll add this: How important is language study to anti-racist parenting?
For me, as a white woman, the time I spent abroad studying German gave me some insight on what it means to be in the linguistic and cultural minority. Even though I was in a European setting where people largely looked like me and the culture was not *that* different from what I was used to, the two years I spent there definitely increased my understanding of the experiences of visible and invisible minorities in the United States.
Anyone who says that “they” should “just” learn English should “just” try to become fluent in another language themselves!
Tami, this is a really interesting question–that of how important knowing a language is to anti-racist parenting.
First off, I don’t think you should be embarrassed about not knowing a second language well. If you live and work in the US, and don’t travel out of the country very often (or at least to countries where English isn’t the primary language), then I can see why your language skills would be rusty. I agree there’s value in knowing languages, but languages only stick with you when you have occasion to use them.
So, my take on this is to find a way for your son to actually use the language he learns too.
I’ve always wondered why people think English is easy to learn. Look at the literacy we have in America compared to other countries.
I do think teaching a different language is very important to keeping an anti-racist child, and to show them to embrace other things that are different than their own particular culture.
That being said, I try to teach her a bit of the Korean I do know, and also try to encourage her to do Spanish. Her mother is better at Spanish (almost fluent) and so I leave that to her.
I grew up speaking Haitian Creole in the home and in middle school I began taking French which later turned into one of my majors in college. Learning another language has always been the norm for me. My six year-old goes to a French immersion program where I think they have attracted people from a variety of cultures. When a parent who removed her son from that school was telling me how her son was made to feel ashamed of speaking a different language in his new public school and therefore made a comment to his mother how she should be speaking only English as well, I realized how fortunate we were to have our daughter in an evnvironment where it is perfectly normal to speak another language, have an accent or just come from somewhere else.
So, I completely agree, multilingualism is fundamental to raising an anti-racist child.
I think teaching another language is very important. We use American Sign Language in our house along with English. Sometimes, my husband talks to our son in Spanish, which is really cool. I took a lot of Spanish and Italian in school and can understand a lot and read it pretty well, but my speaking skills leave much to be desired…
What a good post. I don’t speak another language (just a TINY bit of spanish). My son is still not even speaking english but we plan on teaching him at least one other language. Spanish first, but we would love for him to learn other languages as well.
I couldn’t agree more with the sentiment that one of the best ways to show you value cultures other than your own is to learn the language. Especially in our culture when so many immigrants get the message to speak english, or else.
Tami – you are so right on with this post! At this point, my kids know more Tagalog than I do and certainly are gaining ground on the amount of Spanish they know, too. As my older daughter is just learning to read, it’s a good reminder as to just how difficult the English language is with all the crazy rules that just don’t make any sense. I, too, have always said I was going to “learn Tagalog and brush up on my Spanish” when I “had more time” and this post makes me realize the different context my lack of language holds as an anti-racist parent. I love the part about how learning other languages — well enough to actually know how to say more than what’s just in commercials — shows others that you appreciate who they are and their own cultures.
Looks like this is the push I needed to get off my @$$ and actually do the work it takes to work on my language skills!
Short answer: Very, very important.
I absolutely feel that knowing a language other than English is an essential element of anti-racist parenting (and essential to a lot of other things as well, but I’ll not get into that here). Bonus points if that language is spoken by a frequently stereotyped minority (e.g. Spanish, Arabic), but simply getting deep into another culture the way one can do only in the language of that culture breeds curiosity, humility, and global understanding…all qualities I associate with anti-racist people.
All kinds of doors open when you know another language. I could write a book on how my fluency in Spanish (gained in my late twenties) changed my life, from no longer viewing Latin@s as “other”, to my views on immigration, to my appreciation of Latin pop music. And when you are close to a culture primarily found in another country, language is an important part of the preservation of that culture; I’m glad that I grew up hearing my parents speaking Taiwanese and Mandarin and am functional in those languages as a result.
The hypocrisy of people who insist that everyone learn English and yet bemoan their monolingualism is stunning. English is the dominant language in this country—hence making foreign languages difficult to learn—precisely because wave after wave of immigrants were forced to assimilate, cutting all connections to their countries of origin. And yet here we are, continuing to insist that recent immigrants do the same. I, for one, am glad that the expectations are changing, and I’m glad for the opportunity and encouragement to become competent in yet more languages as my community evolves.
I’ve spoken foreign languages to my children from the time they were born. Even when they don’t understand me, I think it’s good to emphasize that there ARE different languages, and that people should not always expect to be in a position to understand everything around them. We sent our older daughter to a German-American immersion preschool for two years, and now both our girls take Mandarin and Taiwanese classes once a week. I also frequently read children’s books in other languages to them. I not only intend to continue their language studied, but have them see me continue mine as well.
I do recognize that learning languages is not as easy for some as it is for others. But it’s the response to that difficulty that matters. Do we say, “Oh, well, too hard for me to deal with”—a frequent response to racism by white people, I might point out—or do we recognize that the difficulty is in part due to a unfortunate situation we (as a country) created and have the power to change? I encourage all anti-racist parents to emphasize foreign language study in their children. And as this is my primary hobby, I’m happy to help however I can those who feel daunted by the idea.
PureGracefulTree, aka Language Lover
http://languagelover.blogspot.com
I don’t necessarily think that our children speaking a second language is an anti-racist activity. If you are interacting with a community that doesn’t operate in English, then yes, respect would indicate that an effort should be made to learn the language they are speaking. But the value is only real on an individual level, rather than a broad effort to speak another language.
That said, I am 100% for children speaking a second language. However, even in a household that is bi/multi-lingual, children often revert to English if they are in an English speaking culture. My children, for example, hear only Dutch from their father, and English from me. We live in Australia. Yet even if we start a conversation with them in Dutch, they only answer in English. So while I value raising our children to be bi-lingual, the reality is that it is very hard to do so, past initial vocabulary, unless they are immersed in the language. Put us in Holland for a couple weeks and they start speaking Dutch, but here in Australia, English always wins.
In her first paragraph Kohana said more eloquently and succinctly what I wanted to express. Language is just one part of cultural understanding. I guess I’ll be contrary and say that I don’t think it is a critical part of anti-racist parenting and I don’t think that those of us who have lost our high school Spanish should beat ourselves up TOO much. I’ve seen adults who think they are sensitive and open minded just because they speak another language. I do think language instruction is great for kids though and it is something I hope to encourage.
I also have to comment though on the class privilege that comes through in almost each sentence of Ms. Walker’s post. A lot of people may not have the resources to ensure that their children can learn another language, but anti-racist parenting is something that is available to everyone.
I do not believe the English only argument or the, “why try” they revert to only English argument. In our house my husband speaks English to our children and I only speak Spanish. I will not acknowledge anything said to me in English just like he will not acknowledge anything said to him in Spanish. It works very well. They also take Mandarin classes and they are picking up the language. It is not impossible if you stick to it. Children are sponges, they will absorb languages at a very fast rate. They will also get away with only speaking one language if given the opportunity.
FirstTime Poster,
I agree about the privilege bit. The other side of this discussion is that, for a lot of Americans, access to good language instruction is difficult. And, frankly, learning fluent French takes a back seat to putting food on the table. I don’t really think our society it set up to encourage multi-lingualism. I could be wrong. I’d be interested to hear from someone from a country where many people are bi-lingual. How does it work where you are? Does the fact that American culture is so pervasive around the world contribute to the fact that so many people out side of traditionally English-speaking countries can speak our language? I imagine that has to play a role.
I appreciate the attention paid to class privilege, as that is something I have and too often forget I have. Access to good language instruction does often require some financial resources, but that doesn’t mean foreign language acquisition is impossible. I think of it a lot like music and the arts, which I also view as essential to a complete education but are also given short shrift in underfunded public schools. You might not be able to afford private instrument lessons for your child, but you can expose him or her to different kinds of music from different cultures. Similarly, complete fluency in another language may be difficult to attain without immersion schools or travel, but there are low-cost ways to learn a language: find a conversation partner, take a community class, befriend a native speaker.
I’m American and would also like to hear from those brought up in other countries, but I absolutely believe that the difficulty of becoming multilingual in this country has to do with ethnocentrism. In places like Europe, people speak several languages because they have to. In the U.S., as I mentioned earlier, assimilation historically included abandoning one’s native language, and in California where I reside, there is much animosity towards people who don’t speak English. I think we’re slowly getting to the point where the Hispanic and Asian populations will be big enough that being monolingual is a disadvantage, but I don’t think we’ll see huge numbers of people learning Spanish or Chinese or Hindi until then.
I have to disagree with PureGraceful Tree a bit here.
The U.S. may come across as being antagonistic towards speaking more than one language but it is the ONLY country without a national language. Most countries have found that having one nationalized language was to the country’s benefit – not detriment. China has myriads of different languages and dialects and yet Manadrin is mandatory in schools and English is second as the most taught.
Multi-languages in most countries seem to be from the school system itself. And English is the number one language of choice in other countries. There are more English-learners in this world than English-speakers. My husband has two friends from high school, one took French, the other Spanish. As adults the Spanish learner works with a French company and the French learner works in government in California. So the question becomes do you learn a language just for the benefit alone or for it to be useful in the future.
That being said – my mother-in-law didn’t teach her children Spanish because of the negativity surrounding Spanish speaking in the 70′s.
My son has truly benefited from learning another language on a whole lot of levels. One of the first lessons I heard him express was an anti-racist one. He corrected someone who tried to mock the the Mandarin language by pretending to speak Chinese. He told the person that was racist. Learning Chinese Mandarin has taught him an appreciation of all the things he already loved about their culture but didn’t know it was associated with a culture, a country and a people. Now he knows that Kung Fu, Avatar and Jackie Chan are not just television shows, movies and characters they come from a culture and people that have existed for thousands of years. And those beautiful characters are not just beautiful they actually mean something and it takes years of study to learn to read and write them. Learning this language has definitely broaden his horizons about other cultures and other nations.
I also learn with him and sometimes I study at work. An older gentlemen at work asked me one day how was learning Chinese going to help me get ahead. I knew he meant at my company but I answered him at how it was helping me with my son, and myself and it shut him down because I think it also gave him a larger perspective thab getting ahead in corporate America something we all need to really think about.
I think that being able to speak another language certainly facilitates anti-racism, but it does not automatically go with anti-racism.
There have been a number of instances where my family members (native Spanish speakers) are speaking with White people (in English) and the White people will respond and slip in Spanish words, which to me comes off as extremely patronizing. It happened to my boyfriend once, as well, and his first language is Portuguese!
I can only echo what some others have said that I really don’t think that speaking another language or teaching it to one’s children makes any white person more anti-racist or more enlightened about anything.
I am a white American woman married to an Urdu speaking Pakistani origin man and we live in a third country. I speak several foreign languages, including the language of the country in which we live, and also my husband’s native language of Urdu. I also speak Urdu with both of our daughters. After becoming aware of issues of anti-racism, I can analyze myself and other white expats I have seen in my life abroad. All I can say is that it takes being aware of the racial issues, not just speaking another language.
By learning Spanish your child will have a head start in having more employment opportunities in his/her future as an adult or even before starting college than those of their classmates or peers. A little knowledge of Spanish can go a long way for preparing your child for the “Big World Out There!”