Language is Key

This is going to be my final journal; and I honestly am already feeling nostalgic about it. I’ve been regularly posting my journals on my blog that I started in high school so I have a record of my thoughts in that particular time and a timeline of my mental intellectual progression.

So here goes!

This week; we went back to the basics and cracked open Richard D. Bucher’s “Diversity Consciousness.”  We learned about topics such as Teamwork, Leadership, and Communicating in a Diverse World. I’d like to share my experiences of being bilingual, or trilingual; for I can read, speak, and write English, Arabic, and Urdu in varying degrees.

We learned that, “Communication skills are a specific form of diversity skills.” (Bucher, 2010 p.154) When we have a capability to communicate effectively, it broadens our range of people we can speak to. For example, I live in Southern Maryland, which has a large population of Hispanic- Americans. Now, some of the Hispanic Americans have elderly parents of grandparents who don’t speak any language but Spanish. I remember one time, meeting my neighbor, Miguel’s grandmother while she was watering her flowers. I wanted to let her know that I thought her garden was beautiful, yet due to the language barrier I wasn’t able to communicate my words and thoughts. I felt extremely frustrated and helpless, and thinking about this, I can picture how she must’ve felt living in America where she cannot understand the majority of the people. It really narrows your world and your capacity of expression.

We see here that, “Our individual and cultural backgrounds influence the way we communicate. The most obvious example is the language we learn and use.” (Bucher, 2010 p.156) Being bilingual really is a cultural factor. When I speak in Urdu, my thinking processes and speaking tone, attitude changes, as it does when I speak English, or Arabic. It is a true blessing of languages that it engages so much of us and ourselves into speaking, not just the words, but how we change the way we think and act.

Speaking English, with which I am most comfortable with, I tend to speak louder, quicker, and with emphasis on the beginning of the words. I am confident that I am saying exactly what I want to say; therefore my style of speaking reflects my confidence, as well as the clarity of my thoughts. I think and make connections much faster as well, my thoughts are filed in my head into blunt and clear to read “files.” If I’m trying to recall a place in, say TN; I remember that it was called Gatlinsburg; and this word prompts a flood of winter break memories. And I love that about language.

Speaking and thinking in Urdu is a bit more complex. When around native speakers, It is obvious I am not speaking my native language, yet they comment on how well I speak it nevertheless. I believe I have a natural ability to just pick up little cues and mannerisms that come along with speaking a language ( like how Italians speak with their hands!) and when I speak a certain language, especially Urdu, it naturally just becomes part of my expression. Urdu is very respectful. There are certain ways you would speak to a man, a woman, a child, an elder man, and elder woman, your mother, etc. Therefore, all these rules create a sense of roundabout ways to speak. There isn’t a possible way to speak very directly in Urdu without using words that evoke a sense of rudeness. Also, some inanimate things are ascribed male and female attributes, so thus if you speak, for example to your mother about putting something on the table, you would refer to the table as a “male” noun and your mother as a “mother female noun.” Yet Urdu is melodious, and when someone speaks it well; the ideal is to express yourself in a way that the listeners feel like they were part of the process of your statements. Sounds confusing but let’s see if an example can clarify this. Okay, if I am trying to tell my mother that I bought a very expensive pair of shoes, I would explain it in Urdu that I’ve bought some shoes, but what are your thoughts on it? How do you think they look on me? Do you agree that they are suitable? And thus you relay the fact that you’ve bought these shoes, and have assured that they approved of it by involving their input into your purchase, and that you can wear them. This ideal can apply not only on parents but on friends as well; so what Urdu does is emphasizes the community above the self. Any decisions you make should somehow or someway attribute back to the community.

Arabic is an extremely beautiful language. It is the language of poets, singers, and of the Holy Quran. In Islam, we are told it is the language of the heavens; everyone in heaven will speak it, including the angels. It’s emphasizes the use of the whole mouth, throat and even chest muscles to speak it, and therefore a person experiences a sense of transcendence or a physical connection with his or her words. When I speak or recite Arabic; I feel myself falling into a pattern of thinking where I try to speak where the words meld together and create a cohesive whole. The whole ideal, when speaking Arabic is that I believe, make your thoughts seem as put-together as they sound, and native speakers will do their best to join one idea to the next so the conversation sounds like one train of thought when in actuality, it may be two or three. Reciting Arabic, specifically the Quran is very peaceful; even when one is doing is best to recite following all the methods of speaking it, from the mouth to the chest. You feel a sense of organization and a gain a bigger picture of subjects, than you would in English or Urdu.

I am, in no way speaking for the general public, these statements are of course based upon what I can infer from other speakers and from my own experiences as a trilingual speaker. I truly believe that speaking more than one language makes it easier to learn others, as well as, expand the pool of people you can meet and communicate with; which makes life that much more enriched and valuable.

Thank You,

SFK

References:-

Bucher, Richard D. Diversity consciousness: opening our minds to people, cultures, and opportunities. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.