When it comes to the topic of my experiences with language and literacy throughout my life, I feel as though it is difficult to select a singular experience that truly defines my relationship with language. However, I also feel as though the accumulation of my experiences with language at home, more specifically my experiences learning both English and Spanish simultaneously, have caused me to have a greater appreciation for language, as well as the value which it holds.
I feel as though anybody’s experiences with language almost always begin at home, and the same is true for me. My experiences with language and literacy have largely been shaped by the fact that both of my parents are Dominican immigrants. Being that the case, obviously Spanish was largely prioritized at home, and I can even recall my mother telling me that when I was a child, my parents never spoke English with me. After all, it made no sense to – my parents communicated with each other in Spanish, and my grandma, who also lived with us, only spoke Spanish. Despite this, I could never truly say I was especially confident in my Spanish literacy skills. Sure, the exposure to another language allows you to have a pretty decent understanding of speech and text and whatnot, but I was never truly fluent in it. I still interacted with my classmates in English, all of the shows I watched were in English, most of the world with which I interacted was in English. Despite the fact that Spanish was the language I grew up constantly hearing at home, I still always consider English to be my first language. I feel as though this being the case, it becomes obvious why I never really became “fluent” in Spanish. I was never forced to develop my skills in another language, and I was never really challenged, by my family members or otherwise, to push myself to become more fluent. The result of this was that for a long time, I could only really say I somewhat knew Spanish, and I oftentimes avoided speaking Spanish so as to not embarrass myself. I was also very shy as a kid, which no doubt contributed to my hesitancy to speak Spanish. As is the case with any language, the only way to improve your Spanish is to speak it, and combine the aforementioned factors with the fact that I was also not especially outgoing, and it becomes clear why my relationship with my parents’ native tongue was one which was defined by fear and avoidance.
I feel as though as I got older and gained more awareness of the world around me, I began to develop a deeper appreciation for literacy and language as a whole. Without a doubt, part of what kind of forced me to garner a deeper appreciation for literacy in another language was taking an AP Spanish course in high school. Being in a class where the expectation was a little higher (because most of the people in the class were native speakers), I feel as though for the first time, I was actually kind of pressured or forced to embrace that aspect of language and kind of do better for myself. I would regularly have to respond to prompts in Spanish, both verbally and in writing form, and since it was in an academic setting, I was more forced to put effort into achieving a good grade. This extrinsic motivation, in my opinion, contributed largely to my appreciation for literacy, and the languages which bind communities together.
I feel as though when you’re a kid, your parents always tell you that x or y or z is important, and sometimes you don’t understand the full picture until you’re a little older. While this can be applied to so many different topics, in this case, I feel as though it can be applied to language, literacy and culture. Ever since I was a toddler, my mom took me with her on her trips to the Dominican Republic, and especially in the past few years, my parents have made more of a conscious effort to try to visit at least once a year. The reason I mention this is because a commonality between different forms of literacy and language is that they are often intertwined with culture – that is, there can be a distinct culture associated with a particular language of literacy experience. As such, I feel as though my progress in developing my Spanish skills has allowed me to connect with and garner an appreciation for the culture of my parents and family members. This being the case, I can now, in retrospect, reflect on and appreciate my mother’s efforts to establish that connection within me to my roots. Now that I am a little older, I can appreciate her for always speaking to me in Spanish and making sure I knew where I came from. I feel it is important we highlight the connection between language and culture, so as to further appreciate the significance language has. While we might rarely give thought to the ways in which we interact with others, it is important that we take a step back once in a while and consider just how significant language and literacy can truly be, as the ways in which people choose to express themselves or communicate reveals a lot about that person and their upbringing. I believe my experiences with Spanish are significant in that they have caused me to more thoroughly appreciate just how important our words are, how important it is to be connected to one’s culture, and the ways in which language can be indicative and reflective of culture. I mean this in the sense that as I got older, I started to understand how and why language could be such an important thing for people, especially immigrants, as it allows them to hold on to their national identity, and gives them a venue to express their culture, seeing as language is molded by culture.
I feel as though something else which contributed greatly to my linguistic development, both as a child and into today, is one of the things which I mentioned in the previous paragraph. While I can’t pretend to portray my experiences as being entirely unique or especially interesting, I will say that it is perhaps the universality of my experiences which makes them significant. I am referring to the experience of being the child of immigrants, and some of the pressures which accompany that, for lack of a better term. From my experience, as I got a little older and began to become somewhat more conscious of some of the things around me, I began to feel this kind of weight or pressure on me. More specifically, I feel as though there is this necessity to carry forth one’s culture, especially when your parents are immigrants, and part of that is definitely language. After all, I feel as though language and dialects are an avenue through which different people express their cultures. As such, part of what drove me to want to better understand Spanish was that desire to continue the culture which my parents established and tried to instill in me. I feel like especially when your parents are among the first in their family to migrate to a new country, in my experience it makes it feel as though it is up to you to kind of carry the torch so to speak and keep the language and culture alive. This is part of what forced me to reconsider and evaluate my relationship with language. Another thing which contributed was learning more about different dialects. For instance, Dominican Spanish is known for having a set of conventions which you would not find in other forms of Spanish. What’s kind of interesting about this is that when I got to the point where I was taking Spanish classes in middle school and high school, I had realized that my perception of the language was “warped” to some extent, which is to say that my understanding of what “standard” Spanish is was shaped by what I had grown up hearing and listening to around me. I didn’t know growing up that there were different Spanish dialects, I just assumed that there was one correct way of speaking it, which was the way my family members spoke it. For instance, in Dominican Spanish, the “s” is often eliminated from the end of syllables, which causes words and sentences to sound different compared to what you might hear from other dialects. So for instance, if somebody were to ask you “How are you?” in Spanish (Como estas), they would probably say “Como esta’/e’ta’, and a typical response would be “e’toy bien”. Furthermore, different regions in the Dominican Republic also tend to have differences in dialect, and these subtle changes to the language were not something I was consciously aware of until I got older because once again, I thought that was just the right way to speak it. For instance, in the capital (Santo Domingo), around where my dad is from, the “r” at the end of syllables is often pronounced as an “l”. So words like “puerta,” “fuerte,” and “amor” become “puelta,” “fuelte,” and “amol.” In addition to this, in the northern region of the country where my mom is from, often called El Cibao, the “r” and “l” at the end of syllables is often pronounced as an “i”. So words like “él” become “éi” in pronunciation, and “puerta” becomes “pueita.” In addition to all of this, there are some words which aren’t used in other types of Spanish. Words like zafacon, bizcocho, and guagua, for instance, (trash can, cake, and bus) are pretty much exclusively used in the Dominican Republic, and I still acutely remember the shock I had when I discovered in my AP Spanish class that other Spanish-speaking countries didn’t use “bizcocho” to refer to cake. For the longest time I subconsciously carried these aspects of the dialect with me without knowing that not everybody spoke like that, and it was once I realized that that was something unique to Dominican language and culture, I became more appreciative of dialect and language as a whole. As such, this kind of forced me to rethink the way in which I went about learning the language, seeing as I could now appreciate the reality there was no singular right or wrong way to speak it. Much akin to the texts which we have read and examined in the class so far, the truth is that different people groups will form their own dialects and put their own spin on a language to truly make it their own. And I believe this to be the true beauty of language and linguistics – the fluidity of it.
