Year of graduation: 2003
Language(s) studied at HASD and number of years of study: Spanish, 5 years (8th-12 grades)
Language(s) studied in college: Spanish (one semester; placed into “5th semester” course but elected to take “4th semester”)
Major/minor in a language: Cognitive Science (required two years’/four semesters’ worth of competency in a language) and Sociology (no language requirement)
Study or internship abroad: N/A
How has your study of a world language at HASD and beyond been a part of your professional or personal life? Please explain:
Professionally, my Spanish skills have helped me in my pro bono legal representation of a child for whom Spanish is his first/primary language. My client came to the United States two years ago and now seeks asylum in the U.S. because returning to El Salvador would put him at great risk of being caught in the middle of widespread gang violence. Although my client has learned a good deal of English in his school here in Washington, D.C., his parents speak very little English—so my ability to write and speak in Spanish help me to communicate with my client and his family. I have been able to understand what he has told me about his reasons for seeking asylum, and I have been able to explain to him and his parents what is going on in the legal proceedings. I think it brings them great comfort to be able to converse with me in Spanish—even though my vocabulary and grammar may be somewhat limited! Sharing a common language helps them to feel less intimidated by confusing legal processes.
Personally, my study of Spanish has helped me both at home and abroad. When I first moved to D.C., I lived in a vibrant, diverse, and “gentrifying” neighborhood: my neighbors included established African-American families, shared group homes full of young people, and a large number of Spanish-speaking immigrants. At the Latino grocery store, at the neighborhood restaurants, and at the bus stop, I was able to communicate with my neighbors and business owners. Now, I live in a different neighborhood, but my cleaning lady and I send each other text messages in Spanish in order to set up appointments, and I share daily greetings with several Spanish-speaking staff members at my office.
I’ve been lucky enough to travel to several Spanish-speaking countries—among them, Belize, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and most recently, Cuba—and being able to communicate in Spanish has certainly made those experiences more enriching. When I was in Cuba this summer, I was often “forced” to communicate in Spanish, because only a handful of people (even in the touristy parts of Havana) spoke anything more than a few words of English. It was exciting to find that most Cubans, who have very little contact with the world beyond the country’s borders, were eager to speak with me, to tell me about their culture, and to ask questions about life in America. I spoke with bici-taxi drivers, museum docents, and owners of private restaurants (“paladars”), and I’m certain those conversations would have been stunted, at best, if I didn’t use them as opportunities to speak in Spanish, even with some fear of saying the “wrong” thing.
Why do you feel it is important for students today to gain proficiency in another language and culture?
Language is an important part of someone’s identity—something we take for granted until being placed somewhere out of our comfort zone, where others don’t share the same characteristic, makes it salient. When traveling somewhere unfamiliar—whether a few blocks west into a different neighborhood or to a country on the other side of the globe—being able to share even a few words with someone can make them more likely to trust you, see that you value them and their culture, and open up broader lines of communication. And it’s hugely important for us English-speaking Americans, who find that we’re so often catered to abroad, to show that we’re willing to cede that position of power and acknowledge that we’re no “better” than anyone else simply because our language has come to be the dominant one in business and popular culture.
But I don’t think you need to move to a big city or go to another country to find value in gaining proficiency in another language and culture. First, both from my own personal experience trying to learn Spanish and from my studies in Cognitive Science and, specifically, language acquisition, I’ve learned that there is something unique about the process of language learning that is different from learning math or science or history. I know that learning Spanish starting in grade 8, I will likely never reach fluency—and oh, how I’m jealous of those who are starting in 2nd grade, in the midst of that “critical period” for acquiring another language!—but I still enjoy exercising my brain in a way that is distinct from other academic disciplines and far afield from my day-to-day work in law. Second, as suggested above, exploring another language and culture encourages us to be self-aware, to acknowledge the privileges that we hold as English speakers, and to have insight into other cultures that are rich in history and play important roles in our contemporary world.
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