What’s that word?

Language and language learning have always been constant and crucial parts of me. I was born into a family of Polish immigrants, the first Canadian-born baby in my family. My family, by choosing to teach me Polish from day one, set me on a course that would forever change my life. 

Since I was little, my life has been split into two. Polish was spoken at home, with my family, and English was used everywhere else. I watched the same movies repeatedly in both Polish and English; the same deep, rumbling Polish voice-over for every Disney and Studio Ghibli movie I watched. I wish I could say I was already curious about languages, but for the first ten years of my life I simply split my time between those two languages. I didn’t realise how amazing it was that I spoke Polish at home. I just knew my favourite people in the world were my grandparents, and they all felt more comfortable talking to me in Polish, so I returned the favour. I didn’t think about languages as something to actively learn outside my family until I was in the fourth grade. My teacher gave everyone a sheet with the title, “Consider your child for Extended French.” I enrolled myself, much to the hesitancy of my parents. 

My mom and dad were excited for me, but I knew they had no way of helping me with a language neither of them knew. Instead of letting that stop them, or me, my parents decided to help me as much as they could with my French. We spent evenings practising my vocabulary, occasionally watching French movies, and listening to my mom’s favourite French singer, ZAZ. I only realise now that learning a new language can sometimes be an intergenerational effort. My parents wanted me to succeed, and so they took time out of their days to help where they could. With the help of my parents and my teachers, I became dedicated to French and really fell in love with it. I’m now majoring in French Language Learning. Now it’s my turn to help my brother as he navigates his French classes. I’m glad I can help when he has questions, because I feel like I’m paying back my parents for their efforts. 

I was practising three languages by the time I reached high school. When I was in grade ten, I noticed I was eligible to take an introductory Italian course. I took the course, because I wanted to impress my uncle’s family next time I visited them. My aunt married into an Italian family, and I thought learning a bit of Italian would be a nice way to connect with them. My curiosity for the language stemmed from a place of connection. I wanted my uncle’s family to laugh and feel that sense of recognition when you hear someone speaking your native language. I also knew it was hard for my uncle’s family to find a community of Italians when they moved to Canada. I fell in love with Italian, and the other side of my double major is Italian studies! 

Now you know so far that I have a connection to the languages I decided to learn, usually because of my family. So why bother with this feature? Before starting on this article, I wanted to write something about intergenerational languages and language loss. When I started English in elementary school, I lost my fluency in Polish. While language meant connection for me, it also meant loss. I love Polish, but I’ve always had such a strange relationship with it. Although I spoke it most of my life, towards high school I began feeling inadequate in the language compared to some classmates who attended Polish school. I like connecting with this part of my identity, but I find I can be incredibly insecure in my Polish and sometimes I don’t even want to try. It wasn’t even until recently that I realised how much I need to actively work at preserving these abilities. This realisation came in a few waves. The first wave was my cousins. My Polish cousin and her husband live with us. I want to talk to them in Polish, but I sometimes find I lack the vocabulary I need to express myself the way I would in English, for example. The second wave of realisation concerns my grandparents. As I get older, I want to talk to them about the intricate concepts I learn in school, their lives, or anything. In these scenarios, I see myself stumbling over words and using anglicisms.  

Many of my family members rely heavily on, or simply prefer, using their native language. I need to work on my fluency daily, so I can really cherish moments with my family and make them more comfortable. I need to work on it, because it is so easy to lose a language you don’t actively use. I see my parents, born and raised in Poland, occasionally forgetting words in Polish. It’s hard work, but it’s work I’ve decided to undertake, so I can preserve the language my family has been speaking for generations. I choose to work towards fluency, so my family can tell me who they are in a way that they feel comfortable and confident.

The stories of people in our lives, those who came before us, and those yet to come are rooted in our ability to communicate with the same tongue. Like my professor Dr. Mohammad Jamali cited, “Languages live the lives of their speakers.” It is a privilege to connect with someone on a linguistic level. On a trip to Poland in 2010, I met a lot of my extended family. During those two weeks, I could see how happy my extended family was that their loved ones valued Polish enough to speak it with them and continue speaking it. 

On that trip, I was lucky enough to meet my great grandma. When I look back on it, this was the moment I knew I had to keep using Polish. Babcia (grandma in Polish) Stasia was already 80 years old when I met her. She was my grandpa’s mom and she was so happy to meet me. We spent days in her garden, eating wild strawberries, and tending to her chickens. I don’t remember everything from that trip, but I remember my babcia being so kind and making me laugh. To this day I can’t describe how happy I am that I got to meet her. I can’t tell you how glad I am that my parents taught me Polish, so I could make those memories with her and hear about her life. She passed away in 2016, may she rest in peace. For me, language means connection and growth. For others, language could be a necessity, a burden, a painful reminder, a hobby, or anything else. I do think language can be one of the most powerful tools to connect people, like I was able to connect with my family in Poland, with teachers, or my parents. 

That being said, no matter how dedicated you are to the study of language, there is the looming obstacle of translation. It is impossible to seamlessly translate. The debate is, do you stick to the most correct version of a translation and risk losing the nuances of the original language? Or do you respect the nuances of the original and risk getting a less than faithful translation in return? In my experience, I really think it depends on the situation. When I translate things for my family, or explain words I learned in another language to them, I try to be as literal as possible, so it makes sense logically. When I’m working academically, I think there are benefits to leaving the nuance, even if it means the translation isn’t perfect. 

Here I am talking about connection, languages, and translation, and yet I don’t think you have to have a deep connection to a language to be curious about it. Have you ever heard someone speaking in a foreign language and wanted to know if they were talking about you? Have you ever seen a sign or heard a song you didn’t understand? This is the basis of curiosity. Curiosity, a desire to understand, learn, or know something, is deeply entangled with language. Based on what I’ve learned, language learning is especially beneficial when you have a curiosity or desire to learn it. Not everyone is privileged enough to learn a language because they want to, it can be from necessity, but if you’re into a language as a hobby, curiosity is crucial. Whether it be because of family, academics, or something more personal, the drive to learn a language is already half the battle. I suffer from a persistent curiosity and hunger for languages. I live and breathe my languages, both for interpersonal and academic reasons. 

The art of learning a language is more complicated than it seems. Languages are their people, cultures, histories, victories, and defeats. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that learning a language is a waste of time. At the same time, don’t forget languages are deeply personal. I love learning my languages, but they are tied to painful memories, and I have to keep working at them, so I don’t lose them. Because language is so engrossed in people and their lives, our curiosities have to be taken with caution. With the desire to learn a language, knowing the history and nuances of that language is vital. If a language intrigues you, learn it! But be conscious of the real experiences and connections people have with languages, whether their native tongue or an acquired one. As language learners, it is our job to be respectful of the nuance and power dynamics at play in language.