Language Seminar

 This week in, we got a seminar sheet for “Swimmer Race Seminar” and one of the topics was language. After reading the book and watching the movie, I understood the impact language can have on a person. This impact made me think about when the underlying meanings of my family switching between languages, since we switch regularly but only at particular times.

My family uses Arabic as a barrier with English speakers when we are out in public. Sometimes, we want to say things only to each other and don’t feel it has to be heard by others. This could be something as simple as “I have to use the bathroom” or “Did you lock the car?.” It’s just a habit, neither bad or good. People think we are saying bad things about them, but it’s simply because we don’t feel the need everything has to hear what we want to share to each other in public. This isn’t always the case but when most English speakers hear a foriegn language, they are quick to think someone is speaking bad about them. The most common example of this is at the nail salon when the nail technician speaks in a language like Chinese and all you’re thinking “is she is talking poop about me?”. Am I a culprit of assuming this? Sure. Who isn’t. However I try to be more more mindful, considering my family speaks Arabic when we are just talking normally sometimes. Some would say switching to Arabic in an unnecessary instance is our one of our refugee reflexes. Also I Speaking Arabic and English has been the norm for my entire life. 




Comments

  1. Ryeo-Won KimDecember 8, 2024 at 2:09 PM

    Hi Tara! I really liked your take on being mindful of what we’re thinking when other people are speaking different languages. For me, I speak mainly Korean with my parents but I switch around a lot when I talk to my sister, and it never occurred to me that other people might be wondering if we’re talking about them. I think being mindful can definitely go both ways too; thank you so much for sharing your ideas with us! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. IselaDecember 8, 2024 at 6:11 PM

    Hi Tara! I love how you took from the movie and connected it to your own family, it’s such a cool idea! I also really like how you made it relatable with using the nail salon example. The connections you made were so cool to read about!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Naina DuarteDecember 8, 2024 at 7:04 PM

    I really liked your blog and how you tied language to your personal experience. I found it interesting how you talked about whenever you hear someone speaking in another language, people automatically think they are talking bad about you. This made me realize that its not true but simply because they wanted to speak their language and they have a right to do so.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Zainab SyedDecember 9, 2024 at 5:14 AM

    Connecting "The Swimmers" with your personal experiences with language barriers was a really good idea! I love how later on you used a very relatable experience, thats on a familiar platform, to further emphasize your point.

    ReplyDelete

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