hilltopics
monday, april 9, 2001
images people features
2002
for comments, contact kristielliott at 864-4924 or features@kansan.com
8A
native tongues
students who grew up speaking languages other than English find comfort returning to them now story by kursten phelps kansan campus editor photo illustration by selena jabara kansan photo editor
our old teddy bear. A home-cooked meal from Mom. A hug from a friend.
Everyone has a different idea of what brings them comfort and makes them feel at home. For international students and children of immigrants, speaking their native language at a university and in a country where English dominates is one way to find a connec-
examples is one way to form a connection to their own cultures.
For Jacinta Mendoza, a Wichita junior with Mexican Immigrant parents, striking the balance between two worlds unites always soon.
"At first I spoke very little English—more Spanglish than anything," she said. "It was really hard. I felt like people were always criticizing me."
Her parents are professionals and fluent in both English and Spanish—her mother spoke English before immigrating and her father learned English in the United States. But Mendoza said she, like thousands of other immigrants and their children, has had to learn how to maneuver through an English-speaking society while holding onto her cultural roots.
"At home, we always speak Spanish," she said. "They just felt it would keep us closer to our culture growing up."
At school she speaks English, but Mendoza said it had become second nature to switch back and forth between the two languages. For her, Spanish has evolved from a negative thing that brought tears to a source of personal pride.
"I remember my teacher saying, 'She's stupid; she can't speak English,' Mendoza said. "Now, thinking back, I think she was stupid because she didn't realize my capability of being bilingual. It's definitely a positive thing."
And the connection to her roots that speaking Spanish helps maintain is something that Mendoza said she wanted to pass along to her future family.
"Idefinitely don't want to say that I'm prejudiced, because I've dated people that didn't have Latin backgrounds, but I do prefer marry someone who is Latino," she said. "I feel it's been an important thing in my life and I want to have my kids be able to say that it's important to them, too. We are still minority in the U.S. and we should be proud of who we are."
But Felix Moos, a professor of anthropology who left Germany in 1950, said immigrants and international students had to be willing to learn English if they wanted to succeed in the job.
"We're so anxious to have diversity that we don't want a melting pot where everyone is uniform and the same. People are
maintaining those cultural differences and benefiting from that variability. There are a lot of people hopeful that many of the traditions coming in will remain
strong and keep that uniqueness." Allan Hanson professor of anthropology
United States.
Raed Al-Bibissi, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, sophomore, is not an immigrant. When he finishes his degree at the University, he will head back to his home country. For him, taking advantage of his limited time in the United States and improving his English skills are priorities.
"It seems that everything depends on the mastery of English," Moos said. "The force of speaking English, thinking in English, hearing English is pretty powerful. It becomes very difficult to speak another language at home and sometimes alienates children from parents because the parents have a lower rate of learning English."
"I don't really get tired of speaking English, but it's easier to speak Arabic because I'm not perfect in English," he said. "There are some things I want to say but can't. Even though I know English pretty good, I want to practice more and more and get better and better, but sometimes it's kind of hard."
Al-Bilbissi said the diversity of the University actually caused him to speak more English. He said he only spoke Arabic when he was with Arabic-speaking students.
"When I'm speaking Arabic, it makes me feel like I have friends from Arabic countries and I feel supported," he said. "I feel the opposite of being homesick because I have people to talk to."
Rosie Lopez, Kansas City, Kan., freshman, spoke Spanish out of necessity growing up in a household where her parents, who moved to the United States from Michoacan, Mexico, spoke little English.
"It was not easy, but it wasn't that hard," Lopez said. "You just had to adapt to two cultures—one English and one Spanish."
Although Lopez said
Although Lopez said she spoke the two languages about
equally now, using "whatever comes naturally," she said if she had to pick between the two, she'd choose Spanish.
"That's what I grew up with, and it would be hard to give it up," Lopez said.
The abstract ideas of language and culture have changed in American society during the last century, especially with regard to immigrants, said Allan Hanson, professor of anthropology.
"Certainly the traditional understanding is that first generation immigrants and their immediate children strive to assimilate, and as they learn English, they let the native language go." Hanson said. "The first generation born here, then the second and third generations have a wistful nostalgia for their cultural heritage and try to resuscitate the language or some elements of their cultural heritage. That's certainly the story of 19th century immigration."
But Hanson said he wasn't sure whether the old idea of "what the first generation wants to forget, the second generation wants to remember" held true with the current immigration wave.
"We're so anxious to have diversity that we don't want a melting pot where everyone is uniform and the same," he said. "People are maintaining those cultural differences and benefiting from that variability. There are a lot of people hopeful that many of the traditions coming in will remain strong and keep that uniqueness."
Moos added that although a cultural imperative for speaking English existed in the United States, he thought the nation was moving toward greater acceptance of immigrants.
"Of course, I'm a Caucasian, Protestant male, so maybe the racism back then didn't hit me as much." Moos said. "Even today, there is some prejudice of native speakers of English that everyone should sound like them, but increasingly I think there is greater tolerance because we have a much more multicultural environment."
As the United States continues to develop its multicultural environment, more and more people will turn to language as a way to find comfort in their roots.
Lopez balances the two, but can't imagine life without Spanish.
"I guess it's just what you grow up with. I
just what you grow up with. I wouldn't be able to talk to my parents, which is very important," she said. "It's just part of our tradition and culture." — Edited By Leila Studios
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