Living in a Multilingual World

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Abstract

Radio Four’s Today programme and heard a presenter telling us about recent events in French? (just for a couple of minutes, mind, and with translation provided)

Because I’ve seen up close and personal how learning Spanish has made my two children brighter, smarter and more culturally aware, it’s harder to understand why this is not a priority in the government agenda, especially in the modern and globalised world we live in today.</p><p id="c29a">Lest we forget, let’s recall that many years ago, David Blunkett, whilst still Home Secretary, called upon foreign parents (yep, that’s me!), to give up talking to our children in our own language at home and switch to English instead. Yeah, right, Dave, well, if I had followed your advice, matey, my children wouldn’t have understood a word when we travelled to both Spain and Cuba. I wonder how David imagined at the image that one learnt a language? By osmosis?</p><div id="2a39" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/on-modern-masculinity-4ee58fdd462e"> <div> <div> <h2>What is masculinity?</h2> <div><h3>Lately I have been wondering if the mark of true masculinity can be found in a role allocated to us, men, that we are…</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*8r5wjlrdmCk

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8ELdkZWZnIw.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="936d">But it’s not just the linguistic element that one absorbs when devoted to this activity. It’s the cultural one attached to it. Language and culture journey together through the annals of a nation. The mere existence of a particular phrase or word can take you back on a historical voyage to a time and context that you were unaware of to begin with. Son, who, when little, used to translate texts from Spanish to English, discovered a world of talking rats and honest elephants. Daughter, on the other hand, immersed herself in a realm populated by capricious queens and magical whales. All in all, both found an alternative world that they could flee to and where they felt welcome.</p><div id="76a2" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/writing-in-the-time-of-covid-19-e15236d9ef61"> <div> <div> <h2>Writing in the Time of COVID-19</h2> <div><h3>Don’t raise the yellow flag of cholera. Don’t ask the captain to keep sailing up and down the river. Don’t exile…</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*dyO_I-0ExpjcPMqo_WnUrg.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

The one about the Latin connection

“‘No te pares frente a mi, con esa mirada tan hiriente, puedo entender estrechez de mente, soportar la falta de experiencia, pero no puedo aguantar estrechez de corazón” Thus sang, not 80s South American pop rockers Los Prisioneros, but my two children in the car when they were little. They took to Latin pop and rock like fish to the water. It all started with Daughter humming and then actually saying the words to Charly García’s Raros Peinados Nuevos, one of the anthems that defined my teenage years. She even pinned the lyrics to the walls of her bedroom and once in a while we gave it a good go; Charly would be proud. Son followed suit soon and Los Prisioneros became part of the soundtrack in the car most of the time. Sometimes I ask myself how wonderful it would be if we were to tune in to good ol’ Radio Four’s Today programme and heard a presenter telling us about recent events in French? (just for a couple of minutes, mind, and with translation provided) Because I’ve seen up close and personal how learning Spanish has made my two children brighter, smarter and more culturally aware, it’s harder to understand why this is not a priority in the government agenda, especially in the modern and globalised world we live in today.

Lest we forget, let’s recall that many years ago, David Blunkett, whilst still Home Secretary, called upon foreign parents (yep, that’s me!), to give up talking to our children in our own language at home and switch to English instead. Yeah, right, Dave, well, if I had followed your advice, matey, my children wouldn’t have understood a word when we travelled to both Spain and Cuba. I wonder how David imagined at the image that one learnt a language? By osmosis?

But it’s not just the linguistic element that one absorbs when devoted to this activity. It’s the cultural one attached to it. Language and culture journey together through the annals of a nation. The mere existence of a particular phrase or word can take you back on a historical voyage to a time and context that you were unaware of to begin with. Son, who, when little, used to translate texts from Spanish to English, discovered a world of talking rats and honest elephants. Daughter, on the other hand, immersed herself in a realm populated by capricious queens and magical whales. All in all, both found an alternative world that they could flee to and where they felt welcome.