*Languages: Spanish, English, French, Turkish
*Spanish: spoken in Latin America, Spain; English: in U.S, Australia, United Kingdom; French: in France, Canada, Belgium, etc.; Turkish: in Turkey
Lorena is a high school senior attending Meridian World School in Round Rock, Texas.
Federico Fellini’s quote, “A different language is a different vision of life,” represents exactly what I have experienced by learning four different languages throughout my life. On a daily basis I speak Spanish at home, English at school, I read French on my phone, and Turkish when I have class. My first language is Spanish because I grew up in Metepec, Mexico. The interesting thing about Spanish is its multiple dialects. Growing up in a Mexican family and with a Venezuelan aunt, I often heard my aunt saying words like “naguará” to express surprise, or “batatas” referring to my calves. Since my aunt has spent several years in Mexico, her accent has faded, but when her family visits Mexico they keep saying that we “sing when we talk,” while to us, they are the ones who are “singing”! This year, I will be visiting Barcelona, and I am excited to learn the Spaniards’ slang words and blend in as a local. Spanish is truly a beautiful language, and it doesn’t matter that it is used in multiple countries, because a word can have several meanings in the different regions it is spoken.
My second language is English, but it took me a long time to learn it. From kindergarten through middle school, I attended a bilingual school, meaning half of the day I was in my Spanish classes where they taught me Math, Science, History, and the other half of the day I learned different subjects in the English language. This education exposed me from a very young age to communicate in both, and switch between languages every day. My school incorporated American activities and traditions: every year, we celebrated Thanksgiving and Easter, and we also had poetry demonstrations and Spelling Bee competitions. Since I was born in the U.S, a common misconception that people had of me was that I knew everything about the English language, but the truth is I only truly practiced my English during the summers when I visited the U.S., and I was often expected to know everything and to excel in every test we had. As a matter of fact, I initially struggled a lot communicating in English when I visited the U.S over the summer because I lacked practice.
As I got older, my English classes were harder and incorporated more grammar structures. Therefore, my uncle, who was an English teacher, gave me the opportunity to teach English to people in our community every Saturday. This experience was fulfilling because I was helping young kids expand their life opportunities and polishing my English. To this day, I teach English to immigrant adults, and my knowledge of actually learning English in a class setting allows me to successfully teach them the right way because just like them, English was once new to me. Even though I learned English in a classroom setting, I believe that it has been challenging and rewarding. When I moved to the U.S in 2015, it was my real life test where I had to apply all of my English skills that I had acquired throughout my life. The most vivid memory I have is being scared to speak because I was afraid of messing up while I spoke. However, I realized being a foreigner was quite interesting, people judged me not only by my appearance but by my accent. Many people often asked me “Where are you from?” and they also answered themselves “mmm...you look and sound British.” I was quite impressed. Until this day, I still have a slight accent, and even though I often wanted to get rid of it, it now lives in me and makes me stand out from the crowd.
Metepec, México; Lorena’s Foundations 2017-18 Evening English Class; Lorena’s French Excellence Award;
“Güle güle” Turkish potluck
Both English and Spanish have played a significant role in my life, and today they are my primary source of communication. I volunteer for TED as an English-Spanish (and vice-versa) translator. Subtitling fascinates me: I learn so much from translating one TEDTalk because I love using both languages at the same time, it expands my vocabulary, and it allows me to practice not forgetting words in both languages. As a bilingual person who uses the languages interchangeably, forgetting words in the opposite language is quite common, but that feeling is spectacular because to me, it means that I have mastered both languages.
My third language experience came in 2015 when I had to choose a different language to learn in high school. I only had four options: German, French, Spanish, and Sign Language but French was the one that interested me because of the accent. My first experience learning French wasn’t exactly what I expected, but I was fascinated by the accent and the similarities it had with Spanish which made it a lot easier to learn. My second year learning French was indeed when I fell in love with the language and when discovered my passion for learning languages as a whole. My French teacher, Mme. Ryder, spoke French all the time unlike my past teacher, which drove me crazy at first because I barely understood. However, as time progressed I participated more because I could finally form sentences and even express opinions about somewhat complex topics. I even started relating Spanish to French in ways that ordinary people wouldn’t relate them, but it was just the way I could remember vocabulary words, grammar rules. Now I can understand French orally and reading wise, more than I can speak it, and I often practice pronunciation because my phone is in French, so I can learn everyday terms.
While in high school, I met a phenomenal person who knows five languages and excels at each of them: Shraddha inspires me to keep learning languages because her ability to pick up languages is impressive! Her language range is varied -- she knows English, Hindi, Spanish, French, Arabic and she’s working on Turkish. She sometimes even speaks better Spanish than me! Over the summer, she told me her new addition to her language list: Turkish, and I decided to follow her path and take the risk of learning a completely foreign language to me. Learning Turkish the past four months has been another exciting journey full of çay (tea) and repeatedly asking “what?”. However, it has been rewarding to learn a different culture and even try new food. The only things I knew about Turkey before were the Hagia Sophia, mosques, Islam, and that Istanbul is in two different continents, but as my 3-hour class started in September, I started learning about how my teachers pray five times a day and must eat meat that is lawful (halal).
I must emphasize that my favorite part was realizing that I had always lived with the mindset that only Romance languages were related, but Turkish reminded me that some Spanish I use on a daily basis comes from Arabic. On my first day of Turkish, we learned the colors and red is “kırmızı,” and I was able to connect it to the Spanish word “carmín” which is a type of red. I also connected the word “mor” to “morado,” which is purple in Spanish. When we learned the alphabet, I couldn't understand why they had a g with a breve (ğ), which is a silent letter that makes the sound longer. Later on, I was telling my mom about this bizarre letter they had, and I immediately realized that in Spanish we also have a silent letter that many foreigners often pronounce -- the letter “h” in Spanish and the “ğ” in Turkish have the same function.
Currently, I have set a life goal of learning at least ten languages. It’s an ambitious goal, but that will allow me to continue learning about the world I live in. As I started my last year in high school and began applying to college, I realized that indeed what I want to do is study abroad. Therefore, I applied to two exchange programs that prioritize cultural immersion and learning a different language. For NSLI-Y, I applied to learn Russian, and for CBYX I could potentially learn German. The next language I will be learning will depend on which exchange program I get accepted into. When I was little, I would have never imagined even taking a gap year to learn a language, but the close exposure I had with learning other languages and understanding more the world I live has lead me to prioritize languages that will broaden my life opportunities. I can’t wait to see where life takes me, and what language will be added to my list!
Meet the Writer!
Hello! My name is Lorena Sandoval. My native language is Spanish because I grew up in Mexico, and I learned English ever since I was little. French is my third language and I have been learning it at school for about 4 years, while Turkish came into my life by mid 2018, but it isn't less important.
Photos:
Photo by Natasha Kapur on Unsplash at Commercial Street, London, UK
Photo by A.R.T Paola on Unsplash in Barcelona, Spain
Photo by Burak Kaynak on Unsplash “Love books” in Usak, Turkey
Thanks for checking out this first Volume 2 piece written by a non-native English speaker! Keep an eye out for an Alumni Insights post in the near future! :)
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