Culture Confusion - Bilingual Baby Plans
So as I've mentioned before, I come from a mixed background of Persian, Hawaiian, & Italian (and I think a little Irish, Dutch, & German mixed in there from my maternal grandma.) But I grew up in a completely English speaking household (if you still count ghetto slang and pidgin as English). See, my grandma never learned to speak Italian from her immigrant father because like many old school immigrants, they really wanted their children to be fully American. Funny thing is - my grandma learned a lot of Hawaiian from her mother-in-law and she did pass that along to me when I took an interest in languages later. My grandparents separated and divorced when I was very young, but memories I do have of my grandfather from a young age were of him teaching me to count in Hawaiian and Japanese. He had been in the navy for many years and sometimes even now in his mid-80s, he surprises me with phrases in Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean that he still remembers.
Of course through all of that I could never show any outward interest in my Persian culture or language (see previous posts - Iranian revolution, broken family, overprotective grandma yada yada yada), so I channeled that interest into what was available. That turned out to be Spanish and Japanese. From Junior High to High school I took 5 years of Spanish, including Advanced Placement courses which got me college credits with good test scores. Not that I was trying to be something I'm not, but I did look like any other one of the Mexican American kids in school and sometimes it was nice to have that ambiguity when middle easterners were not (still not!) seen in such a good light. And later when I'd venture down into Mexico in my 20s, I could blend in well enough but when I spoke I obviously wasn't native but fluent enough to make some good friends with locals who were all too kind and hospitable. I regret not having arranged to stay down there to live for at least a month and completely immerse myself - maybe someday I will. I love Mexico and will need to do another post about some of my day/weekend trips down there some other time.
Now when it comes to Japanese, on the other hand, I don't blend in at all! I speak, read, and write the language fluently - even more so than Spanish - despite only having studied it for 2 years at Junior College. This is mostly thanks to 15 years working for Japanese Electronics companies and my total immersion and obsession with the language and culture through comic books, anime, tv shows, music, food, dating, and making friends. Yeah I was a little bit too much embarrassing crazy fan-girl in my high school and college days, but in the end that drive and passion really got me far in my skills and my career. And now when I'm with my Japanese friends, despite my appearance, many of them forget I'm not a native speaker and look at me weird if I don't know a word or if I happen to speak English, compliment me on my fluency in that language instead!
So where am I going with all this? I just think knowing more than one language is such a benefit in life. Not only career wise, but for the special connections and relationships you can form with other people who speak those languages. I realize I am so lucky I was able to learn and retain languages later in my life; I don't know anyone else who still can speak a language they were forced to study in high school. But growing up in a city as diverse as San Diego, I have had a lot of friends who grew up in bilingual households and I think that's the most awesome thing ever. Mexican, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino -- with the right educational background and level of native fluency many of these friends could work in high level government translation positions. People always say to me I should do side work as an interpreter or translator, but when it comes down to it, I would not be able to hold my own when it comes to legal or medical terms, no matter how basic.
So how can I get ahead of the game with my own son? Is it weird that I want to teach him Spanish and Japanese even though I learned those languages later in my own life? My husband is half Japanese and our family name is Japanese, but he only knows a little Japanese he picked up from his grandparents and classes he took in high school. I'm likely going to focus more energy on Japanese just because I speak it more comfortably and fluently, and speaking to our son will likely jog Stephen's memory and help him learn more too. There are also some excellent Japanese pre-school and Saturday school programs here in San Diego that we could later enroll him in if we want to continue with that route. I can still teach some Spanish and encourage learning that language if he's interested; being so close to Mexico there's no shortage of classes, play groups, library readings etc that are in Spanish so we'll always have options.
To be honest, I don't even really know how beneficial Japanese will be to our son. The world economics have changed so much lately, there aren't as many Japanese manufacturers as there used to be and far less Japanese people living in San Diego. But I absolutely do want to give it a try - my son should know about all his different cultural backgrounds, and we hope to take him to Japan some day to meet my husband's relatives and my numerous dear friends who I regard as my family. And I have read some articles somewhere along the line that learning multiple languages from a young age helps develop the brain and further open doors to other subjects. I don't know if I'll have any success or if our son will be receptive, but at least I can give it my best to impart any knowledge or education I can possibly offer!
I originally wanted to talk a little about my Japan travels in this post, but this has grown long enough so we'll save that for another day.
Of course through all of that I could never show any outward interest in my Persian culture or language (see previous posts - Iranian revolution, broken family, overprotective grandma yada yada yada), so I channeled that interest into what was available. That turned out to be Spanish and Japanese. From Junior High to High school I took 5 years of Spanish, including Advanced Placement courses which got me college credits with good test scores. Not that I was trying to be something I'm not, but I did look like any other one of the Mexican American kids in school and sometimes it was nice to have that ambiguity when middle easterners were not (still not!) seen in such a good light. And later when I'd venture down into Mexico in my 20s, I could blend in well enough but when I spoke I obviously wasn't native but fluent enough to make some good friends with locals who were all too kind and hospitable. I regret not having arranged to stay down there to live for at least a month and completely immerse myself - maybe someday I will. I love Mexico and will need to do another post about some of my day/weekend trips down there some other time.
Now when it comes to Japanese, on the other hand, I don't blend in at all! I speak, read, and write the language fluently - even more so than Spanish - despite only having studied it for 2 years at Junior College. This is mostly thanks to 15 years working for Japanese Electronics companies and my total immersion and obsession with the language and culture through comic books, anime, tv shows, music, food, dating, and making friends. Yeah I was a little bit too much embarrassing crazy fan-girl in my high school and college days, but in the end that drive and passion really got me far in my skills and my career. And now when I'm with my Japanese friends, despite my appearance, many of them forget I'm not a native speaker and look at me weird if I don't know a word or if I happen to speak English, compliment me on my fluency in that language instead!
So where am I going with all this? I just think knowing more than one language is such a benefit in life. Not only career wise, but for the special connections and relationships you can form with other people who speak those languages. I realize I am so lucky I was able to learn and retain languages later in my life; I don't know anyone else who still can speak a language they were forced to study in high school. But growing up in a city as diverse as San Diego, I have had a lot of friends who grew up in bilingual households and I think that's the most awesome thing ever. Mexican, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino -- with the right educational background and level of native fluency many of these friends could work in high level government translation positions. People always say to me I should do side work as an interpreter or translator, but when it comes down to it, I would not be able to hold my own when it comes to legal or medical terms, no matter how basic.
So how can I get ahead of the game with my own son? Is it weird that I want to teach him Spanish and Japanese even though I learned those languages later in my own life? My husband is half Japanese and our family name is Japanese, but he only knows a little Japanese he picked up from his grandparents and classes he took in high school. I'm likely going to focus more energy on Japanese just because I speak it more comfortably and fluently, and speaking to our son will likely jog Stephen's memory and help him learn more too. There are also some excellent Japanese pre-school and Saturday school programs here in San Diego that we could later enroll him in if we want to continue with that route. I can still teach some Spanish and encourage learning that language if he's interested; being so close to Mexico there's no shortage of classes, play groups, library readings etc that are in Spanish so we'll always have options.
To be honest, I don't even really know how beneficial Japanese will be to our son. The world economics have changed so much lately, there aren't as many Japanese manufacturers as there used to be and far less Japanese people living in San Diego. But I absolutely do want to give it a try - my son should know about all his different cultural backgrounds, and we hope to take him to Japan some day to meet my husband's relatives and my numerous dear friends who I regard as my family. And I have read some articles somewhere along the line that learning multiple languages from a young age helps develop the brain and further open doors to other subjects. I don't know if I'll have any success or if our son will be receptive, but at least I can give it my best to impart any knowledge or education I can possibly offer!
I originally wanted to talk a little about my Japan travels in this post, but this has grown long enough so we'll save that for another day.
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| Yours truly, culturally confused Persian-American girl at a shrine in Hiroshima, Japan |
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