Our group has an interesting relationship with language. We all come from different backgrounds with different families. Some of us have english as a second language while others are learning a third. It’s interesting to see the vast differences in language that just five students have with one another. Here we will write our brief language story and how it has impacted our lives.

Stellan,

I feel that I have had a unique experience with language. My mother is Swedish. I’ve grown up learning Swedish as a second language. In the 6th grade I lived in Sweden for a year. I played hockey and made friends. Speaking english was a struggle, because most of the people I met were not very good speakers. After my time in Sweden, I maintained a good ability to speak Swedish. I’ve gone back a few times since then to visit family, but I mostly speak swedish with my mom. In high school took Spanish for 3 years. Surprisingly I was not good at all. It might have been the teaching style or environment, but I can’t speak spanish if my life depended on it. Being immersed in the culture and having to talk to fluent speakers really helped me become a better speaker. From this experience i’ve learned that theres much more to language than vocabulary and grammar. There is slang, gestures and culture that needs to be understood in order to be a more effective speaker.

Raul,

Being born as a first generation American, I grew up learning English as a second language. My parents are both from Mexico so naturally my first language is Spanish. I reside and was raised no more than 2 miles away from the Mexican border. In my house, Spanish was, and still is, the only language spoken between each other. I think it’s great that I have been raised to learn two languages because it increases my possibilities for a career job by a great margin, as well as communicate with a larger amount of people. As of now, I have yet to experience language to be a burden and have thankfully only had positive experiences as well as benefits from being bilingual.

Kat,

Being born as a first generation American, I grew up learning English as a second language. My parents are both from Mexico so naturally my first language is Spanish. I reside and was raised no more than 2 miles away from the Mexican border. In my house, Spanish was, and still is, the only language spoken between each other. I think it’s great that I have been raised to learn two languages because it increases my possibilities for a career job by a great margin, as well as communicate with a larger amount of people. As of now, I have yet to experience language to be a burden and have thankfully only had positive experiences as well as benefits from being bilingual.

Seth,

I was born as a third generation American, so I grew up in a household of people that speak english as a first and only language. I thought for the longest time that I would only have experience with the english language, but when I reached high school, I decided to take spanish classes. I fell in love with the language of spanish and took a two month trip to Mexico by myself. I stayed in a house with only spanish speaking people and I struggled to communicate orally with anyone for a while, but I was able to learn quickly. It was a frightening yet rewarding experience, and I am glad that I decided to do that.

Sydnie,

I had plenty of opportunities to explore various languages and actively sought those experiences. My first interest in a language different than my first was Russian, as I had heard it spoken on some late night television show when I was eleven. I hadn’t given much thought to learning any new jargon, however, after hearing how beautiful and different Russian sounded, I attempted to teach myself the language through Youtube videos and a cheap knockoff of Rosetta Stone—needless to say, the lack of proper instruction coupled with my eleven year old brain was altogether a hindrance to the development of a second language.