The two languages I’m most familiar with are English and Spanish. Because I grew up in a small town that has a very high Hispanic population and the fact that I am Mexican, many people expect me to be a fluent Spanish speaker. However, this is not the case. The language barrier issue has always been one of the biggest reoccurring problems I’ve encountered throughout my life.

My father and his siblings grew up speaking Spanish and didn’t learn English until they attended American schools after moving here from Mexico. They eventually became fluent in both Spanish and English, but my grandparents did not. Despite my father knowing and regularly speaking Spanish, he never really spoke or tried to teach me Spanish at home and this opportunity, being the only way for me to learn Spanish as a child, was not utilized. It hurts me to say that at every family party or house visit I was not able to communicate with my grandparents. I was presented with a new obstacle in communication every time I was around them. Whenever we tried to have a conversation they would talk to me in Spanish and I would look desperately at the people around me for help because I had NO IDEA what they were saying. The lucky person I chose to assist in our attempt to communicate would tell me what my grandma or grandpa was saying and the rest of the conversation would only continue with the help of that translator. More often than not, after moments like this one of my family members would tell me, “You need to learn Spanish.” Whenever I heard that dreaded sentence I would feel so much shame from the many eyes that looked at me because I knew they were all in agreement. The fact that all of my other cousins, even ones that were younger than me, knew Spanish and could communicate with my grandparents without a problem didn’t make me feel any better. To this day- eighteen years later- I still hear that dreaded sentence and it gives me that same gut wrenching feeling of guilt and embarrassment that it did years ago.

In more recent years I have tried to learn Spanish but I never got very far in the understanding and usage of the language. I’m sure this was because I was not comfortable speaking Spanish so I never allowed myself to gain enough practice or experience to feel confident when I spoke. Also because I never knew enough of the words to put together a proper sentence. You would think that taking two years of Spanish in high school would have helped in my long journey to learning a new language but it didn’t. I only learned the Spanish terms for basic words like ice cream, boy, and sun.

Now that I’m being forced to speak Spanish in my college level class, I am hopeful that I will soon have the confidence to comfortably chat with anyone who speaks to me in this once-so-foreign language.

Learning new languages has always been a passion of mine. I was born to bilingual parents whom raised me speaking both spanish and english. At home I primarily speak spanish to both my parents and my seventeen year old sister. I began studying bilingually at Nestor Elementary School in San Diego; this school is widely know for having a dual-immersion program where students study both in english and spanish. After elementary school I continued in a dual-immersion program at Rancho del Rey Middle School in Chula Vista, where I took a math class in spanish, as well as history, and actual Spanish language classes. After middle school i attended Olympian High School, where i did not continue in a dual-immersion program, however I proved my comprehension of both the english and spanish language by enrolling in AP Spanish Language, AP Spanish Literature, AP English Language and Composition, and AP English Literature and Composition, and passing each AP exam. Along with these classes another language I learned throughout my 4 years in high school was Italian, as i became fluent and passed the AP Italian exam, as well as earning the school-wide senior standout  Italian award. As of now I am currently trying to learn both French and Portuguese, and over time I hope to learn many more languages. My love for languages translated towards my college years as I plan to double major in Spanish as well as earning a minor in Italian.

The members of our Linguistics group have had several unique experiences with languages. There are multiple methods of learning another language, such as at home or in a classroom. Many of us took French or Spanish in high school as part of our curriculum.
Within our group, two of us have grown up with Spanish as our primary language. These native speakers have learned how to speak, write, and understand Spanish from being raised in a Spanish-speaking household. They continue to fluently converse in the language at home and with other native Spanish speakers. Bothhave traveled to her parents’ homeland or other Spanish speaking countries where they were able to practice speaking the different language as well. They were taught mainly at home and some got extra support by taking Spanish for native speakers classes in high school. Although they all speak Spanish and come from a Hispanic background, each of them have his or her own unique words and phrases that they were taught. One of our group members has Salvadorian roots, while the other two members are more familiar with the Mexican heritage.
A third group member grew up with parents and family who were native Spanish-speakers, but decided not to teach him the language. He took two years of Spanish in high school, resulting in an understanding of Spanish, but not fluency.
The other two members of our group learned French and Spanish in high school. Although they could not practice the languages at home, they became fluent in their respective languages. Both girls took proficiency tests before graduating high school (International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement tests) and passed, proving their fluency.
The ability to speak Spanish as a primary language for one of our group members raised barriers in certain situations. She could only speak Spanish, making it challenging to communicate with English speakers. This lasted until she picked up English in elementary school, and she is now bilingual. The opposite problem occured for the non-Spanish speaking group member. At a family reunion in Puerto Rico, everyone in his family spoke Spanish. As the only person unable to speak the language, he had to rely on his parents for constant translation. The French-speaking member of our group grew up with a lisp, making it difficult for her to pronounce the English letter ‘s’.
The member of our group who learned Spanish high school has experience with many different languages despite not becoming fluent in them. As a child, her parents hired an au pair each year to watch her and her siblings while the parents went to work. If you do not know what an au pair is, it is basically a babysitter from another country who lives with a family for a year. She was cared for by young women from multiple countries including Germany, Mexico, Poland, and France. Although she did not learn the languages, the different types of speech were familiar to her.
We have each had our own unique experiences with languages throughout our life. Although most of us have learned the same language, we have lived it differently. For many of. us it is normal and routine because we have grown up with it. For others of us it is a special skill that we have acquired through hard work and persistence in a classroom setting.

Kaitlyn DeJesus

Laura Kalmanson

Paula Soto

Kim Gonzalez

John Rivera

Throughout my life, I have experienced two other languages besides English—Italian and American Sign Language. Growing up in an Italian family, I was exposed to this dialect early, unfortunately, English was the main language spoken in the house with a few Italian words thrown in here and there to make a statement. When I first started college, I took two semesters of Italian, hoping things would come easier to me since I lived in a household of Italians, but this was entirely untrue. Trying to have a conversation in class using this language was the most challenging thing for me because the placement of words were different and I could not grasp how to use them in the proper form. I do hope to pick up this language again on my own time where I am not graded.

After barely passing Italian, I took American Sign Language, not only because it was needed for my major, but a friend of mine was going for interpreting in ASL and I was interested by how her hands flowed so flawlessly while signing. I took four semesters of ASL and enjoyed it when I signed to others at my own level. Signing with individuals who were more advanced than me was just as difficult as Italian. I did like it more than Italian because I was able to fingerspell a word when I did not know how to sign it, and I still use it to this day every now and then. From taking two languages, I learned that I definitely need to work on my conversational skills. I can have a great conversation in English, since it is my native language, and am able to sustain it for as long as needed. Other forms of languages however, not so much. In the near future I hope to learn about these two languages more in depth (especially Italian), because I find them both beautiful and fascinating.

You can say I’ve had my share of experiences with language. At a very early age I was introduced to both Spanish and English. Spanish being my first language and English my second. It was easy for me to acquire English because my family made it a point to separate both languages. I was to speak Spanish at home and English at school. As I got older though I was able to express myself in both English and Spanish but I learned to be more grammatically correct with only English because all my education was in English. My Spanish grammar and spelling suffered because I was never formally thought these, which lead me to take two Spanish classes in high school. I wouldn’t call it a burdening experience but it was hard to answer questions by peers who thought I was taking a Spanish class for that easy a, when in fact I was trying to improve my grammar and spelling.

Later in life I decided to learn American Sign Language, learning ASL gave me a different perspective on language. It is very different from Spanish and English. The fact that I had been exposed to a different language so early in life I think made it easier for me to grasp the complexity of ASL.I found it easy to learn and enjoyed all aspects of it.

-Cristo Avila

I was raised in an English-speaking household.  With that said, I was also exposed to Spanish early on in my childhood.  In fact, I believe I learned common words in Spanish before I did in English, such as: “baño” rather than ‘bath’, “leche” instead of ‘milk,’ and “te amo” in place of ‘I love you.’  In addition to being already familiar with some words in Spanish, I have taken Spanish classes since I was in fourth grade.  Learning the language in school was quite different from learning it at home. My mother’s side of the family speaks both English and Spanish more or less fluently. I have found that learning the language from them is easier than learning it in a structured classroom environment where everyone is required to be there and few actually want to be there.  Regardless, I did very well in my Spanish classes and enjoyed learning another language so much so that I independently began learning American Sign Language by taking online courses.  By doing this in my own time and by my own will, I actually learned to sign much faster than I learned to speak Spanish in school.

-Andi Laidlaw

The two experiences that I’ve had with language are English and Spanish. Growing up I learned to write, read, and speak Spanish just as fluently as I did English, because it was the language spoken at my house. I feel that because Spanish is my first language many adults and teachers always assumed that I needed extra help with homework and other activities when I really didn’t, because my English was just as fluent as my Spanish. Being influenced by both languages all the time determined that I chose linguistics as my major. With that I want to teach English as a second language.

-indra Gómez

I have been constantly surrounded by foreign languages. Aside from being a San Diego native, thus having Spanish being spoken pretty much everywhere, my father was a language enthusiast. He was fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French, as well as being conversational in German and Russian. Throughout my life he was talking with foreigners and trying to learn their language just a little at a time. He had a coworker from Germany, so he learned German from her, his hairdresser was Russian, so he learned Russian from her, his grandmother was Azoren, so he learned Portuguese from her, Spanish was everywhere since he also was a San Diego native, so he picked that up from people at restaurants, at school, or wherever he found them, and he learned French in College because he thought it would be fun. I picked up my father’s enthusiasm for language fairly recently. I spoke English exclusively for the majority of my life, but I have discovered that I love learning about languages and their respective cultures. I find it fascinating how other languages convey ideas through a completely different process than the one that I am used to. The first language that I started to learn as a foreign language was French. I have family in France, and I went there with my Grandmother (who is from France), and she told me that she would not speak to me in English for the duration of our stay in France. As a result, I learned French fairly quickly, especially the key phrases like, “Where is…” or ” I would like…”. That was many years ago, and my French has greatly deteriorated since I was there for 5 weeks with my Grandmother, but I believe that I would be able to survive well enough with the French I still have, though I know I would not be able to hold any type of meaningful conversation in French.  So far I have studied French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, and Japanese though I would not call myself fluent in any of these languages, but I am somewhat conversational in Portuguese because I practice often with my girlfriend who is Brazilian. I can count to a billion in all of the languages I have listed, and know some basic survival phrases in most of them, as well as being able to say thank you in at least 5 more languages. I imagine that I will continue to learn languages throughout my life, and I hope to be at least trilingual at some point in my life.

The first language that was exposed to me was Chinese. Being born in China, I learned to speak Cantonese from my family and slowly learned mandarin as well. Ever since I was little, my grandma would buy me poetry books in Chinese and made me memorize then recite it to her. Gradually, I learned how to read Chinese as well.

My first encounter with the English language was when I first arrived in America at the age of six. I still remember having to take a test in order to attend school, which required me to learn the alphabet and some basic vocabulary, which was quite hard since it was completely new to me. Every time we had new vocabulary quizzes, I would cry at home and not want to go to school because I felt that I was stupid. However, I was finally able to speak fluent English in the third grade. As I grew older, I developed a strong interest in other foreign languages, one of them being French. When I entered seventh grade, I picked French as one of my electives and quickly fell in love with the language. Then, in eighth grade I took Spanish, hoping to learn another language and continued on with it throughout high school. In the future, I hope to travel the world so hopefully these languages will be helpful to me.