Part of our work as volunteers requires us to complete a small assessment in our community. We surveyed community members, teachers, and students. We asked students questions like, what is your favorite class and why? Since we work with the English teachers, we asked questions related to the English classes like, Do you like English? or Do you think English is important? Something about the results shocked me. Most of the students enjoyed English class, but I don't think there was one student who said English is not important.
Of course maybe the results are a little skewed since I administered the survey. Perhaps they were afraid to offend me. However, we asked the students to explain their response; why or why not. The answers we got were that you need to know English if you want to travel the world or to be someone in life. I had assumed that maybe they were thinking of traveling to the US, Canada, or the UK and that is why we received the answers we did. I thought that maybe it was something their parents and teachers told them and they were regurgitating for the survey. I guess my point is, until this point I didn't realize what a privilege it is to know English.
The other weekend we went to visit some friends in a nearby city. They know English very well. We all spoke in Spanish though, so Eric and I could practice. At one point our friend was telling me how that when he was an exchange student in Germany he got so mad because his host family would only talk to him in German. If he asked a question in English they would respond in German. He realizes now, that is how he had to learn German though it was difficult and uncomfortable at times. This struck me as interesting. I asked him if "everyone" knew English. He said, yes. He went on to tell me a story about him going to France where he asked someone for help and in English he said, "Excuse me can you show me where this is [as he pointed on a map]." He said the person acted like they didn't understand him, but he knew they did.
Later on that weekend we were going to play Taboo with some friends of our friends. I started to sweat a little. I didn't think I was advanced enough to play in Spanish. A family member of our friends had taken the game in English and written the translation of the word underneath all of them. I mentioned not being able to play and our friends said in Spanish, "Everyone understands English. You can just say the words in English and we can guess."
Sometimes Eric and I will be somewhere (mostly in bigger cities) and someone will say, "Hey man are you from the US?" Or we will order from a restaurant in Spanish and the person will start talking to us in English. It is hard to explain the feeling that comes from this. It's like, here we are, living in a foreign country, trying to learn Spanish and it's as though we don't need it or as if what we know isn't good enough. It was frustrating at first, but now I realize that there probably isn't much opportunity for people to practice their English so they are itching to speak it when they have the opportunity.
Through all of these experiences I have realized that English is a tremendous privilege. It really is the key to traveling the world. If you know English you can go almost anywhere and there will be someone who knows English. This by no means reduces the importance of learning another language in the US. I think there is something you get from learning another language that is really important. Because even if someone knows English, if they are not native there will be many things that just don't translate. Sometimes I feel like it takes at least 2 languages to get across what I want to say.
With all of that said, I still feel like slowly Eric and I are learning Spanish. Some days are better than others, but we are definitely understanding more and more. It's a constant challenge, but I feel there will be one day that we will be confident in our speaking abilities. At least I hope so ;)
much love,
Emily
"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart."Nelson Mandela
My host sister's quinceañera
My host mom and host sister getting ready for the quinceañera
Here are Eric and I with our counterparts from our high schools. That is our volunteer group's mural behind us.
