Laughs and Languages

Languages have always held a special place in my mom’s family as they are linguistically talented. Combined they speak 5 different languages and 3 were spoken daily in our household. One would logically assume that I could speak one of these additional languages, but no, here I am unable to speak proper English. In the moments where I attempt to communicate with my uncles and aunts in their native tongue, I mispronounce phrases and ask if they had been amputated instead of asking how they are doing. I’ve always hid behind the excuse that languages are too difficult for me or they are too boring. In all honesty, my laziness and fear of others making fun of my pronunciation were holding me back.

This past week I decided to rid myself of these pathetic excuses and start learning Vietnamese. My grandma is currently living with us for the next couple of weeks and our agreement is we can only speak to each other in Vietnamese and the occasional Vienglish :). We started slowly learning numbers, foods, and simple phrases. For those that don’t know, my grandma spends all day cooking and I venture into the kitchen every 30 minutes to grab a snack/meal. I can no longer walk into the kitchen without being quizzed about the food I’m eating, the time on the microwave, or what I’m about to go do and I absolutely love it. Every time she says a new word I find myself repeating it 20+ times over trying to pronounce the accent correctly. Vietnamese is quite tricky since the same word pronounced with a higher or lower pitch results in two completely separate words. Many times I find myself confidently speaking phrases just to watch my grandma almost start crying in laughter because I might have just asked to eat butt instead of meat haha. Although I have only touched the tip of the iceberg in terms of communicating with my grandma, I feel as if our relationship took a big leap in the past week. It’s a whole new way of thinking to restructure sentences in a different language. Strangely, I began to understand her on a deeper level. I have nothing but respect and admiration for individuals who venture out to learn a new language. Accents are my worst nightmare, sentence structure is difficult, and the strange looks you get from people when you attempt to speak are also slightly embarrassing but you learn to laugh with them. However, overcoming each of these obstacles brings me a sense of accomplishment and I learn something new about myself. If you haven't tried to learn a new language, I strongly urge you to at least try and maybe you'll discover something about yourself that you previously didn't know.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject, please reach out to me with any comments at theonlyCV@yahoo.com