High-Income WASP Schooled By Low-Income Minority in Language Acquisition
I am the poster
child educational privilege. I was born in a high-income country to a married mother
and father, both of whom completed masters’ degrees. They taught me to read
before I started Kindergarten. With those advantages, I cannot remember a
time when I was the person least likely to understand what was happening in a
room.
Learning a language
as an adult (a sleep-deprived adult, in fact) will turn that paradigm upside down.
For a very, very long time (maybe forever): I will be the person who knows
the least about what is happening in a room in Cambodia. Despite the patient
work of our language helpers the past month, I am just as likely to say “I am
sad” as “I am happy” when greeting someone in Khmer. And probably most likely
to say nothing at all intelligible.
Fortunately, medical
school and residency helped cultivate humility: while I was never educationally
disadvantaged, I was often the individual with the least working knowledge of a
subject. Completing training in Family Medicine usually means being the person on
the team with the least “insider” knowledge (we are trained in medicine by
internists, in pediatrics by pediatricians, in surgery by surgeons, and in a
variety of other specialties by specialists). Though I never got good at keeping
my mouth shut, I did get better at asking questions rather than making (incorrect)
statements.
A long-standing joke
describes people who speak three languages as “trilingual”, people who speak
two languages as “bilingual”, and people who speak one language as “American”. Despite
many years of Spanish education, I still fall decidedly in the latter category.
The past few weeks have helped me understand why classroom learning is insufficient
for second language acquisition. Language does not happen in a vacuum, because communication
is not meant to be one-sided. Learning phonetics previously conjured up images of Eliza Doolittle announcing seriously at a horse derby, "the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain". I now realize that learning to speak in a way that doesn't require others to strain to understand is an important way to serve the communities we hope to reach.
The overwhelming goal
of fluency becomes much less intimidating when I considered how and why our
children have learned (and continue to learn) language. They want to share
thoughts, and they want to understand the world around them. The bar is not set
at perfection. The bar is set at communication, and a place in the
conversation. They don’t need to understand every word I read in a chapter book
to enjoy the story. And really, neither do I.
Perhaps my favorite
realization this month: language learning is not a precursor to cross-cultural
work. Language learning is the first stage of cross-cultural work. Relationships
and trust are formed on the humble arches I must lay down to cross from a land
in which I understand and am understood to a land completely “other”. I am neither
the first, nor the last person to attempt such a crossing. While I draw courage
from the millions who daily embark on similar journeys, I am most encouraged by
the only Person who has ever built and crossed such a bridge perfectly: Jesus
Christ.
What is more foreign
to Heaven than earth? Which cross-cultural leap has required more humility than
the Creator leaving perfection to suffer at the hands of imperfect, created
beings? He came not only to speak our language, but to give love a voice that transcends
all languages. If I epitomize educational privilege, He epitomizes ultimate
sacrifice. He was born in a low-income country to an unmarried mother and
father, neither of whom were highly educated. And yet by school age, He was both
teaching others to read Scripture and to see
truth.
Following Christ’s
command to make disciples of all nations might begin with learning another
language, but it certainly doesn’t end there. Following His example, I can begin
building bridges into other cultures with love: love for people, love for their
stories, and love in their language.
Love you lady and proud of you.
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