Multilingualism
Posted on March 1, 2020
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I was born in Karachi, Pakistan. My father’s (and therefore my) nationality is Ivorian. I have lived most of my life in Bangladesh. This mixed background makes me unquestionably a third-culture kid. I identify as an Ivorian, someone who comes from Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa. Côte d’Ivoire has a diverse culture, a lifestyle, a mindset, and many other traits that make its citizens unique because it is a fusion of France and Africa. However, as I have never lived there and seldom visited, I do not share most of these traits with the country I call my own. This simple fact was something I regretted because I didn’t have a sense of belonging to my country, but the way I saw it, there wasn’t much I could do about it. I first visited Côte d’Ivoire when I was eight and up until then, my only experiences with my country were whatever my grandparents could tell me about life there. This was soon to change.
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In elementary school, every student was required to learn Spanish. When I graduated from elementary school, I was allowed to choose between continuing Spanish or learning French. I initially wanted to continue with Spanish, as I already had a good grasp on it; I had also heard from older students that French was more complicated, more time-consuming and it was generally harder to learn. My parents, however, strongly suggested I take French. Most memorably, my dad said, “It may be a difficult language, it may be complicated, you may have a hard time learning it, but it is still the language of your country, and therefore, it is your language.” I knew I would better be able to understand my country through its language and chose to learn French.
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I grew up multilingual, which makes me comfortable with languages and learning them, so I had no problem picking it up with constant exposure to it. In addition to school and extra work, my dad would start speaking French at home to me. It helped me make use of the vocabulary I was learning, get my accent right and speak more confidently. My journey started from only knowing “bonjour” to becoming closer to fluency, or “parler français couramment.” I didn’t find it as hard as I was told it was, and learning new languages has always been enjoyable for me.
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During this journey, I visited a few French-speaking countries. Since my father and I are the only two in my family who could get around in a francophone country, I consistently had to interact with local residents. As time went on, I went from nodding along and avoiding conversation to starting conversations whenever I could. Although I started late and am nowhere as elegant in my language as Victor Hugo (the French equivalent of Shakespeare) I have grown a good deal and can satisfactorily say I have a much stronger connection to my country of nationality now.
Knowing many languages, particularly French and English, is a powerful thing; it is both a boon and a drawback. I can communicate with a wider range of people in more languages and convey messages more accurately to them. On the bright side, I don’t need subtitles, translations or slow speeds to understand information in French or any of the other languages I have a good grasp on. Unfortunately, translating words on my own is not always easy. During translation, meanings for words or phrases are often lost, not staying true to the original language. For example, I use the expression chacun voit midi à sa porte. Literally translated, it means “everyone sees noon at their door,” but it really means that everyone looks out for themselves first, or everyone follows their own star. Other translations are more simple, but you still have to be careful with them. For example, French and English both have idioms for being very hungry. In English, we have, “I could eat a horse,” while in French it is j’ai un faim de loup. If I were to literally translate both expressions, I would end up with je pourrais manger un cheval and “ I have the hunger of a wolf,” neither of which make much sense. Although they mean the same thing, the ways to describe hunger are very different and have their own contexts. In my experience, you have to think in a language to avoid translation problems and accurately learn a language. This meant I had to practice thinking in French, as I did with other languages like Urdu and Spanish. It is a different style of learning, which requires you to change how you listen to a language. By default, you tend to translate foreign languages into your mother tongue or whatever language is most comfortable before translating your response back into the foreign language. It requires practice, careful monitoring of your use of the language, and lots of time to adapt. However, it expands your understanding and gives your thinking adaptability. This additional skill translates into other areas of learning, such as interpreting classical literature or learning a computer language.
Another concept, which is both a boon and a drawback, is vocabulary. More languages mean more words I can use as descriptors. For example, there are different ways of explaining cuteness in French. A kitten would be described as mignon, while a cute, trendy outfit would be called mimi. However, my manner of speech is impacted when switching between languages. In English, I use a lot of idioms to express my ideas. I quickly realized they don’t translate well, so I had to modify my manner of speaking to use different idioms or to avoid them completely. There are also many things which are difficult or impossible to translate. In other words, colloquial terms relating to a specific country or language are very hard to explain. I would struggle to explain the concept of a menthe à l’eau in English or explain Fortnite in French. Even though we all have common expressions, opinions, and ideas to express, the unique histories and contexts of countries shape language as much as they shape culture.
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There is a real benefit being able to read books in French and communicate directly in French. I read the Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas and was impacted by how beautiful and impactful the language was, which was lost in the translation to English. Using French in Côte d’Ivoire is a very different experience than using English because you get to experience the country as a local. The first time I visited, I did not know French and could not interact with anyone outside of my family. As I gained language skills, my experiences became more and more enriching, since I was able to eat local food, go to the market, and experience for myself the place I had dreamed of seeing as a child. Discovering Côte d’Ivoire is pure happiness and excitement for me. Speaking to those from my country and understanding more about my heritage is, frankly, priceless. Being multilingual allows you to experience each culture from its own language, allowing you to interact with people, understand colloquial concepts and gain a better and more enriched understanding of a culture.
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Adding French to the mix of languages and cultures that make up my understanding of myself has extended my thinking to incorporate that side of myself. In my quest to be a true global citizen, my melting pot of languages not only gives me opportunities to communicate with people around the world, but it also gives me the confidence of knowing that I will be able to adapt to living in other foreign countries if my future takes me in that direction. Most importantly, despite the struggles of an abundance of verb tenses, confusing rules, pronunciations and everything else I’ve complained about over the years, knowing and using the French language has made up for that in so many ways. The French language is beautiful; it represents me and my history, and when life gives you such a symbol, you cherish it. I hope I can cherish it for other languages I have yet to develop, and I hope I can continue to do so for a long, long time.