Blog Discussion 2: Spanish and other languages.

In regards to languages other than English, I would say that I have a unique experience with them. I was born in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti and as a result, my native tongue is Haitian-Creole. I was raised with this language and even to this day, whenever I speak Creole it evokes memories of home cooking, laughter, and moments with my family. I was also taught French from an early age although I do not like it as much as I do Creole. Now I do agree, French is an extremely useful language but it is too rigid to me when compared with Haitian-Creole. If you were to take out the subjunctive, the imperfect, the future, and the passe compose from French, you would get Haitian-Creole.

When I took Advanced Placement French in high school, I didn’t struggle as much because it shared many similarities with Haitian-Creole but I found that I was not as passionate about it as I would have wanted to be. Although I understand very little Spanish, there is a part of me that has wanted to become fluent it at. When it came down to choosing Spanish or Chinese for my language requirement for my first year at Dartmouth, I choose Chinese. I wanted to challenge myself and learn a new language—I had no idea what I was in for. By committing myself to this language, I found that it was not easy. This class took many hours a week from me and I found myself writing hundreds of traditional characters a night. I would converse with people who were fluent, listen to Chinese bands, and watch Chinese thrillers. Learning this language took every ounce of effort I had and it showed me that if you want to fully appreciate another culture or better understand its people, you have to learn the language. Never before did I think that learning English would give someone trouble, but when I had to learn Mandarin, I saw firsthand that in order to understand one’s struggle, you must put yourself in their shoes.