{"id":474,"date":"2016-10-18T19:36:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-19T00:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/sea\/?page_id=474"},"modified":"2018-01-20T22:11:15","modified_gmt":"2018-01-21T04:11:15","slug":"language","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/sea\/language\/","title":{"rendered":"Language"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"cropped-Asian-in-minnesota.png\"<\/a><\/em><\/strong>F<\/strong><\/span>or the Southeast Asian immigrants who now call the North Star state home, learning English is often more complex than simply acquiring a second set of linguistic skills. While knowing the language remains necessary for effective communication, finding jobs, and interacting with communities across the country, it does lead many immigrant families to a difficult cultural crossroad. As our storytellers reveal, some may strongly encourage their children to speak English, just like Americans. Others may feel that by switching to English they forfeit a profound connection to their roots, ultimately creating an identity crisis, out of which each individual must navigate oneself: Does the usefulness of English outweigh the loss of a heritage language? Can they have it both ways?<\/p>\n

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I remember a student, that I think a couple years back that they had a family member that owned a farm near or around, somewhere close by Northfield. Um.. and we remember them telling us about a story one day where their family was farming, which is also… really intertwined in the Hmong culture. So they were out, I don\u2019t know if it was picking or what they were doing with the farming but there was somebody either a neighbor or somebody that thought they were trespassing, or they shouldn\u2019t be there and she told us about that person setting their dogs out on them to be attacked. The person might have also had a gun and so the student had to.. leave class, and tell their Professor. Which seems a little you know, absurd that she needs to leave her St. Olaf class to go their to help translate for or interpret for their parents and see what happens, speak to the police, and to solve that issue but I mean that story shocked me on so many different levels because one, they rented that land, they had farmed that land. That land was theirs to use, and then somebody would send dogs out on them and threaten them, if it was with a gun or even in the presence of a gun just when they were trying to farm. And the fact that this needed to be a problem that she needed to then leave her education for the day and go and try to help solve the problem. It\u2019s just, it was just devastating to hear that experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

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I had a Burmese student who just graduated this year, but when I was trying to get to know her freshmen year, she would often talk about where her love of math came about. And it was because her family had to flee Burma to go to Thailand, and then they were in refugee camp, and she was struggling to learn English. But the one subject matter in these refugee schools that came naturally to her was math. So when she came to the United States and was struggling like in ESL classes and trying to adjust to the American school system, math was a constant, and so when she came to Olaf, math continued to be the one universal language that even derived from her time in those refugees camps\/schools and so that\u2019s that was… very interesting to hear, because I could understand the immigrant experience and trying to grow up and balance, you know being bi-cultural, but I don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to experience the refugee experience so to speak, just because I think the Latino community doesn\u2019t experience that that often, so it’s hard for me to understand it.<\/span><\/p>\n

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One of my regrets is my loss of my native language, that\u2019s a big regret for me. At that time when when we came here my parents really emphasised doing well in school, and that meant learning English. I walked into kindergarten not knowing a word of English, umm I was not yet five years old but they umm they did some tests on me and I knew French, so they figured that was good enough I guess. So umm kindergarten was a blur to me but you know…my parents always said keep speaking English, you’re going to be successful, in that way and umm and when we came to Minnesota there wasn’t a big Asian population so all my friends were American and so I spoke English all the time, so that’s one of my regrets is not keeping my language skills.<\/span><\/p>\n

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I think the first impression that I got from how they kind of reacted to me was that I don\u2019t speak English at all. They assumed that I don\u2019t speak English, and I said like fine if you don\u2019t think I don\u2019t speak the language, it\u2019s fine with me. And I did not go out and say what are you thinking, I went to school there. But I didn\u2019t say anything… I just let them think what they want to think. I think when people come into a town…the Asians are not very difficult perhaps people don\u2019t really see them even downtown, and say here you go, and then… say who\u2019s this lady, Asian or is it what? It\u2019s hard to blame people for assuming things, because they don\u2019t know…<\/span><\/p>\n

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I think after taking Chinese for a year, I realized that just the way that languages are formed speak a lot on how a culture is formed. Especially, and it\u2019s less of just the literal translation between words, but the way that culture is phrased their everyday speech speaks a lot about who they are as a people and where they come from. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Melissa: Sometimes that\u2019s also a stereotype that has been hard for some students because their english is great and sometimes their writing is way better than mine. And so \u00a0it\u2019s not that every Asian American student we\u2019ve served has had a language barrier but there has been students that maybe they\u2019ve actually come over and maybe it was like 5 years ago. So really quickly they were immersed and learn english really fast um and you know they\u2019re making great strides because if they are here at St. Olaf too you\u2019ve got to be able to do somethings. So they are a doing really great job but they\u2019re still struggling in writing papers or revising and things like that. Just utilizing resources to strengthen their written english as well as verbal,. Even studying for the GRE, that\u2019s really remarkable to think that if a student came here 5 years ago and didn\u2019t speak english and came here and is now taking the GRE, studying for the verbal section on the GRE. I mean that\u2019s tough. So the challenge is definitely there. I think the students we\u2019ve worked with have definitively worked their butt off and just continuing to practice. It doesn\u2019t stop them from getting where they need to go but it\u2019s definitely sometimes a challenge. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Janis: And again, I think we\u2019ve already talked a little about like often maybe family members don\u2019t speak english and so then that means they have to help with paying bills or doctor visits, or any kind of interpreting that needs to be done, the son or daughter will need to be present and help with that. Which takes away from life at college and weekend times spent studying or socializing or all the fun things college students do. So I think it is a challenge, so definitely. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Knowing English gives you a huge advantage. You can study for degrees and certifications to raise your wage. Generally, not knowing English gives you disadvantages. Personally, I can often work with whatever they give me, but knowing more English would make life much easier for me. It\u2019s just that I\u2019m old and do not have enough time to study English, but English would definitely help make life easier.<\/p>\n

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