From a teen's perspective: Learning other languages
As the 2020 census information is gradually released, one trend is becoming clear: Davidson County is getting more diverse. The Hispanic along with other ethnic populations have increased. So, why is our community still dominated by the English language? English is not the official language of the United States, North Carolina, or Davidson County., Neither has an official language. We must begin to further educate ourselves in different languages in order to become a more accessible and accepting community.
I have been learning Mandarin Chinese at my school since sixth grade. Although frustrating sometimes , learning this language has taught me so many wonderful things. It has increased my memorization skills and there’s the joy of speaking with someone in a completely different way than you normally would. From my friends and I talking in Chinese in the hallway to my sisters and I discussing if the food is good or not in a restaurant without anyone knowing, Mandarin has felt like a secret language that only people close to me in my life will understand until this summer.
We were introduced to a family friend’s coworker’s three-year-old daughter who only spoke Mandarin. When we met her, she was wearing an Elsa dress because she had just watched Frozen and loved it. So, my mother said to her, “You look so pretty!”, but this little girl did not understand. Then I said “你很漂亮 (you look so pretty)!”, she smiled and giggled. That was an amazing moment for me: a young girl who wouldn’t understand me if I hadn’t learned Mandarin. This was the first time I had ever talked to someone who did not speak both Mandarin and English. The power of communication is overwhelmingly beautiful, and the more we can talk to people from different backgrounds, the more we can learn from each other
I am not trying to convince you to learn Mandarin Chinese (if you want to I highly recommend it), but I do think learning another language is a crucial part of creating a more inclusive community. Simply downloading the Duolingo app, listening to music from a different country, or even just watching a TV show in a different language makes your brain more susceptible to picking up bits of other languages. Duolingo is super easy to use; I’ve typically used it to learn some Spanish over the summers to keep a rudimentary knowledge of the language. Netflix has foreign-language sections where you can peruse a large selection of shows that have really good plotlines and help you learn the language.
As a community, if we took more time to self-study a portion of a language, we can move to becoming a more inclusive environment. To understand the stories of another person, understanding the nuance and beauty of their language is important. More understanding leads to more acceptance, which in turn leads to more collaboration. These crucial aspects of community must be exemplified soon, in order for us to move towards this ideal, harmonized world that we have the potential to be.
