MULTILINGUAL BARRY LANGUAGE HISTORIES PROJECT
Director: Dr. Ligia Mihut
Students at Barry University in South Florida are multilingual and their relationship with languages of the world is flexible and changing as they themselves are moving across contexts. Our Barry students’ linguistic repertoires include Cuban Spanish, Mexican Spanish, Jamaican patois, French, German, Italian, Puerto Rican Spanish, Creole, American English, British English, Arabic, and several others. Some of our students go through the process of acquiring one language, losing another, only to commit themselves to relearning the initial language. Many carry with them histories of reading and writing that cannot be squeezed into English-only academic contexts. Our multilingual context in South Florida permeates our social worlds—stores, local neighborhoods, radio programs, or homes. The purpose of Multilingual Barry is to collect stories about language and linguistic background of our students.
Eva
Hungarian, Serbian, German, and English
At home we always speak Hungarian and my grandparents too. I have a lot of friends, Serbian friends, and we would speak Serbian in the school I had like in elementary school and high school. Actually in secondary school my education was in Hungarian. So it was in that part of Serbia, it's the northeast side of Serbia that's like close to the Hungarian boundary and there are a lot of Serbians but can speak Hungarian.
In order to learn English,I had some advanced classes that I took in English, because it was hard and I really wanted to learn it.
Mihut
Hungarian, English
At home, we always speak Hungarian and my grandparents too. I have a lot of friends, Serbian friends and we would speak Serbian in school. (...) In elementary school and high school. Actually, in secondary school, my education was in Hungarian. So it was in that part of Serbia. It's on the northeast side of Serbia; that's close to the Hungarian border and there are a lot of Serbians who can speak Hungarian. I had additional classes, I took some additional classes in English, because it was hard, hard to learn it. But I really liked it from the first time; I was like: uhhh it sounds good and everything.”
Paola
Spanish, English
So we all did speak English since we were very young and I am the youngest of my family, so my sister would be a great tutor. She liked to teach and so she would teach me. I was like her doll or something.
We were at a very small school, like the school that I grew up in. I graduated twelfth grade with a class of like, I don't know, maybe, less than 15 students. So, the point is we were a very small school and so I had that personal relationship, very close relationship with my teachers. So they helped me a lot. I had that support, but even though I was learning Spanish, English from a very young age. I still struggled throughout my childhood in speaking English well because since I studied at an American school, there were other American citizens. Individuals that were speaking English as a first language. I wasn't. And there were Americans, there were people from other countries that spoke English better than I did and so, I did feel a little less self-conscious while I was speaking. And that I carried throughout my life, not only my childhood, but even now, I guess. I guess it's something I carried with me because I would study English with people that spoke English better than me. And so, I tried my best. A lot of times my professors, not my professors, my teachers would always encourage me to do my best. Because, again, I had that personal relationship with the professors, the teachers because it was such a small school. Throughout middle school and high school, I had many teachers that influenced me, that encouraged me to do my best in English and writing and reading.”
Oscar
Spanish, English
“It was, I remember in Kindergarten and pre-Kinder, it was nothing but Spanish and I had Spanish teachers. They would teach us how to write in Spanish first and then little by little we would transition into English language, learning the alphabet. Even as a pre-Kinder they would let you learn the alphabet in English but they were more focused on your primary language. I remember, one of them, how my mom would help me. I mean, obviously, she speaks Spanish, but when I came home, she would help me a lot. Not only do I just do my homework for Spanish, but she will always want to overachieve myself. For example, sometimes she would tell me, "write the sentences one hundred times, two hundred times." So, it was like one of those things, oh you can show that teacher you're actually trying hard and what not. They have always been big believers of education. “
“I'm different from most people because I come from a family that didn't really have the opportunities as I did. I never had the chance, or they never had the chance to go to school. “
I'm very proud to be bilingual. I work, I never try to hide my culture. I'm not scared to say who I am and where I come from because it's just the fact I'm trying to overcome myself and be able to help my family. But the fact that I may make a difference, try to make a difference, is something that I cherish a lot. Just being able to hopefully help my parents in the future makes me have a belief that everything they did wasn't for just any reason, for whatsoever. So, I wouldn't necessarily say that it was hard to learn, being bi-lingual anything like that, I would just say it was more of an upcoming. Being able to learn from that, from their experiences. Be able to take that into mine and be able to be more motivated or anything like that.”
Up until now, I've never been a big fan of writing. I've never liked it. Sometimes I write just to myself, whether it's letters to my parents or in general. Saying, writing down the constant basis, I'm not really, I would never really do it. Up until this semester, I have a Spanish and an English class. My Spanish class, we have translations that we do from English to Spanish or the other way around. So, that, I guess you can say that's like my first interaction that I have had in a long time. Writing and reading in both languages. But other than that, nothing.
Personally, I could say that having more support from the teachers. Some teachers expect you to know this by, you have to know it like this and this is the way they taught you and stuff like that. But it's not like that. From my transitioning from 111 to 210 it was different because supposedly the classes were to prepare you for 2-10, but it's not like that. It's a whole different segment. Some teachers seem to think they understand that, but I just would say the teachers should be more considerate about meeting with a student. Or if they reach out to you, to help them out more personally. Obviously some students don't really care. They just know what they think they know.
I was, yeah, maybe if you give me an article I have to read and I have to answer questions, I'll do good. But when it comes to the actual writing part, I don't like to mess around with that. I like to do my best and whatnot, but when it comes to actually being stuck or sometimes you don't know who to turn to. Yeah, you go to the writing lab and everything, but…
Jehrade
Creole, English
As far as my Creole is concerned I do feel as though it's more of who I am. It's easier for me to connect to it and as such whenever I do use it, if let's say I use it in basic conversation, day to day conversation I do feel more free because there are no rules. There's no rule of conjugation, there's no structure to it and because there's no structure...
In school we also learned Spanish but I had no interest in learning it because I felt that it was very colonial for the fact of the matter that you know: the slaves were brought here taught English and then because Jamaica was a Spanish colony before, I just felt as though ok why not another language why Spanish? You know, so I still felt that it was not who I was and so I really didn't want to learn it.
Erline
Creole, English
I grew up here. I used to travel to Haiti a lot so speaking I think that's how I learned how to speak Creole well, because I had to communicate with them back home. Then when I came here we spoke English. In the household we spoke Creole but I really learned to write when I went to preschool.
And I think that's why they put me in preschool at an early age because I was exposed to so much Creole. They wanted me to speak English and learn to write it well without having an accent or something. So yeah. Preschool was the earliest I remember. But simple stuff like the alphabet.
I think being bilingual is definitely an important part because it helps by helping others. If somebody's somewhere and they only speak Creole and I can help them translate, it helps them with their communication. It helps me to talk with my family. It’s important when starting jobs depending on the community where you are they look for people who speak Creole but that all depends on the community.
Ingrid
Norwegian, English
We learn basically when we start school at around age 5/6 we start with easy English in the beginning. So, we have English from a very early age and then continue up to, like, high school. First year of high school. Some go all the way. And then, in middle school, we start with a third language that is of our own choosing. But it's mainly either German, Spanish, or French.
I'm definitely glad I'm bilingual. But I feel like I'm happy that Norwegian is my first language, but there are times when I can't express myself with the exact choice of words and expressions and stuff. That's probably maybe the hardest part because you, like I said earlier, have different personalities. Not different personalities, but ways of expressing yourself. So, sometimes in English, it's just like, oh I wish I could say this. But it does not translate all the time.
Alan
Spanish, English
The first year in school was kind of tough because it was just English everywhere. Ok. I should have learned. I should have paid attention in class. So now, I’m over here struggling. And the only time I heard Spanish was in my house. Not even TV. The TV was in English. I was okay. I had to put subtitles on. Because of that, I had to learn fast. I stayed after school for these classes, it was like 30 min. It was like an ESOL class.
That’s pretty much how I learned. I stayed after school. Listening...it was like every day...English. I was kind of forced to learn. You have to learn. My mindset...I think...it was the mindset--that you have to learn.