Open & Inquisitive

ENGLISH IS NOT NORMAL

**********A Very Long Interesting Article**********

#language #PeopleOfTheWorld #foreign #communication #writing #English #speaking #conversation #understanding #culture #education #travel #read #learn #know #caring

I CAN PROUDLY REMEMBER figuring out the use of language of Shakespeare, Chaucer, etc. in high school. I was already fluent in standard American English and African American English. There are so many languages I'd like to have learned and attempt "dabbling" in many. However, I find the willingness to communicate can overpower one's inability to converse verbally. I just amp up my gestures, keep eye contact and GO! Having never mistressed (haha) the ability to use Sign Language, I feel at a loss when I have to resort to the Manual Alphabet (My friends and I learned it so we could cuss at each other while in church among other things.) It's so slow! Those who can sign usually are disappointed and/or impatient when 10 things to impart take 15 minutes whereas one can convey 100 things in 5 minutes! (I still don't like talking messages into my phone.) And, I was at a loss trying to communicate with people in Africa who didn't speak English ("American") even if it was a francophone (French) or es conocido en todo el mundo (Spanish) based language.

I did have a tender moment where my eyes got a little watery while visiting a “School for the Deaf" in Africa because I and another visitor were able to use our limited abilities. The kids were delighted and patient with us! Barrier crossed!

I was a guest teacher (such a better name than "substitute") with some young children in an “English As a Second Language” class (ELA). I think they were between the ages of kindergarten and first grade. Their English capabilities were varied, so I began to improvise. I decided to play a word game on the blackboard; a very low-tech version of "Wheel of Fortune." It was my tailored version of "Hang Man". (Hopefully, now, many folk have no idea how it was played. I still can't get over having done it when I was younger!) The object was to have the players guess the letters for a word to save the man from being hanged. Every wrong letter would put the man in jeopardy. Instead, we'd play “In the Doghouse.” No sadistically slow hanging the stick figure by one body part at a time. instead, I'd draw a dog and build a piece of a house around it with every wrong guess. A more fitting punishment. At the end of that day, I asked the class would they like me to read a story written in Spanish to them. There was an enthusiastic chorus of yes and si! The kids enjoyed my attempts and corrected me mercilessly! It was great for them to see someone struggle with their home language; especialmente una profesora adulta. (especially an adult teacher).

Studying Latin in high school has enabled me to understand Spanish and some French while reading and getting an A+ in a conversational Spanish quickie class at Marygrove College. I took it because I was working in Southwest Detroit where "Mexican Town" thrives and there are many variants of Spanish. Also, I earlier had to learn how to tell Spanish speakers I was a Black American, not Puerto Rican, etc. Sometimes I would get the Ah, el estupido. look from their faces (We really need to learn more languages, everybody.) I always respond to the Latin men because some can be as bad as some Black men who may get verbally abusive when they think I am snubbing them! For example, my sister and I were in Houston and walked past a group of Mexican men (assumption in Texas) at an open market. One of them spoke suggestively to her in Spanish. She didn't reply and received a heartily angry retort "What's the matter with you? You come to this country and forget your language?" My sister, 'The Ice Queen' responded "Ah'm from Dee-troi." [Emphasis on the Dee (Southern style) and leaving the letter T off.] I always think he probably didn't know of Mexican Town in Detroit or he may have brought that up. In his defense, there's Cuban en mi familia a través de Louisiana.

The article mentions Robert MacNeil's book The Story of English, (1986) which I have owned forever and have yet to read. I actually considered studying linguistics in college since I have an aptitude. I used to wonder how I come up with certain ways of writing that may only be correct in English used across the pond or elsewhere. The article helped me realize - in a deeper sense - reading books written by folk from other lands b r o a d e n s one's understanding and mental practice of knowing other idioms. I read many-many folktales and myths when I was young. I have found that practice extremely helpful when meeting someone from another country. It especially creates somewhat of a bond similar to when wearing my Michigan Alumni Ts. Case in point: I was riding with a Lyft driver. Somehow we started talking about his native home of India. I told him how much I had enjoyed reading The God of Small Things. He beamed and excitedly stated the writer - Arundhati Roy - lived down the street from him. He had told me earlier he was a doctor back home. He seemed to be about 50 years old; starting over in another land.

A physical therapist I have is Indian. We got to talking about him moving his head almost as what we Americans consider a "no" instead of a yes. (I call it "making the infinity sign." I've started doing it as a way to loosen up my neck-stress.) I made him laugh by telling him he'd better watch out if a Black woman was doing something like that. He didn't get it so I put my hand on my hip while moving my head and he cracked teef. (See what I did?)

Anyway, these experiences make me glad I choose interest and inquisitiveness when I meet someone who hails from another country or culture. I have my father to thank for that! I'm not as well-traveled as others in my nuclear family but the places my eyes and ears take me are just as enlightening.

My sister: "Karen! You talk to anybody!" I was speaking with a stranger; an odd-looking, scruffy White man on the People Mover in Detroit.

"Yep." He started it.

Karen E. Dabney copyright 2020