Stuff
Speaking Spanish (or French, or Chinese, or Arabic)
By Cristina Garcia - November 17, 2008
I was lucky enough to grow up speaking Spanish at home. It wasn't like I had a choice, at first. Although my mother had studied English back in Cuba, she could barely get around a supermarket or through a checkout stand without my help. Before I knew what the word meant, I was “code-switching”; translating meanings and nuances from one language to another. I took for granted the fact that I had double the number of words and double the amount of music for everything in the world. I didn't know then what a privilege it was to be my mother's tiny ambassador. At the time it felt more like a burden, something that made me stand apart from everyone around us.
By the time I was in middle school, my mother's English had improved dramatically. She no longer needed me to help her return items to the department store (an all too frequent occurrence) or talk to customers in my parents’ gift shop. But I knew by then that I wasn’t through with translating. In fact, I wanted to do it for a living by joining the Foreign Service and traveling around the world. In the coming years, I would study French, German, Russian, Italian, and Portuguese and I can still basically negotiate my way in these languages. (Well, let's just say I wouldn't starve.) What I learned, though, was not just the meaning of one word for another. With each language I studied, I opened a window onto another culture, onto another way of looking at the world.
I never joined the Foreign Service but I’m happy to say I do make my living with language.
By the time I was in middle school, my mother's English had improved dramatically. She no longer needed me to help her return items to the department store (an all too frequent occurrence) or talk to customers in my parents’ gift shop. But I knew by then that I wasn’t through with translating. In fact, I wanted to do it for a living by joining the Foreign Service and traveling around the world. In the coming years, I would study French, German, Russian, Italian, and Portuguese and I can still basically negotiate my way in these languages. (Well, let's just say I wouldn't starve.) What I learned, though, was not just the meaning of one word for another. With each language I studied, I opened a window onto another culture, onto another way of looking at the world.
I never joined the Foreign Service but I’m happy to say I do make my living with language.
