Languages, languages...

"Monolingualism CAN be cured!"

That slogan graced the classroom of one of my high school French teachers. I always liked the poster -- it was easy for me to be smug since I already knew Low German, German, and English -- but only in Paraguay have I realized what a strange North American phenomenon monolingualism actually is.

Pretty much everyone here speaks at least two languages. For most of the population, that means Spanish and Guaraní. For the colony Mennonites, it means German and Plautdietsch (which may or may not be considered different languages -- I argue that they are) and Spanish. In addition to these, there are a considerable number of Asian languages spoken in parts of Paraguay; one prime example is the Japanese colonies in the eastern part of the country. In regions near the Brazilian border, of course, there are a lot of people who speak Portuguese. There seems to be a widespread desire for English-language training because of the economic opportunities that knowing English brings, and this is reflected in the public school curriculum.

There is so much to say about being surrounded by all this language that I hardly know where to begin.

Let me make the observation, first of all, that it is wonderful to be so well understood. In a number of the places that our group finds itself, there are people present who speak Spanish AND English AND German... If we find ourselves at a loss for words in Spanish, we can resort to explaining ourselves in another language and the conversation flows on virtually uninterrupted. Just today at lunch, I was conversing in Spanish at a table at CEMTA (the Mennonite seminary here -- a lot like CMU, except culturally modified). When the fact that I knew German was brought up, the conversation switched to German, except for one girl who understood perfectly but always spoke in Spanish. The conversation flowed like this with no difficulty for anyone! It´s wonderful.

I am still waiting for a chance to converse with someone here in French, but I am sure the opportunity will arise. It did last year! At the moment, the French language is pretty much my best friend, since the grammatical structures and many words are so similar to those of Spanish. This is making it possible for me to learn Castellano (Spanish) much more quickly than I could have otherwise. The Spanish language is very intuitive and logical, and the more I learn Spanish, the more I wonder why English -- which is, let´s admit it, a ridiculously illogical and irregular language -- is becoming a global language. Spanish is far easier to learn!

The second thing I really want to say is that I love and am fascinated by the fact that, in Paraguayan culture, the indigenous language of Guaraní is absolutely pervasive. It seems so entirely normal here, that it makes me wonder why the notion of widely using an Aboriginal language seems so strange in Canada. To be honest, I am really starting to want to learn Guaraní. At the very least, I will collect a wide assortment of phrases and words that pepper the daily use of Spanish within families and among friends in Paraguay. Furthermore, I am beginning to think seriously about learning Cree when I get back to Canada.

We English teachers-to-be received a brief article the other day (check it out at http://www.mwc-cmm.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=186&Itemid=108) outlining the eight languages of translation at next year´s Mennonite World Conference assembly. The languages are as follows: Spanish, English, Guaraní, Enlhet, Nivaclé, German, French, and Portuguese. THREE of those are local indigenous languages!!! Perhaps the fact that I find this so exciting and unusual reflects my own country´s marginalization and neglect of our indigenous languages and cultures. I am rather under-exposed to this sort of thing. It is delightful for me to be in a place where being rooted in indigenous culture and language is not a matter of shame, but rather cause for pride.

Meeting youngsters who are fluent in two or more languages, young adults who are working on their fourth or fifth language, and older adults who are determined to learn English to complement their Spanish and Guaraní, is inspiring. The enthusiasm and language-learning efforts of the people here are humbling. Not only that, but their generous spirit makes it easy to want to join them in this quest for even greater communication ability. In theory, I suppose, my "joining in" is supposed to take the form of me teaching, and to some extent it will. But what I really want is to learn.

This hunger for learning, I think, is precisely the cure for the monolingualism found in many parts of North America. Hopefully, it is also the start of a cure for our underlying arrogance.