About Elenita
January 31st, 2009 | View Comments
According to the family stories–I remember none of this–my immigrant parents dropped me off at preschool feeling optimistic but slightly nervous about my ability to cope with an English-only environment. They told me to soak up as many new words as possible, and follow the other kids’ lead.
Two weeks later, I came home singing a children’s song in Spanish. When my mom asked my teachers about it, they were as surprised as she. No, there was nothing on the curriculum involving Spanish, they said. So they poked around during they day and eventually realized that I’d picked it up playing with my best friend, Carmen, at recess.
My mom fretted that I was learning Spanish at the expense of English, and looked into sending me elsewhere. She didn’t stop until Carmen’s mother called my dad to ask if she knew this song her daughter had been singing nonstop for the last two days? It didn’t take Dad long to recognize the Korean lullaby he sang every night.
“Of course Carmen and I teach each other new songs,” I answered, when they asked me about it. “It’s fun.”
It’s been more than two decades since that conversation, and nearly as long since I taught anybody how to sing anything. But my attitude towards language–and languages–has essentially remained the same: they’re lots of fun. It’s interesting to play with them–to explore their components, to compare them, to pick them apart, to study their evolution, to analyze the politics surrounding them. I love them, and I think about them constantly.
I am not, however, a linguist. Though I’ve picked up a decent amount about the discipline over the years, my training is actually in international affairs with liberal doses of Spanish (which I had to relearn years after saying my goodbyes to Carmen) and German. I suspect my posts here will reflect that education, with discussions more centered around politics, history, culture(s), identity. and more. But never fear–I managed to survive eight years of Korean school and have plenty of funny stories, too.
Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy the ride.
Elenita posted this on January 31st, 2009 @ 5:58pm in Biographical | Permalink to "About Elenita"
American-born Taiwanese girl who married a Japanese guy. And who forgot about six years' of Spanish grammar and most of the vocab.
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Korean-American girl who blogs under a Spanish pseudonym because being culturally confusing is fun. Native speakers say that she has outstanding Spanish (which is a definite compliment) and outstanding German (which is most assuredly not).
Elenita
American-born, Taiwanese guy who took five semesters worth of German and ended up with a major in Linguistics.
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My grandma claims I used to sing Japanese songs all the time. Which makes perfect sense, given that I lived with her for nearly a year in Taiwan when I was very small, and given that she is both fluent in Japanese and a singer. But I have no memory of any of it.