Multi-lingual community
01/04/25 02:45
Our grandchildren attend an elementary school just eight miles from the Canadian border. The school is culturally diverse, with many children living in homes where English is not the first language. English is the language of instruction in the school, and children are taught to read and write in English. Many of the children can speak more than one language. Spanish is the second most common language. Because of how the West Coast was colonized, Spanish is a more ancient language on the coast than English. Our region saw settlers who spoke Spanish, French, and English. It takes a lot of seasonal labor to support farms in our area, and there are often workers from Mexico who travel to our location to work. Some become permanent residents for various reasons, including marriages with people from other ethnic groups.
Students who speak Spanish, Ukrainian, and Russian are in our grandchildren's classrooms. Some of the children of newer immigrant families, including those who were forced to leave Ukraine by the war, serve as primary translators for their families. Bilingual children whose parents do not speak English can support their parents at medical appointments, in business transactions, and in securing proper immigration status.
Our son, who serves as a librarian in a community in a neighboring county, works to provide a wide variety of resources for the people his library serves. Among those services are bilingual staff persons. The library has significant collections of adult and children’s books in Spanish, and a Spanish-speaking librarian is available whenever the library is open to the public. Recently, the library added materials request forms in Spanish, Russian, and Ukrainian to enable patrons to request that the library obtain books and other materials they want to read.
Recently, one of our granddaughters noticed that another student riding on her school bus was reading one of the Harry Potter books. Being a fan of Harry Potter and reading books herself, she took a closer look and discovered that the book her classmate was reading was not English. It was in a language with a different alphabet. She learned from the student reading the book that the language was Russian. She looked closer and recognized that the book had been checked out from the library where her father is the director. When she reported the experience, it brought both joy and tears to us.
We have worried at times because our son commutes 45 miles one way. The commute allows him to live on a small farm with his family and work in an exciting and growing public service library. Interestingly, he isn’t the only one making the trip. Some people are driving to check books out of the library, which are unavailable at libraries closer to their homes.
Our son has taught me that the value of a library is not in the number of books on its shelves but in the number of books in circulation in the community.
One of the many attractions of living near an International border is the presence of other languages and cultures in our communities. Our border is with a country where English is an official language. Although many Canadians speak French, English is the common language in the part of Canada near our home. The province is British Columbia, and its name reflects the culture and language of the dominant settler community.
Many of us have ancestors who brought other languages and cultures to this continent. On my father’s side of the family, many ancestors migrated from Germany. Some of those lived in Russia for a time, though they retained their German language and culture during the time they lived in Russia. First-generation immigrants struggled with learning English, but their children and grandchildren became fluent. Congregations formed in German immigrant communities worshiped in German for a few years, but all of them have now switched to English as the language of worship. With each succeeding generation, American English language and culture became more dominant. My father and his father grew up speaking English as their primary language, and neither could read or speak German. A similar process will happen with other immigrant communities.
Our most rapidly growing congregations in the Pacific Northwest Conference of the United Church of Christ are Samoan. Immigrant communities have brought their language, culture, and church connections. Our Samoan congregations are already bilingual, and many services are in English. Like the German Congregational churches, their cultural identity will shift with time. Language and tradition will fade as new generations grow up, and their primary identity will be US citizens.
Except for our indigenous neighbors, we all have immigrant backgrounds. Many Indigenous folks, including those officially enrolled in tribal nations, have mixed ancestry. This is what occurs when people live next to each other. They make friends, form relationships, fall in love, and marry across the artificial lines of language and national identity. Learning about our ancestors' cultural and language traditions helps us identify with more recent immigrants. There are many parallels in their experiences.
We live in a world of high mobility. It isn’t just people that travel across international borders. I recently purchased a bell for my bike from a local bike shop. I try to shop locally and avoid the largest online merchants. The bell, however, had been manufactured in China. I don’t know the route it traveled to the bike shop, but it arrived with the packaging and instructions all written in English. Goods and services travel long distances. Increasingly, services ranging from health care to warranty are being provided over the Internet and across international boundaries. A person treated in a local emergency room might have their X-rays or CT scans read by a radiologist in another country. Images can travel worldwide in seconds, and access to services 24 hours a day sometimes involves communication with people in other time zones.
Yesterday, I had a meeting over Zoom that had participants in four time zones. I went directly from that to an in-person meeting. Whether it is a popular book written in one language and translated into another or a medical image interpreted by someone far away, we are connected to people with different languages, cultures, and national identities.
Students who speak Spanish, Ukrainian, and Russian are in our grandchildren's classrooms. Some of the children of newer immigrant families, including those who were forced to leave Ukraine by the war, serve as primary translators for their families. Bilingual children whose parents do not speak English can support their parents at medical appointments, in business transactions, and in securing proper immigration status.
Our son, who serves as a librarian in a community in a neighboring county, works to provide a wide variety of resources for the people his library serves. Among those services are bilingual staff persons. The library has significant collections of adult and children’s books in Spanish, and a Spanish-speaking librarian is available whenever the library is open to the public. Recently, the library added materials request forms in Spanish, Russian, and Ukrainian to enable patrons to request that the library obtain books and other materials they want to read.
Recently, one of our granddaughters noticed that another student riding on her school bus was reading one of the Harry Potter books. Being a fan of Harry Potter and reading books herself, she took a closer look and discovered that the book her classmate was reading was not English. It was in a language with a different alphabet. She learned from the student reading the book that the language was Russian. She looked closer and recognized that the book had been checked out from the library where her father is the director. When she reported the experience, it brought both joy and tears to us.
We have worried at times because our son commutes 45 miles one way. The commute allows him to live on a small farm with his family and work in an exciting and growing public service library. Interestingly, he isn’t the only one making the trip. Some people are driving to check books out of the library, which are unavailable at libraries closer to their homes.
Our son has taught me that the value of a library is not in the number of books on its shelves but in the number of books in circulation in the community.
One of the many attractions of living near an International border is the presence of other languages and cultures in our communities. Our border is with a country where English is an official language. Although many Canadians speak French, English is the common language in the part of Canada near our home. The province is British Columbia, and its name reflects the culture and language of the dominant settler community.
Many of us have ancestors who brought other languages and cultures to this continent. On my father’s side of the family, many ancestors migrated from Germany. Some of those lived in Russia for a time, though they retained their German language and culture during the time they lived in Russia. First-generation immigrants struggled with learning English, but their children and grandchildren became fluent. Congregations formed in German immigrant communities worshiped in German for a few years, but all of them have now switched to English as the language of worship. With each succeeding generation, American English language and culture became more dominant. My father and his father grew up speaking English as their primary language, and neither could read or speak German. A similar process will happen with other immigrant communities.
Our most rapidly growing congregations in the Pacific Northwest Conference of the United Church of Christ are Samoan. Immigrant communities have brought their language, culture, and church connections. Our Samoan congregations are already bilingual, and many services are in English. Like the German Congregational churches, their cultural identity will shift with time. Language and tradition will fade as new generations grow up, and their primary identity will be US citizens.
Except for our indigenous neighbors, we all have immigrant backgrounds. Many Indigenous folks, including those officially enrolled in tribal nations, have mixed ancestry. This is what occurs when people live next to each other. They make friends, form relationships, fall in love, and marry across the artificial lines of language and national identity. Learning about our ancestors' cultural and language traditions helps us identify with more recent immigrants. There are many parallels in their experiences.
We live in a world of high mobility. It isn’t just people that travel across international borders. I recently purchased a bell for my bike from a local bike shop. I try to shop locally and avoid the largest online merchants. The bell, however, had been manufactured in China. I don’t know the route it traveled to the bike shop, but it arrived with the packaging and instructions all written in English. Goods and services travel long distances. Increasingly, services ranging from health care to warranty are being provided over the Internet and across international boundaries. A person treated in a local emergency room might have their X-rays or CT scans read by a radiologist in another country. Images can travel worldwide in seconds, and access to services 24 hours a day sometimes involves communication with people in other time zones.
Yesterday, I had a meeting over Zoom that had participants in four time zones. I went directly from that to an in-person meeting. Whether it is a popular book written in one language and translated into another or a medical image interpreted by someone far away, we are connected to people with different languages, cultures, and national identities.
