For example, as Sharif feels, around 30 percent of the population have some level of proficiency compared to probably one third of this number decades back. Despite the colonial past, Afghans seem to have become more «liberal» about speaking a foreign language which can now be commonly heard in social meetings. The nation’s natural resilience helps to embrace changes and do their best to incorporate the world’s «primary» language into their day-to-day lives.
Even after having worked on a few international projects and some overseas experiences, Sharif still feels his reading, writing and listening are above his speaking. He has only spent a month in the U.S., but is hoping to perfect his skills during the next 2 years he is going to spend here on his Master program.
Sharif expects English to play an even bigger role in his professional life as his is «a new emerging» field and being able to develop it in his home country will involve continuous interactions with international funds and organizations.
Sharif believes his identity certainly transforms as he switches between languages. Unlike when speaking Dari and Pashto, English and Urdu require some extra time to make up his mind on how to speak, how to react causing him to feel «caught up».
Sharif is sure his little son will grow to be multilingual as there is definitely going to be more need for that in the future. But at the end of the day, the number of languages one speaks isn’t that important.
∞ Humble but very articulate, Sharif seemed quite optimistic about the future of his country back then. We would occasionally catch up with him on campus over coffee «to put the world to rights». He actually became one of the backbones of our Montclair Fulbright group, a «community of practice» we, MSU Fulbrighters, created at our host university to stay connected. Sharif had a consistent and comprehensive approach to arranging group meetups. It seems like this «businesslike» approach to language learning has borne fruit for him. It was also so much pleasure to be able to stay in touch and have insightful discussions online after I left the U.S. a year following the interview.
«Routine» news stories become personal when you know a soul from the place where a report is being made from. I have certainly felt more involved watching reports coming from Afghanistan ever since I met fellow Fulbrighters from there.
Despite new challenges posed by more political turmoil that followed, Sharif went on to have an international career in a few more English-speaking countries.
A European’s experience with English (Milena, Austria)
Languages spoken: German, English, Slovene, Chinese.
Field of study/career: Molecular Biology.
I met Milena from Austria in one of the weekly events at my university called «Connecting Through Cultures». She was one of the very first Europeans I ran into here in Montclair. Having been to quite a few places in Europe, I still held onto this collective image of it despite being perfectly aware of how different the countries making up the EU are (linguistically, culturally and somewhat politically).
Due to geographic and historic reasons, as Russians we might have conflicting views of Europe and the West overall. In the mid-19th century two opposite groups – the Slavophiles (those believing in Russia having its own way and not follow the West) and the Westernizers (emphasizing Russia’s inferiority and the need for it to adopt the Western standards) emerged in the Russian Empire. Probably, up to this day, the Russian society is divided over how they feel about Europe in particular. I personally imagined that Europeans would have access to more educational (including language learning) opportunities compared to Russians.
So, Milena and I sat down to have a slow pensive chat on campus on a bench offering a blurred distant view of the Manhattan skyline.
In Austria it is mandatory to learn English from the 4th Grade. Milena doesn’t feel there was too much focus on grammar. Even though her native language and English are of the same language family, pronunciation is completely different, so that was a bit of a challenge. Grammar wasn’t that difficult, though, compared to that of German.
English is pretty popular all over Europe as it is the language for connecting with people from all across the world. Based on Milena’s experience, everywhere she has been inside the EU all young people were fluent in English. Older generations might not be so open and the main reason for that might be that it is easier to learn a foreign language while you are young.
Milena went to Great Britain for a week with her school where she got to speak English continuously for the first time. That brief trip helped to «get into the language». Of course, living in Europe makes it easier to get around and mostly it is the regular use of social media and watching English movies that facilitates language learning for young Europeans. That is why speaking it is «not much of a big deal» in the EU where it feels «almost like the second language».
When it comes to German, Milena’s first language, the way it is spoken in Austria is different. Basically even though it is the same language, dialects are different and so are some words and even sayings that Milena hadn’t realized weren’t used in Germany till she had Germans misunderstand her. In a way German brings two nations together, but obviously Austria doesn’t want to merge with its bigger neighbor. «We are still a nice country», says Milena.
Milena has faced no issues after around 1.5 months here in the U.S. If she misses her native language, there are some Austrians on campus to talk to. Here she feels it is «not a big deal to be from somewhere else» so having an accent or making occasional mistakes isn’t a problem.
If Milena chooses to pursue a career in research, she will have to use English to get published as it is the language of science and networking. It is still possible to publish in German, but it is obvious it doesn’t have such «a big audience».
Back at school Milena did some Slovene as this country is really close by, but sadly, she can’t «actively speak».
Here at Montclair she started taking Chinese, which she mainly sees «just as a chance to learn a new langauge», which is «big» at the moment. Learning tones and characters is different but has been «fun».
Finally, Milena believes English is enough to get by in the multilingual Europe, but of course learning a country’s national language is essential if you want to «feel more like you belong».
∞ As someone who had been considering looking for opportunities to continue my research in Europe after my Fulbright program, I was particularly interested in the European perspective on bilingualism. As I had expected, a lot of things that in my home country were somewhat inconceivable were «not a big deal» there.
I also did German as my second foreign language at university, so hearing a German-speaking person’s experience of sharing this language with the bigger country was interesting. At some point I felt tempted to practise my now rusty German with Milena, but honestly speaking, my level wouldn’t have allowed me to have a conversation of much depth. But I did muster the courage to give it a go when Milena’s Mum came to visit a bit later.
I spent the entire trip from Montclair to NYC (around 40 minutes) speaking German with an Austrian and was able to understand about 70% of what was being said. No wonder I never regretted
