by a teacher (Geetanjali, India)
Languages spoken: Hindi, English, German.
Field of study/career: Biochemical Engineering.
We met up with Geetanjali, a fellow Fulbrighter from India, in Philadelphia, a member of the so-called Miami group – a bigger «community of practice» – that brought together the fellow Fulbrighters from our first days in the U.S. at Gateway Orientation. Me, a fellow Russian Fulbrighter as well as Milena from Austria went on a day trip to the neighboring state of Pennsylvania. After a substantial meal of a Philly cheesesteak we sat right in front of the Independence Hall where the U.S. Constitution was adopted. It was overwhelming to be in a place where American history was made.
I was excited to talk from one more person from India and get to compare two perspectives from the same country so early on in my project.
Geetanjali comes from New Delhi (North of India) where she studied at an English-medium school. Initially she didn’t really enjoy English much despite not having many difficulties. She can only remember having some with speaking. It wasn’t until her middle-school English teacher encouraged the students to use English exclusively during classes. This specific teacher really made a huge difference as in day-to-day life no one encouraged Geetanjali to speak English. Afterwards it became «fun».
As she progressed to more senior classes, Geetanjali felt the need for English. Her Dad was in military forces so they moved across the country quite often. India has so many languages and sometimes English is the only language that can be used between Indians coming from different states. For example, in the South people don’t know Hindi, which is Geetanjali’s mother tongue.
According to Geetanjali, there is no use denying how «everything is getting globalized», so English is the number-one language for people moving around the world. At this point she doesn’t consider her English to be perfect and feels it is still in need of some improvement. Here in the U.S. in between doing her research in Biochemical Engineering she is doing her best to make friends through Fulbright. It feels a lot easier to be using English here than in the UK (particularly Scotland) where Geetanjali had a tough time understanding people. That might have been due to more exposure to American English through Hollywood films.
Using English, Geetanjali does feel different. Hindi is something she has known since birth, but in English she has to «frame sentences» before speaking and there is «some thought process going on».
As she is determined to continue her postdoctoral research in an English-speaking country, speaking is the skill she is trying hard to improve.
Geetanjali believes that making friends from other countries by taking part in social events is key to mastering English as you would be put in a situation where you have no other shared language.
As for other languages, Geetanjali might consider continuing learning German on her own after previously taking an introductory course.
∞ Overall, Geetanjali’s experiences are similar to those of her compatriot Apoorva, my first interviewee. It is fascinating how no matter which part of the «circle» one happens to live in, the language learning difficulties they face are basically of the same nature. Even in the countries where speaking opportunities can be less limited than in others, it can still be down to an individual teacher to make the world of difference.
Geetanjali must have worked really hard towards improving her skills as she was able to continue her research in another English-speaking country after her Fulbright year.
A multilingual and multicultural future psycholinguist
(Jonathan, Malaysia)
Languages spoken: English, Malay, Cantonese.
Field of study/career: Psychology.
It was such a pleasure to meet such a young and open-minded person as Jonathan from Malaysia at another meeting of «Connecting Through Cultures». I considered him a colleague as he was here in the U.S. to study Psycholinguistics at Montclair State for one semester. For such projects you always wonder whether specialists in your field are actually better participants as they would be able to illuminate a lot of issues we hope our interview questions are designed to tap into. On the other hand, there might be some caveats as being too conscious and aware of the topic is likely to make their answers more controlled. Anyway, I was happy to sit down on the familiar lawn of our campus to talk with Jonathan and hear his insights into bilingualism in his multilingual native Malaysia.
Jonathan (which is an English version of his name) considers English to be his dominant language which he grew up speaking with everyone in the family except his grandparents. He picked up Cantonese in the family environment as well.
While being at elementary school he picked up an English book and ended up developing love for reading. By the age of 12 he would read 2–3 books a week. That, paired with his passion for creative writing, must have helped him a lot to make English indispensable to his existence.
English is seen as a prestigious language in Malaysia, which fact is emphasized at schools where three languages are used: Malay (the national language), Mandarin (in Chinese schools), Hindi and Tamil (in Indian schools).
When it comes to English grammar, Jonathan had no difficulties with it due to extensive reading. He says, «I just know, but I can’t teach it. The rules simply grew on me».
In Malaysian households it is common to casually use the so-called «Manglish», which is a «jumble» of English, Malay, Cantonese and sometimes Tamil.
English is mandatory for everyone to learn. Mandarin and Tamil are optional. Some of Jonathan’s Chinese friends go to Indian schools and Indians go to Chinese ones, which makes Malaysia a sort of a «cultural pan». In this multicultural and multiracial environment there is no stigmatization of accents. Nevertheless being «weak» in English is generally seen as unprofessional. Some people speak broken English and direct translate phrases from their native tongues, which makes people talking to them «reframe their mind» in order to be able to understand whatever they are saying.
Jonathan’s interest in Psycholinguistics originated while he was working at a Learning Disability Centre. His research thesis is on how bilingualism affects cognitive abilities in individuals. During his semester here in the U.S. he is continuing this project which is only theoretical at this point as there is no time to get a special permission to conduct any experiments involving «human subjects» here in the U.S. One of the hypothesis in Jonathan’s work is that individuals who are fluent in 2 or 3 languages would have «lesser reaction times». Jonathan mentions the Stroop Test which has been widely used in experimental psychology since the 1930s after it had been introduced by an American psychologist as well as for studying the effects of bilingualism. Another question Jonathan is struggling with is at what point one considers themselves proficient: is being able to hold a conversation enough or does it have to be of a certain complexity and length?
Switching between his languages, Jonathan is mostly affected by how different they are in terms of showing respect. For example, English doesn’t have a hierarchy of respect, but when used
