The Power of Language to Bond
Introduction
I came about this topic by my own experiences as an out- of- stater. I remember the first month of freshman year, the anxiety I felt by being around people, predominantly from North Carolina , who had all gone to the same high schools, came from towns I had never heard of, who also spoke and ate differently then I did. I felt out of place, an outsider, a Yankee in the south. But then I started meeting people from Maryland , some even from the same county, a few even from the same town. The sense of comfort, relief, and companionship I felt was overwhelming, but also rather surprising. Although we did not know each other, just sharing a common background, accent and interests, created a starting point where dialogue was allowed to flourish. This got me thinking. If I, Dalton Patterson, felt this strong of a bond with my fellow Marylanders, in a place only four hundred miles away, in my own country no less, how would someone from a different country feel being in a foreign place, then finally finding someone from their native land who looked and spoke like them?
I used my aunt, Kim Suk, as a case study. She was born in Seoul , South Korea and had limited access to English as a child. Growing up, her middle school only had English class once a week. She met my uncle, Relford, while he was in the military, in 1981, and moved with him to America in 1982 when she was 26. My grandmother taught her English and she has been able to use the language pretty well. But, since she truly learned the language far after the critical period, she has never been able to master the language. Because of this, as she tells me, she is shy to carry on a conversation in English with those she considers strangers and her friends are mostly Korean.
Transcription
Analysis
As one can see from the tape, my aunt is still uncomfortable with the language and is not very expressive, even with her nephew. Because she learned the language after the critical period, her grasp of the language is lacking and thusly, when speaking English, she seems to be more withdrawn as the short, choppy answers indicates. However, although the audio of her Korean is only a quick sound bite, I think it reveals her true outgoing nature. Because of this, when she speaks Korean, and is around those who look and speak like her, she can truly open up and be herself. I think this sense of community, this sense of belonging, is so integral to human nature, that existing outside the culture can hinder ones personality. Having a shared experience, country, and language allows human beings to be comfortable because we are social creatures. It serves as a basis for dialogue. But when human beings believe they cannot communicate or relate to another person, they become withdrawn because they are uncomfortable. It is this comfort that allows communities to develop and societies to thrive. A common language, as in the tale of the Tower of Babel , creates a population that is self- confident in their superiority. The power of we, in a sense is greater than the power of me. In order to feel this sense of belonging, human beings cling to the familiar for fear of being awkward, alone, and vulnerable.
The Tower of Babel story is a great example of how a common language builds of communities and how diverse language isolates and breaks down communities. Different language separates groups from one another. The Tower of Babel dealt with human beings trying to build a tower and a city to get closer to God and to heaven. But God was uncomfortable with this so the more they built, the more disruptive he made them until, one day, the citizens became so incompatible that they scattered throughout the world. Although this is a myth, it brings up a great point. Human beings have an inherent need to be around those who speak like them. This evolutionary trait that brought humans together to ensure their survival affects us to this day.
The Korean experience, in this regard then, is not unique. Following the Korean War, from 1950- 1989, 100, 000 “military brides” entered the United States . These brides, less than 30% are naturalized citizens and 78% speak Korean as a first language, created their own communities, one of the biggest being the Washington , D.C. area, where my aunt currently resides. This large community has developed a community inside the community by building grocery stores and shops that are targeted toward the Korean community and are patronized almost exclusively by Koreans. This is an extreme example how, being an immigrants and not being able to speak English well, has isolated a large number of the population in their own communities that are separate from the rest of the country. In the end, the desire to belong with your own wins out over the desire to assimilate to ones foreign land.
This project has taught me how strong community ties are. This desire to be with one's own is overwhelming and universal. From racial groups, races tend to congregate amongst their own; to regional differences, my experience as a freshman being one example; to the international, with regards to my aunt, across society, through all walks of life, people need to belong. This sense of community is directly tied to where they are from. So people, who do not even know each other, with gravitate to one another in a foreign place to ensure comfort and protect themselves from being vulnerable. Human beings need to belong so I guess the saying is true, there really is no place like home.
Sources:
Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language . 1st ed. New York : Harper Collins, 1994.
http://www.naka.org/resources/history.asp
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/korea/reimers.htm http://mcel.pacificu.edu/as/students/korea/cultureimmigrants.html
http://www.ldolphin.org/babel.html
About the
Author
I was born in Washington , D.C. , and was raised in Silver Spring , MD. My diverse background has allowed me to encounter many different cultures. I have a Danish uncle and a Korean aunt. This means that at family get togethers, there is pickled herring and kimchee along with the pot roast. I am also multi- racial, being the son of a black father and white mother. My mother hails from New England and, although she has lost her accent over time, she still uses slang such as "wicked." My father is from St. Louis , but his mother and father are from Alabama and North Carolina . So although my father as well does not have much of an accent, my grandparents' southern drawl is still very noticeable.
I was drawn to this idea through my own experiences as a freshman in a new state and observing my aunt. I noticed how she tended to become quite reserved and shy around English speakers but became quite animated around those who spoke her language. When I realized that many others behaved in a similar way in foreign places, I decided to further investigate this matter.