Urvi Bhuwania

Week 1

 A Link Between Language and Culture

PC: Loyola Marymount University 

    Recently, I read an article on The Daily Q (linked below) that interviewed four students from Northwestern University in Qatar on their beliefs regarding the purpose of language and the effect that language has had on their cultural identities. For brief context, Qatar is an Arab country in the Middle East, and all the interviewees chosen had a high proficiency in English with typically less fluency in Arabic. As a result, many of the students found themselves becoming increasingly westernized and detached from their cultures; they got bullied for their lack of fluency in the native tongue, got treated like a foreigner for their fluency in English, and other times were simply just unable to communicate with those in their community. 

    The level of isolation that the interviewees felt from cultural aspects of their life was honestly rather astounding because these worries are usually complemented by the misleadingly more prominent gratitude felt towards the new opportunities that fluency in English tends to present. It was even more surprising that with this insight into the despondency felt by these students in Qatar,  I reflected on my own connection to my religion and found a lot of similarities between my experiences and theirs, albeit to a lesser extreme. 

    In India, where I'm from, there exists a different language for almost every state, and my parents themselves probably speak at least three. As it is, the only language I've grown up around is Hindi, and while I have enough knowledge to maintain a conversation, anything past that is somewhat difficult. By contrast, most of my grandparents and family members are extremely fluent in Hindi with little to no knowledge of English, so whenever we visit certain extended family I inadvertently end up talking significantly less and having smaller conversations. 

    Even beyond communication within family, a great majority of cities in India, especially in rural areas, tend to have signs written only in Hindi and are populated with people who primarily speak Hindi or another language specific to their state. Whenever we go out then, it's always much harder to feel a sense of belonging because it'll be harder for me to navigate, communicate, and understand what others are saying around me. Furthermore, not having sufficient fluency in Hindi and other languages makes it that much harder to understand, and in turn enjoy, Indian films and music; instead, I end up gravitating even more towards Western styles of entertainment and away from an important part of my culture. In respect to my identity then, my preferences and daily activities similarly take a turn towards more Westernized practices, as is clear by my tendencies toward western styles of dance and music, western literature and entertainment, and even western styles of dessert. 

    Language in itself doesn't seem to hold a lot of cultural value at first: that worth is perceived to lie in entities such as movies, books, foods, festivals, and religious holidays. However, language is a crucial link to engagement with these cultural aspects, and it is an importance that is often underestimated due to its effects being rather difficult to definitively discern. Subsequently, even when caught up with the unending busyness and chaos of life, special care should be given to the goal of attaining and maintaining proficiency in one's native tongue to prevent detachment from one's culture. 

"Speaking of Identity: The Effects of Language on Cultural Identity" by Bisrat Tasew