Blurring the Borders & Barriers of Language
On the connection between language and travel and a linguistics lesson on when it is too late to learn a language (jk: NEVER!)
A friend recently told me her partner is keen to take their family to France this summer as he feels their young children are approaching an age when exposure to a new language will no longer be as beneficial. I took a deep breath and asked her if she wanted me to be an arrogant (informed!) linguist and explain why, although any reason to travel is, in my opinion, 100 per cent valid, this one is not 100 per cent accurate. Her partner was referring to the critical period hypothesis, a highly-debated notion there is a window when children learn languages effortlessly and easily. One of the main issues with this hypothesis is that no one can, with solid evidence, decide when this period actually ends. Is it before or after puberty? Between four and seven years old, or before 10?
You’ve probably heard that thing about children being like sponges, especially when it comes to language learning. Again, not 100 per cent accurate. Sure, there is an element of absorption with input and exposure, especially if you’re immersed in a language, but children put in more effort learning a language than adults, and it takes them longer, they just do it differently and have more time to do it. Yes, children’s brains make more neural connections and yes, there is the question of pronunciation and accent when learning a language as a child versus an adult, but there is nuance, exceptions and nothing is straightforward except, it is not easier for children to learn languages in the way most people think, and it is never too late (or too early).
I was reminded of the talk with my friend about traveling after reading
‘s newsletter on her recent trip to Sicily. Piazza and her family left Italy shortly before the fires affected some of the places she had visited the week before. She wrote about the question of travel when it comes to climate change and brought up the recent New Yorker essay by Agnes Callard on the case against travel. I also read the essay and like Piazza, did not agree with most of it, but Callard is a philosopher so to be honest, she lost me a few times. The main argument in the essay is that travel doesn’t change us the way we think it does, or definitely not in some profound, life-altering way. I don’t disagree with Callard on this, but it is because travel does not have to always be all-encompassing and life-altering to be powerful or simply, pleasurable.I do think over time, travel can both chip away at our hardened exteriors and plant seeds of something bigger than us, even if it is not obvious after just one trip. I am mostly thinking about language here, experiences of being exposed to different sounds and signs, perhaps being somewhere for the first time where someone doesn’t understand what you’re saying when you’ve always been understood. Maybe it is exposure to people who sound nothing like you but sound like everyone else around because you’re the one who is different.
And hopefully, there is then a realization that in fact, the onus is on you to recognize how others speak or sign, that the responsibility is not only on the speaker to be understood, but also on the listener. It is also powerful to travel somewhere where multilingualism is “normal”, where people speak the language of their homes but can switch into the language of the tourist, especially for those travellers who live in a place where the monolingual mindset prevails. (Most of the world is in fact multilingual and monolingualism is the rarity.)
Language borders and boundaries, even if they seem more prominent at first, eventually become (hopefully) blurred. Perceived (language) barriers break down and we are all better for it. (Ideally, we shouldn’t have to travel for this to happen but realistically, it sometimes takes a jarring experience outside of our comfort zone to realize language borders and barriers are nonsense and we can do better.)
It is an incredible privilege to travel, and many people are not able to do it for many different reasons. As Piazza notes, some tourism is truly gross and we must be conscious of giving back what we take, whether that is offsetting our carbon footprint, or being respectful of the places we visit and cultures we encounter and experience.
Traveling with children is of course a topic worthy of its own lengthy philosophical considerations. We do it often, and have since my kids were new-borns. Sometimes, it’s amazing and totally worth it, other times, it is so hard and sucks. (I had some wonderful messages of solidarity from other parents traveling with kids this summer after that newsletter.)
I am reading Violent Borders by Reece Jones for research right now and although traveling for a holiday/pleasure is obviously not in any way comparable with trying to cross dangerous borders for a safer and better life, I keep thinking about this passage:
“Borders are not natural divisions between people or benign lines on a map. They are mechanisms for some groups of people to claim land, resources, and people, while fundamentally excluding other people from access to those places. They create and exacerbate inequalities and they protect the economic, political, and cultural privileges that have accrued over the past few hundred years through the spoils of colonialism, capitalism, and most recently economic globalization.”
The same goes for language borders in the context of multilingualism but also, when someone considers the way they communicate is better or right compared with anyone else. Borders and barriers, and notions of what is home versus away, is also about who is us and who is them in the context of not only geography but culture and language. Perhaps I am optimistic, or naïve, but I believe travel can, for some people at least, begin to break down some of these discriminatory and ignorant beliefs.
Will my friend’s children learn French fluently after a week in France? No. Is it crucial they go now before a certain age or they won’t get the benefits of being exposed to a new language? Also, no. But, maybe something will happen on that trip that will make them want to learn French or at the very least, to appreciate there are many languages and varieties in the world and all are important and all are equal.
Some links:
Speaking of travel, I loved and was moved by this essay on traveling in America on the Greyhound bus. I had never considered, as writer Joanna Pocock notes, the appification of travel and what that means in terms of barriers (there is that word again) for people who do not have access to mobile phones or the internet.
What is the difference between a dialect and an accent? Dispatch from Miami.
This week, I finished The Bear (it was released later in the UK) and again, like Season 1, was crushed by the weight of nostalgia listening to the soundtrack. I started Tiny Beautiful Things and whoa, the mother-daughter relationships in that show!
And finally, on the topic of maps and navigation, this time motherhood and life, I also finished and loved Directions to Myself by Heidi Julavits this week and wrote a bit about it here. Here is my favourite quote from the book:
Thank you for reading.