Have Language, Will Travel
Spanish! Catalan! Worrying about children's multilingualism (always) & a recap of language-related gems in Too Much & AJLT. Plus, Winston Churchill's rompers!
We are trying to readjust to everyday reality after being away for nearly two weeks in Menorca. The post-holiday blues are no joke. Not to be confused with Mallorca (it often is), we were in the smaller and more quaint Spanish Balearic island earlier this month for a longer-than-usual stretch. We are lucky to return year after year, this being our fifth time. The first time we visited the island, my daughter was only six months old, she’s now 8. A while back, I wrote about my children growing up in the same holiday spot, summer after summer, their limbs getting longer in each photo, their faces changing so quickly, and how I try to recreate the same image, in the same location every time we go. Like language keeping and multilingual mothering, memory keeping is another form of emotional labour and care work. Memories of memories and snapshots of bygone childhood and motherhood moments taken, and then in need of organisation, let us not forget1. But I digress.
Menorca has two official languages: Spanish (Castilian) and Catalan, specifically, Menorquí, a Menorcan variety of Catalan. I barely get by in Spanish despite my best efforts, so unfortunately, my Catalan is non-existent, but I appreciate when places have both languages side-by-side so you can see how different, and sometimes similar, they are.
For example, the word “cone” as in “ice cream cone” is “cucurutxo” in Catalan, “cono” in Spanish. One of our favourite gelatarias/heladerias always has all the flavours on a board in both languages, and it is fascinating to see how flavours like lemon with basil (the best!) differ in Catalan versus Spanish (not much). But look at strawberry: “fresa” in Spanish but “maduixa” in Catalan.2 Of course “gelato” (of gelataria) is a loan word from Italian but used in many parts of the world.
Holidays are meant to be a time for turning off, but as expected, that did not stop me from thinking about language, or specifically, my family’s languages and how often they can shift. While we were in Menorca, my children’s Polish suffered, but their Spanish improved, as did mine. I also had the chance to practise my French, interpreting for my daughter as she played on the beach with two little girls from France. Note to self: I really need to practise my French as I always get so nervous when using it, even (especially?) with children!
When the four of us are together as a family, although I try to translate as much as I can for my husband, we often end up all communicating in English as it is faster and easier. While away, we listened to a lot of English-language music in the car on long drives, watched English-language movies as a family in the evenings, and stayed out late meaning there was rarely time for my son to get his Polish reading done, or for me to read to my daughter in Polish before bedtime. At the same time, my children were thrilled to use Spanish at shops and restaurants, flexing those linguistic muscles. It was a reminder for them, and for me, how wonderful it is to know the language where you are, not to mention other languages you can use when your paths cross with other travellers.
The time away also reminded me about the ebbs and flows of language and how we use our language(s) differently every day. Even in monolingual contexts, there are different domains. Think: work language, family language, friend language. Although it always scares me when my children don’t get what I consider enough Polish input in a day, I know we can make it up another time, or at least I hope. I say this confidently while admitting it is always scary for most multilingual families. I still often think, what if this is the beginning of the end? Balancing languages is complex and language constantly changes. Even though we might think we have control, often, we don’t.
This is not to say that one language replaces another, at least not in this way, in such a short period of time. There is plenty of room for multiple languages but, there are only so many hours in a day, so many conversations one can have. This is why it is impossible to answer the question, “How many languages is too many for my child to learn?” The answer depends on how much time you have, your lifestyle, and who your children will be communicating with. I would love to hear your stories of travelling with children and the multilingual adventures or mishaps you’ve had in the comments.
Now, for a few fun things:
I continue to watch And Just Like That (sorry, I need closure) and am almost done with Lena Dunham’s Too Much. As expected, I relish in the language-related stuff. For those watching, did you notice in AJLT a couple of episodes back how Giuseppe’s mom’s (played by Patti LuPone) “Italian accent” starts fading as the episode goes on? There is a whole thing at the beginning when Charlotte tells Gia her English is “perfect” and Gia replies that it better be as she is American and only moved to Italy as a young woman. I appreciated the continuity of the Italian variation fading the longer Gia is in NY, whether that was intentional or not. Accent accommodation is a thing!
I am still unsure how I feel about Lena Dunham’s Too Much even though I am on the last episode (sort of meh?), but I do love all the accent talk (see above). And as a Canadian in England, the British-English and North American-English misunderstandings, linguistically and culturally are so great. (The “estate” confusion in an early episode is classic, and the Pizza Express comment in the last episode made me laugh so much — I probably would not get either joke if I was not living in London.)
I have also noticed a few portrayals of multilingual families in movies and TV recently. In Too Much, in the painful episode when Felix returns to visit his family (no spoilers), we hear Japanese at the dinner table. His mother, played by Kaori Momoi, is Japanese, his father, played by Stephen Fry, is English. The actor who plays Felix, Will Sharpe is, according to a quick search, fluent in Japanese. He was born in London but spent part of his childhood in Tokyo before returning to the UK.
And in a pretty bad but loveable 2021 Jennifer Garner movie I watched with my children recently, Yes Day, the parents speak to one other a few times in Spanish. The dad in the movie is played by Venezuelan actor Édgar Ramírez and I loved how they incorporated his Spanish into the family’s repertoire for the fictional characters. I just wish the children had used it in the movie as well but baby steps. Here’s to more multilingual families being represented on screen.
Finally, as soon as we got back to London, our wonderful friends-who-are-family came to visit from the U.S. and we booked the Churchill War Rooms as our one touristy thing. Despite living in London for 13 years and meaning to go a number of times, it was my first time and it was fascinating. Did you know Churchill had two baths a day, insisted on three meals every day and wore… rompers?! How did I not know Churchill had a long history with the onesie, (a.k.a. siren suit) one of my favourite fashion items? “Churchiallian fashion” is a thing!
Other interesting, language-adjacent facts I learnt: Churchill liked the quiet, whistling was prohibited in the war rooms, and this is why he appreciated “noiseless typewriters”. Plus, in war-time slang, when talking about the weather “windy” meant “scary”.
Wishing you many non-windy (windless?) days to come.
Thank you for reading.
As she says bitterly, trying to make albums from the past year, something she adores doing even if it is another thing on the to-do list.
I won’t get into it here but Catalan and Catalonia are of course examples of how political language truly is. Language is always political.
Now I wanna have children and go to Menorca as well :-)
I just watched that episode of And Just Like That!
Also, in other parts of Spain, we also say cucurucho (the "tx" comes from Basque). I used it a few days ago and my Colombian boyfriend had never heard cucurucho, they use cono (Bogotá-Menorca connection!).