9 February 2024
As part of our intercultural experience, we are taking Spanish classes for about four hours every morning through CASAS, or Central America Study and Service cultural immersion program. We are in small groups and paired up with a teacher. So far, we have learned through cooking, singing Guatemalan songs, acting out skits, reading Central American literature, and even a trip to the zoo, of course in addition to traditional classroom learning. I like the immersive atmosphere of learning in this way, but I also deeply appreciate how we are in classes small enough that we can ask our teachers questions about life in Guatemala and get real answers.
The more we study Spanish, the more I, an English Education major, come to appreciate English and the study of language. Let me explain.
My whole life I have loved language. I love writing, reading, and communicating my point clearly. I love to read a well-written book, compose a perfectly flowing essay, or eloquently tell others what I want them to know. I appreciate language. I started appreciating language more when I took Introduction to Linguistics (shoutout Wendell Shank) last spring. It was a wonderful class that taught me the importance of parts of speech and just how differently languages communicate the same idea. Being in Guatemala has only grown that appreciation more. For example, I love that the sentence in Spanish “yo se quiero darle” doesn’t translate perfectly to English. If we translated it word for word, we would hear: “I you want to give it.” The idea is the same — “I want to give it to you” — but we can’t say it exactly the same way in both languages. I think that is fascinating. In English, you just follow right along with the idea from point A to point B. In Spanish you almost have to listen to the whole sentence before you can fully understand what the person is trying to say. If you’re not getting the whole sentence, you’re grasping at straws (words) trying to figure out what is going on.
In my head, Spanish is round. It’s all round vowels and flowing consonants. I love the way that Spanish just falls and tumbles off the tongue. On the contrary, English is all sharp corners: pointy consonants and open vowels (Listen to a native Spanish speaker try to say “iron” or “uncle” or “tree” in English and you’ll know what I mean). Spanish flows and gurgles while English gets straight to the point and passing decorum. I appreciate the ways that Spanish takes its time getting to the point while English charges forward. I’m not trying to say here that one language is better than the other, I’m just trying to convey how it looks in my head.
One of my frustrations with being here in Guatemala is that I have limited Spanish and so I cannot always understand everything that people are saying or express what I want to say to its fullest extent. In many ways I’m back to the basics. I can only say what I have the vocabulary for. It’s so frustrating. I have to describe what I want to say or even turn to Google Translate (which I try to avoid as much as possible) and even then sometimes people don’t understand. It’s disheartening. But here’s the thing: I’m learning like a sponge. I feel like my brain is absorbing so much Spanish every day simply because I have to. What vocabulary I do have is enough to make good connections with new friends and my host family. Some days are harder than others, as it is anywhere else. But what I do have is enough to make good connections with people who are so gracious and so patient when I don’t understand. Language builds bridges and I’ve never seen that more in my life than during my three short weeks in Guatemala.
What I have come to appreciate most about language is the way it can connect and alienate people all at the same time. For example, I wouldn’t be able to get to know my host family at all if I didn’t speak Spanish. I have limited Spanish so I cannot express all I want to express, but I’ve got the basics and that’s enough as I learn more. I also wouldn’t be able to understand or appreciate this country and its culture to its fullest extent if I didn’t understand the language and the way that people who speak Spanish think. At the same time, language can alienate people. My words, no matter the language, can rub salt in a wound or open a new one. Words can hurt and often the wounds caused by words take the longest to heal.
So I did what any good English major does with these reflections: I wrote a poem. It’s below in both English and Spanish, translated with the help of Elena Zook Barge.
The words of my language 
tumble off my tongue
and into the world.
The words of my language
I hold so dear
for the beauty of connection
and of expression that they give me.
I do not know
the words of your language.
The words of my language
fall short.
But I must build a bridge.
I must make a connection.
And so I learn.
I read the words
I write the words
I hear the words
I speak the words
of your language.
There is a jumbled mess
But soon I make sense.
Soon I unravel
the tangled threads
of your language.
And soon,
your language
becomes my language.
And soon,
the words of your language
tumble off my tongue
and a bridge is built.
-Miranda Beidler
