Are You a “Real” Multilingual Family?

One of my favorite poets is David White, a wordcrafter extraordinaire. His writing has a gentle yet profound way of reminding us to stay true to who we are, even in the face of a world that prefers we fit neatly into a prescribed mold.

Here are the first few lines from his poem titled Self Portrait:

It doesn’t interest me if there is one God
Or many gods.
I want to know if you belong — or feel abandoned;
If you know despair
Or can see it in others.
I want to know
If you are prepared to live in the world
With its harsh need to change you;
If you can look back with firm eyes
Saying “this is where I stand.”

Do you know where you stand?

As multilingual multiculturals, do we ever know where we stand?  Crossing bridges, traversing plains and jungles.  We transcend space and time.  Where do we really belong?  Do we even know what it means to belong – anywhere, to anything?

My guess is that we find our sense of belonging, our place to stand, in a dimension which defies both space and time.  It is a place inside ourselves which gives meaning based on the varied paths we have taken to get where we are now; language and culture being integral to that whole.

When it comes down to it, it doesn’t really matter how many languages we speak or how completely we are passing them on to our children.  What it really comes down to is how our languages have come to shape us and how we in turn shape the world and those around us.

Is your multilingual family the real deal?

There used to be a time when my “place to stand” had much to do with the fact that I was part of a “real” multilingual family.  My husband is a native German speaker who can speak English fluently, so he passed the test.  I learned German for the “right” reasons: to get to know my husband and his family completely.  So I passed the test.  I chose to raise my children in my second language.  That was extra credit.