NOT YOUR

Not Your Mother's Tongue Navigating Language as a Hyphenated American

ARTICLE & PHOTO BY JANESSA ULUG • ILLUSTRATIONS & DESIGN BY BRITNEY STOUT

Senior Rasleen Saran embraces her aunt who has come to visit from Punjab, India, smiling warmly as they exchange greetings in Punjabi. In the initial stages of the conversation, Saran feels at ease, but soon enough, the conversation delves deeper, and she can only manage short answers, failing to express her feelings or engage in a meaningful interaction. “Yes.” “No.” “School is good.” I’m acting like I don’t care, she thinks, grimacing. Frustration runs through her veins; she understands everything that is being said and scours her mind for a response, but just cannot fnd the words. Sophomore Nahum Hintsa plops down on the couch beside his Eritrean grandfather.

“Hello!” Nahum’s father says in Tigrinya. “Hi!” Hinsta replies.

Foreign noises come out of his grandfather’s mouth in response. Foreign… but the sounds—the way they fow off the tongue—they feel so familiar, like home. As words removed of their meaning enter Hinsta’s ears, bearing only the feeling of love associated with the people who speak them, a puzzled expression settles on his face. Hintsa listens blankly, hearing but not understanding a single word. Eventually, he thinks of an excuse to get out of the now-uncomfortable situation and ends the conversation with, “Bye, Grandpa!”

For frst-generation immigrants, situations like these can be the realities of everyday life. 35 of 56 UPA students surveyed, 34 of which were frst-generation immigrants, reported possessing only a basic, conversational or intermediate fuency in their frst language. This low-level fuency can greatly affect family life, cultural identity and communication.

In fact, 39 of the students surveyed reported that fuency in their frst language has affected

communication and relations with family “somewhat” or “greatly.”

“It takes me a really long time just to form a whole conversation with someone. I think it’s hard because a lot of people want to have a conversation with me in my family especially since I haven’t seen them in such a long time,” Saran said. “There’s that barrier. Even though Punjabi was my frst language, it’s still very diffcult. Although I do understand it, I can’t give you what I’m feeling or what I want to say to you.”

Senior Kathy Ngo, who speaks Vietnamese, fnds that when she has to switch to English to contribute to a conversation, she is not taken seriously by family members.

“There was one time we were trying to have a serious discussion and I was trying my best to keep up with it in Vietnamese, but then at one point I had to switch over to English to express what I was truly feeling,” Ngo, who did her senior project on cultural identity, said. “And then, I don’t know why, but my uncle just thought that was amusing so he sat there and laughed.” Saran’s relatives have also voiced their opinions on her fuency reduction, and she has experienced teasing from other Punjabis for the way she speaks the language.

“I feel really dumb because I’m just like, ‘I grew up learning this language,’ and now I don’t,” Saran said. “Now I don’t understand or can’t say something of these words. It’s just this disconnect I have with people. Because I know some relatives that I Graph: Statistics of 56 UPA students’ answers to the question “Do you feel your fuency in your frst language has decreased over time?” 21 | IN-DEPTH

talk to now, they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, you still speak really good Punjabi but you were a lot better back then; now your words are broken.’ And I’m just like, ‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ you know, ‘I’m trying.’ It’s just different.”

Hintsa, who possesses basic fuency in Tigrinya, often fnds himself avoiding conversation in Tigrinya or having to rely on his parents to understand what relatives are saying, something that was glaringly evident during his trip to Eritrea in the summer of 2019.

“When I saw my grandpa for the frst time, I wanted to speak to him, but he only knows Tigrinya, so I barely knew what he was saying, and then I had to ask my parents or anybody around me what he was saying,” Hintsa said. “It sucks because I want to listen to what they have to say because it’s the frst time leaving and visiting family.”

Senior Kevin Tong describes situations where he has to communicate with his grandparents in Mandarin rather than English, which they are not fuent in, as uncomfortable.

“This is very stressful and I often just try to avoid conversation with them at some point in fear of unintentionally saying something disrespectful—cultural differences—or not making sense,” Tong said in a survey response.

Aside from diffculties in family life and communication, Saran Such experiences can cause feelings of disappointment and doubt in one’s own cultural identity.

“I feel kind of like it’s not normal to not be fuent in my native language since I know so many people who are,” sophomore Joann Jaison, who speaks Malayalam, said. “And then it’s kind of weird, but I kind of feel more embarrassed to bring it up because I feel like I’m not authentic enough because I don’t know my language.”

THE INHERITED LANGUAGE

In what is seemingly a contrast to the aforementioned experiences, the UPA survey revealed 34 of the 56 students surveyed speak their frst language at home “often” or “always.” What prevents these students from achieving full fuency in their frst languages?

This is where the term “heritage language” comes in. A heritage language in the U.S. is a language other than English. For example, although languages such as Hindi or Korean are not offcial languages of the U.S., they are familiar to individuals and communities in which they are spoken, understood, read, written or simply heard. These languages are learned at home during youth, but never completely developed due to insuffcient linguistic input outside the home. In the U.S., speakers of heritage languages grow up in an environment where English is the dominant spoken lan

Nahum Hinsta (10) wants to be able to communicate with his grandfather in Tigrinya.

believes that a lack of frst language fuency can also affect a person’s connection to their culture.

“Especially when I go out to festivals, there’s the speaker and I can understand parts of it, but she’s speaking words I’ve never heard of and people are laughing at the jokes and I’m like, ‘I don’t understand what you’re saying.’ I would love to [understand].” According to Saran, in scenes such as family parties, this cultural discord is especially apparent.

“You just feel like a foreigner in your own language, your own region,” Saran said. “It’s just a weird feeling.”

Ngo agrees, citing newer slang and literature as examples of Vietnamese culture that she cannot access.

“Being able to speak with family members, being able to consume a whole other culture of experiences and literature [are reasons why I wish I was fuent],” Ngo said. “It’s like I know well enough to know I’m missing out on something but not well enough to actually understand what I’m missing out on.” guage, which they eventually gain greater fuency in.

As a result, the linguistic history of frst-generation immigrants can follow a common thread: up until a person enters school, frst language development is advanced or native, but once formal education begins, frst language fuency decreases until English replaces it as the principal mode of communication.

“Once I started learning English through TV and going to preschool, elementary, my need to use Vietnamese sharply decreased, while my need to use English sharply increased,” Ngo said. “And when you’re a kid, when you stay home and you only use one language at home, so it’s hard to build your vocabulary for that.” Oftentimes, heritage language speakers’ skills are limited to those they acquired as children—elementary grammar, household vocabulary and basic conversational skills.

“When I’m talking, it’s like, ‘Hi, my name’s Kathy,’ and my Vietnamese-speaking abilities are those of a second grader,’” Ngo joked. Continued on next page IN-DEPTH | 22

First-generation immigrants typically struggle more with reading, writing and speaking skills than with listening. LANGUAGE & LIFE

The dominance of the offcial language can also come in the form of external pressures on frst-generation immigrants to abandon their frst language in favor of English. Saran was required to take several English Language Development classes, stay after school and skip classes to complete extra readings and writings until the sixth grade to improve her English.

“They would tell my parents I need to practice more English at home within the family, so I need to stop being around the Punjabi language,” Saran said. “I think that’s what ruined it because I spent so much time trying to speak English that I forgot how to speak Punjabi.”

Internal pressures, too, can diminish fuency in a frst language. The effect of a racially homogeneous environment can manifest as a will to learn more English while abandoning one’s mother tongue.

“I was super fuent when I was little and then I went to school,” Jaison said. “My school was predominantly white and Asian so I wanted to be more like them, so I didn’t really bring up my language much. I wasn’t too proud of it, either. I kind of put it to the back and just wanted to ft in with my friends. I was more proud of being fuent in English so that was my frst priority and now I’ve kind of lost [Malayalam].”

Other causes of language attrition include the tendency of immigrant parents to encourage their children to assimilate and Americanize. According to a 2010 paper by Deanne S. Puloka of McKendree University, “due to the negative attitude U.S. Americans have towards multilingualism, many immigrant parents choose not to teach their child their heritage language or culture.” The linguistic and cultural tug-of-war that arises when a person leaves their home country along with ethnocentrism-based discrimination compound this effect.

“One of the main reasons my dad wants me to ‘Americanize’ is he experiences a lot of workplace discrimination when it comes to his language,” Ngo said. “When my dad had a job, people tended to underestimate and undervalue my dad at work because of his [non-native] English, despite him working harder than his coworkers. He doesn’t want me to experience the same diffculties he did because of his language diffculties.”

Language is what differentiates humans from other species and establishes individuals as members of distinct communities. According to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, language can even affect the way individuals of different linguistic groups behave and experience life.

“It’s that sense of how Vietnamese I am or how American I am if I don’t know how to speak these languages as well as other people my age who are full-blooded Vietnamese,” Ngo explained.

However, the frst-generation immigrant experience is a linguistic and cultural experience in and of itself that comes with obstacles and privileges unique to the group. Despite the struggles with cultural identity that frst-generation immigrants might face, these circumstances grant them access to a community of hyphenated Americans.

“The way I speak Vietnamese specifcally is kind of my link with other Vietnamese-Americans too,” Ngo said. “Like oh, this is something we share in common, this semi-fuency in the language that we frst learned.”

One of the defning characteristics of being a frst-generation immigrant is experiencing the blending of two worlds. For some, it is a unique privilege to experience two cultures in one lifetime. “No one likes not understanding, but at the same time, these are my experiences,” Ngo said. “The whole part of the Vietnamese-American experience is kind of being caught a little bit in both languages and both worlds, you know?” “It’s like I know well enough to know I’m missing out on something but not well enough to actually understand what I’m missing out on.” —Kathy Ngo

PIZZA HOT OFF THE PRESS 1920s style meets 2020s service Free ARTICLE, PHOTOS & DESIGN BY BETTY NGUYEN Volume IX Issue I Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020

As a journalist, I usually contribute to publishing articles. It is not every day I get to “publish pizza.” Pizza Press, a 1920s-themed pizza chain with locations around the U.S., opened a new location at San Jose’s Eastridge Center mall on Aug. 27, 2019. Centering its theme around newspapers from the Roaring ‘20s, Pizza Press prides itself on giving customers the unique experience of “publishing” their own pizza.

At Pizza Press, visitors hungry for a slice get to step back from their daily occupations and become writers of sorts. With the help of employees, who are called “editors” and wear 1920s newsboy caps, customers are guided along the process of personalizing their individual 11-inch pizza. Prices for individual pizzas can vary between $12-$15. Pizza Press also offers a Student Deal: a signature or published pizza with one fountain drink for $11.50, and the “Jr. Editor” deal: a six-inch pizza with up to two toppings, a cookie and a small fountain drink for those 12 years and under. The process of watching pizza being made almost parallels watching a newspaper going through a vintage assembly line. The dough resembles a blank sheet of paper and toppings like meats, vegetables and cheeses are the words that add depth to the story that is unfolding.

While there are more than 40 toppings a customer can choose from, Pizza Press offers some that are not commonly found in other parlors.

The “Pink Sauce”—a mix of alfredo and tomato-based sauce—and light barbeque sauce can be drizzled in thin spirals onto a published pizza.

For those who do not want to publish their own pizza, they can choose from among Pizza Press’s selection of seven Signature Pizzas, named after familiar publications such as The New York Times and The Tribune. These pizzas can appeal to meat lovers, veggie lovers, and even pineapple-on-pizza lovers.

Aware that customers can come from any age group and have individual tastes, Pizza Press aims to be inclusive to all their patrons.

This includes providing gluten-free pizza dough (an extra $2 on any pizza), and salads and wings for those who might not want pizza. Desserts such as cookies and ice cream can be seen on the menu for those who lean more on the sweet side, and 20 types of craft beers on tap are provided for adult customers who simply want to enjoy a sports game on one of Pizza Press’s television screens.

To some, it might seem confusing to have a multitude of food options and services at a place that is supposed to be mainly about pizza. At the end of the day, Pizza Press serves the story of the community through individuals’ diverse tastes. At Eastridge Center’s Pizza Press location, Co-Manager Duy Tran (right) rings up customers.