An analysis of an interview with Rossy, a second-language English speaker, and her experiences from being an EFL student in her hometown at a very early age to being immersed in American culture, code-switching, and Spanglish when visiting the US. The interview provides insight into how cultural differences, assumptions, and prejudice are tied to our acquired language(s), our skills, and fluency. Conducted as part of my English in the World course, this first-hand ethnographic research is an analysis of how socio-linguistic theories, such as conventions and norms, speaking and silence, formality and informality, manifest in the everyday, and the ways in which English varieties and dialects shape our self and social identities, and our own perception of “the other.” English standards—of American and British English—perpetuate colonialist views that need to be broken in an ever-growing global economy, diasporas, and transnational communities. This research was set up as a student-teacher assignment; as I submitted the first draft for review—which included an interview transcript—my professor prompted my thinking by asking many questions that challenged my point of view and assumptions, and helped me dig deeper into social dynamics and how they are intrinsically related to language theories.
“Well, I remember when I was little, listening to my mom sing all these songs from The Beatles, Michael Jackson, and all… and I wanted to understand what the lyrics said…I learned English implicitly.”
My informant—who, for the purpose of this interview, I will call Rossy—is a 33-year-old female, born and raised in the Dominican Republic (DR). (I have noted Rossy’s comments in quoted bold-italics). Rossy attended Art School between 2000 and 2003; she was my roommate. On a personal level, Rossy has a very candid spirit: she believes in the connectivity of the world, causality, and the power of positivity, a philosophy possibly instilled in her by an agnostic yet spiritual family and, later on, grounded by her older brother’s influence, who grew up to become a Chinese Doctor and now a Chinese monk. In contrast, Rossy likes order, structure, and control, and all things that give her a sense of stability. Her mother gave her a love for books and learning, and her father has a passion for adventure and a great appreciation for Dominican culture. Rossy has an inquisitive personality—with the curiosity of a child—and the discipline and drive of a soldier; these attributes have made her a self-taught learner with many interests and have helped her build a toolkit of skills that she keeps filling.
Her journey to learning English started implicitly at an early age, in her household. She was
raised by a bilingual mother who was a high-ranking executive of an international corporation in the Dominican Republic; as she recounted during our conversation: “Well, I remember when I was little, listening to my mom sing all these songs from The Beatles, Michael Jackson, and all… and I wanted to understand what the lyrics said…I learned English implicitly.” In this context, she was exposed to English at a microscale of what Kachru defines as the Outer Circle (Kachru, 1985), or “norm-developing,” where English (in her household) was used as a second language with an important social role in later international communication. However, once she gained some English knowledge, which allowed her to communicate as a bilingual speaker, she could only practice at home with her mom since her dad was monolingual and, although her brother, Sandino—who is several years older than her—learned English before she was born (by immersion, while he spent some time in Philadelphia teaching Spanish) she could not practice with him; she remembers how she always spoke to him in English seeking a language partner but he used to forget words and wasn’t fluent in English or, as she said:
“…his neuro-linguistic skills were not on his side.” In lieu of an active partner at home, she
compensated by watching American TV shows—like NBC, Friends, and MTV—and listening to American music, then when her mom arrived from work she would ask her questions about the meaning of words and how to construct sentences correctly, “how to say things…
” At school, she practiced with only one friend, who was attending an English after-school program.
Years passed, at the beginning of the 90s, parents in DR started to show interest in
English; due to massive migration to the United States, a process of Americanization began to quietly affect Dominican society. Older generations, even though they didn’t know English and did not have any interest in learning it themselves, saw the English language as the language of the future, a way for their children to gain better opportunities, like studying abroad and better preparing themselves professionally, and even migrating to new lands in search of a better life.
Rossy shared with me her own experience of these times, and how—for her—it was a great
moment to finally get a chance to expand her knowledge and be able to practice with many
more people in different contexts; however, her friends were not as excited as she was with this new trend of learning English. Rossy’s experience of speaking English in public spaces in DR was—and still continues to be—somewhat negative, regarding non-English speakers’
demeanor (especially if monolinguals) towards those speaking English. NESs would stare at her and her friends when they were speaking English, mock them, and tell them that “you think you are better than everybody else because you speak English… I bet you are not even
speaking it right!” or, even worse, called “gringos,” which in DR is a very derogatory term as it blatantly questions one’s national identity and patriotism. When she was younger, many of her friends felt hurt by these kinds of comments, stopped speaking English in public, and a handful quit learning the language altogether. Rossy’s stories about her friends’ experiences reminded me of my own sister’s sentiment towards English and her reluctance to study English; instead of learning English, she would have preferred to study Portuguese, a culture that really resonated with her, and a language that she felt was prettier, easier, and that she could practice within a very small—yet friendly and inclusive—community in the DR.
My mother—a Spanish-speaking monolingual—perceived English as the new language of
the world and categorically opposed to my sister’s interest in studying Portuguese at the time; “First English, then choose another one,” my mother told my sister. Today, my sister is a forensic psychiatrist at the Houston Medical Center in Houston, TX, and the first forensic
psychiatrist of DR (since this profession does not exist in the DR), but she couldn’t have done it without my mother’s persistence and determination. Like Rossy’s mom (and my own), most parents invested in English after-school programs, since English taught in school as a second language (ESL) was not enough to reach an advanced level of fluency; after school programs were very expensive, so attending these programs also made students “belong” to a certain social group—a perceived wealthy social class; this skewed perception heighten social frictions and disparities, and widen the class divide.
In Santo Domingo, the largest English-language institute was the Instituto Dominico-Americano, and it became, towards the end of the 90s, a space to “hang out.” These after-school programs served as an Expanded Circle (Kachru, 1985), since the language was used and practiced within the standardized norms of American English, a “norm-dependent” language. In relation to Kachru’s Three Circle Theory, the Expanded Circle in the DR, as being a monolingual society, acts as added value in professional spheres, yet, simultaneously, serves to segregate social classes and economic status from positions of power, and also questions national identity from the point of view of the disfranchised. As Rossy explained to me during our interview, the current state of affairs in DR: “Not many people in DR go overseas to study anything; it’s very expensive for us to get out of the country, and English, specifically, would be more like a Summer program, and it’s a lot of money for just a month.
So, most parents, like mine, invested in an English Institute.” The perception is that even if you don’t belong to a certain social class, learning English and attending these after-school institutes serve as entry points to a ‘class bump.’ Even though the beginnings of Rossy’s second-language learning experience occurred mainly through absorption, the rigor of the after-school program gave her knowledge of normative American English. Her first immersive experience—a family trip to Orlando, Florida—was “the classic DR trip: Disney World.” Rossy was excited to practice her language skills with her uncles and cousins who migrated to Florida in the 80s, as she explored Orlando—mainly through amusement parks— almost everything felt as expected; however, her understanding of English rules and norms clashed with the regionalisms of the area and the culture of her own family living in the diaspora. For instance, at home, she felt transported back to the DR because her
uncles cooked Dominican food every night and spoke Spanish amongst themselves and to their children—who were born in the US—since they were teaching them Spanish and wanted them to practice with Rossy; in instances in which her cousins communicated with her in English,
Rossy’s mind wrestles to fill in the gap between her conceptions of official English and the casual vernacular of young adults living in an Anglophone country; these “Englishes” clashed as Rossy encountered colloquialisms, slang, and code-switching, and for a while she felt as if they were speaking two very different languages, and “it was hard to understand each other at first.” Her personal perception—as a formal English learner—was that, in DR, she learned “proper English” with her mom and at the English Institute, and that her cousins in Orlando—using slang and code-switching—were speaking a distorted language mainly because they lacked English knowledge and used “Spanglish” as a handicap. However, she was able to quickly adjust and understand the culture of the diaspora as different from the American culture she had experienced from afar, through TV and other media outlets. Furthermore, by practicing with her cousins and their friends in social settings, Rossy realized that this slang and code-switching were part of a less formal English—a local variety of English—that represented the social identities of the diaspora. Back in DR from her short trip, the struggle to practice continued. To this day, Rossy is disappointed with the level of resistance that the DR society in general has towards English learning, and sounded even frustrated at times, because, as she noted: “It is difficult to practice at home [DR] because they [other Dominicans] feel stupid, or are ashamed of their accent.
“This is an instance in which I see a marked social divide. Currently in the Dominican Republic, a new trend of bilingual schools has grown exponentially, and students who attend these schools usually speak English in public spaces, yet this group belongs to a small circle of the privileged; those who don’t belong to this circle are perceived as “wanna be’s” (and are called just that to their faces: “guana-bi”), pretending to be better, or pretending to have more means than those of their immediate circle.
As a current Art and ESL teacher in a bilingual school, Rossy perceives English differently; she has had many opportunities because of her bilingualism, and sees practice with a different lens:
“…with practice you get better… perfect your English; I still need to practice, practice,
practice.”
Moreover, when people question her nationalism, she has the basis and
arguments to defend her pride as a Dominican. Rossy exposes her students to Dominican culture in various ways, taking them to conduct first-hand ethnographic research in the countryside, observe cultural manifestations, rituals, religious ceremonies, and “fiestas de palos,” and interview “santeros” (highest priests) and “metresas” (priestesses’ assistants). In a bilingual school, Dominican history, culture, and traditions have taken the forefront; however, as expressed by Kubota (2004) and reiterated by Rossy—this is a form of “cultural tourism” rather than an in-depth exploration of the realities of being Dominican, of critically looking at where we came from, where we are, and where we are headed towards. In Rossy’s words: “With my little ones, I do research in the classroom, but with my high school students, we do intense internal tourism; I, myself, do a lot of research, both nationally and internationally.” I would be cautious about using the term “tourism” here, as it is considered derogatory for calling out the exploitation of “the other” through exoticism, superficiality, and power evasion (see Kubota’s “cultural tourism,” 2004).
I see Rossy’s cultural explorations going beyond cultural tourism as they encompass first-hand research of historical and current cultural manifestations of our country and how those forms of expression—and ways of living in today’s society—have an effect on people’s socio-economic status, marginalization, segregation, and stereotyping and, ultimately, result in disenfranchised communities; all these are very pressing issues of our current DR society. During our conversation, I could appreciate how Rossy’s nationalism has not been lost by her English acquisition but instead has grounded her pride, and grown her
interest in keeping her culture more than alive, relevant.
Beyond her nationalism, and rooted DR culture, in her last visit to NY a month ago I witnessed Rossy’s interest in diasporas through her explorations of Manhattan and NY boroughs, paying attention to details that I, being here for 12 years, have never seeing or noticed, like distinct types of music playing in different areas of Washington Heights and how they related to local establishments, such as the Bodega, or what is considered a high-end Bar nearby; or the segregated cultures downtown when walking from China Town to Little Italy, or alongside 34th street, from Korean Town to Little Brazil. She was in awe of the abrupt transitions—of types of liveliness in their own right, and changes in visual stimulation, colors, smells, and signage; or of immersing herself in cultures, dancing son at an underpass in Brooklyn Heights, and drawing with local artists at a bar. With her, I experienced a different NY, a more truthful, day-to-day experience of human life. In this journey, the English language was, for her, a useful tool, a good way to be grounded, to “not get lost in the mini-replica of the world map that is NY.”
Rossy’s description of her NY experience brought me back to the English as a Lingua Franca
(ELF) debate, and how the English language could serve as a medium with which many non-
native speakers can navigate the world as legitimate global citizens; being here in NY, even though she is rooted in her own culture, she is not Dominican per se, but a cosmopolitan
investigator. In retrospect, Rossy describes her English learning as a “transformative experience” because it has broadened her understanding of cultures while giving her a stronger appreciation of her own, and has given her opportunities to learn about many things, such as music (one of her many passions), about effort, determination, practice, and expertise; that you can develop skills, and everybody has the ability to learn. Also, her career has developed around English: “the way my career has developed, it’s always related to English; there’s something always related to speaking, and listening… analyzing, writing, in English.”
From Rossy’s Facebook page (July, 18, 2016), I extracted the following quote:
“Primero quería ser maestra, luego secretaria, luego banquera, luego maestra otra vez,
luego arquitecta, luego artista, luego interiorista, luego paramédico, luego músico, y ahora
soy todo eso :)” (“First I wanted to be a teacher, then a secretary, then a banker, then a teacher again, then an architect, then an artist, then an interior designer, then a paramedic, then a musician, and now I am all that :).”
Like Eva Hoffman’s story, in Lost in Translation: A Life in A New Language (1989), Rossy’s
Language learning was both harsh and rewarding: her self-identity was shaped by the English language because it opened her senses to new experiences—and allowed her more opportunities beyond those available in her immediate circle—in spite of a challenging process of acculturation and rejections from her immediate socio-economic circle. In the end, Rossy has achieved many of her childhood dreams, through language: she is resilient in pursuing her goals and is opened to new experiences and cultures, which has allowed her to travel more and expand her knowledge of the world; for instance, Rossy learned another language, Creole, as a way to immerse herself in Haitian studies as they relate to Dominican culture, she makes art and music inspired in artists of the world, and she shares all her knowledge through teaching Language Arts. Rossy’s path to language acquisition has been filled with resistance,
References:
- Hoffman, E. (1998). Lost in translation: A life in a new language. Random House.
- Kachru, B. B. (2006). The English language in the outer circle. World Englishes, 3, 241-
255. - Kubota, R. (2004). Critical multiculturalism and second language education. Critical
pedagogies and language learning, 30, 52. - “How Being Bilingual Rewires Your Brain,” World Economic Forum, Industry Agenda, Brain
Research. This article is published in collaboration with Quartz. Web, retrieved July 20,
- https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/02/how-being-bilingual-rewires-your-
brain/?utm_content=bufferf1bc7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm
_campaign=buffer
Appendix 1: Interview protocol questions
Appendix 1: INTERVIEW QUESTIONNAIRE PROTOCOL
- What was the driving force that made you learn English?
- Would you say that you learned English mostly implicitly or explicitly?
- Did you have a space in DR to practice your second language?
- Do you know what made your peers learn English?
- Did you have the chance to practice English overseas?
- Where in the US was your first trip?
- Did you find any differences between the English learned in DR and that spoken/written in the US?
- Were there any major cultural shifts that you can recall from watching TV and real-life situations in the US?
- How can you describe your experience of living in a monolingual society at the time you became bilingual?
- Do you remember any shifts in the ways you perceived yourself?
- Do you remember any shifts in the ways others perceived you, both your circle of peers and distant circles?
- Do you consider yourself fluent in English?
- Can you think of a specific moment/memory when you realized you were proficient in English?
- Have you learned other languages?
- How do you use your language skills today? In which contexts? For what purposes?
- Has the way you use your language skills now shifted the way you perceive yourself?
- Has the way you use your language skills now shifted the way others perceived you, both your circle of peers and distant circles?
This is a set of main questions, which served as a guide for a larger conversation.
