The Necessity of Learning a Second Language

I don't think I would be discussing this topic, if I didn't love linguistics and that I didn't experience multiple times of miscommunication or tension due to a language barrier throughout the course of my time in Germany.
So today, I just missed my tram to Bonn by near minutes. It was probably very funny to someone to see me sprinting across the street to catch it, but, nevertheless, I was absolutely mortified that I was so close but yet so far from being able to make it. Luckily, the 604 bus had just pulled up, but I had no clue where I needed to stop in order to make it to the new AIB. So after stepping on the bus, I ask in English 'does this bus go to the hauptbahnhof'. Because I knew if I could make it there, I could easily navigate the city and not get into the situation of being lost without any access to a map. Being the older gentleman he was, he had no clue what I was saying and proceeded in German to say 'ich verstehe nicht' or 'I don't understand you'. This quickly led me to be panicked because I wanted to make it to class on time, but I also wanted him to understand me, so I would know for sure where I was going. But for the sake of time, I gave up and sat on the bus until it rolled to a stop that looked semi-close to AIB. Luckily, I was right, and I made it to class a little late, but not the 20 minutes late I would have been if I had waited for the next tram.
Now, if I was unlucky, I could have gotten extremely lost, which would have been awful not only for me, but for the AIB staff that would have had to find me. I really wished in those moments that I knew more German, so that I could ask questions like 'Ist dies der Bahn fur den hauptbahnhof' or does this train go to the central station. It also makes me mad that this problem could have potentially been avoided if second languages were taught sooner and more extensively than they are currently in the United States.
Granted, the first secondary language that would have been taught would have been Spanish due to geographical location, but even knowing that language would open a whole world of understanding. Because, in this point in time, there still exists the subtle racism of wishing someone could speak just like us without any thinking that they feel the exact same way. I feel that Americans, especially Texans, view on the growing Latino population would not be so negative, if we could all speak and communicate with each other easily in either English or Spanish. This begs the question why doesn't it happen, which I can think of a few reasons why.
For starters, teachers don't have time nor the funding to teach a second language. I had actually started learning Spanish in 3rd grade before the school had to cut the program due to funding. If I had continued from that point, I would probably be close to fluent, which would have opened so many doors in terms of study abroad and job options for me later in life. Another reason is that I feel like American students don't care to learn a second language. I do believe Americans are some of the most overworked group of people in the list of first world countries, which can make language not as appealing to learn since a good portion of learning a language is memorization and grammar structure. But when walking into a foreign language classroom in the United States, you can almost feel it in the air that students show little to no interest in learning the language, from my experience. This could stem from a multitude of reasons such as feeling entitled that everyone should speak English, lack of drive to learn new subjects, not feeling smart enough or having the time to learn a language, and even feeling like since they will never travel to that country that there's no point in learning the language.
Now the next question would be, how do we motivate students to want to learn a different language? I feel this is where the problem lies, and also where there are numerous approaches to this answer. In my high school, you would be given a medal for completing a certain number of languages courses, but these courses are not as aggressive in my opinion and are laughable in comparison to how the Europeans teach their young a different language. So at the end of the day, I can only focus on myself and my goal to becoming fluent in the German language. If I ever do have children, I would definitely want them to learn a second language. But, in my opinion, I think it would be very unlikely to convince a majority of the American population that learning another language is beneficial without solving some of the larger social issues that are more prominent today.

What do we do?

In the wake of all the tragedies that have occurred over the past month, I think many, if not everyone, of sound mind are asking the question 'what do we do'? And if you asked me, I wouldn't know the answer to that question.
We are in dire need of education reform, funding for the expansion of environmental conservation acts, social equality reforms, reform to medical insurance, immigration policy reform, and a long list of extremely important, yet complicated problems that I have yet to fully grasp, which are now all in the middle of an upcoming presidential election. With all these problems, I think it is so easy to hate humanity and to get frustrated at the larger picture because it is such a mess. It is so easy to hate humanity because we are a group that wants and craves attention, understanding, and love. We are creatures that covet and will perform outrageous acts, whether good or bad, to reach goals that seem impossible under normal circumstances. Yet we are also a generation that is so afraid of how to tackle each upcoming event because of the onslaught that comes the next day and the social restrictions of saying words that seem uncaring, degrading, or not helpful.
So, I can't tell you how to fix the world. I don't know some solution that will quickly solve each and every problem the world faces and make the world a paradise for all. I can't fix the frustrations, and I can't fix the sadness that everyone experiences and will continue to experience because, in all honesty, these events will not stop until something changes in the game that humanity plays.
I think all that I can offer, or am able to offer at this point, is to do good toward others and continue to move in a positive direction in life. Now that does seem like a bullshit answer that completely dodged the core of the problem, but I think, from a civilian stand point, that is all we can do. There is no easy way to attack the core of hate and misunderstanding without extremes, and though it would easy at this point to push humanity to an extreme, such as another war, it's not the solution, and we would be facing the backlash of our decisions for generations to come. So, if the majority of people do good and try to impact others in a way that will cause them to continue to act in a similar manner then maybe something will change. We won't see it, since it will be on a long-term scale, but inspiring and provoking our current and next generation to understand and love each other will spread more completely if we attack at the individual scale instead of the large scale that the media speaks to. It may be in the form of planting trees for a park, inspiring students to learn more in class, or volunteering at the many organizations that need help in order to function. This may be considered pretty unhelpful and not really a solution, but it's better than yelling at a core problem that will not change overnight, and it is certainly better than doing nothing.
We can certainly scream at the world for not being like us and not understanding how much pain and suffering the acts that are happening around us are effecting the lives of others. But you'll eventually lose your voice, and I'd rather say that I was in a movement that was working toward/promoting understanding than being a part of the mass that screams at the problem, yet doesn't get anything done.

Vienna and Barcelona

We started Vienna off with a tour from a plague doctor and medications to prevent us from getting it as we were walking through the city. We learned so much in such little time! I really enjoyed going to the Josephinum! We were not allowed to take pictures but the wax models were amazing. I was shocked at how detailed and accurate they were. The makers actually took dead bodies and made molds to make all of the pieces until they had the complete figure. Our guide told us that it took about 200 dead people to make one of the models of a complete person.


Later in the week we went to the Fools Tower. It's crazy how we don't bat an eye at bones and skulls of animals, or even stuffed animals, but when it came to standing in a room of tens of shelves full of human skulls, to looking at a real human child that had been stuffed and preserved... it's hard to describe how I felt about it. The number of skulls made me uncomfortable and the child had me questioning the ethics behind it, even though it was okay at the time it had been done. All in all, it was a very strange, yet fascinating, experience.


Thursday, we flew to Barcelona for the long weekend. By this time in the program, all three of us were missing Tex-Mex and desperately hoping there would be some kind of spinoff of Mexican food. We ordered nachos at a place near our hostel.... and got stale chips with a bowl of watery cheddar cheese.... I did, however, have a great omelet the next morning and a dish called paella that was great. My favorite part of Barcelona was the beach.

 On the left is a picture of a picture on my camera of the water literally glittering. I'm not sure what was in the water but it was beautiful!


Until next time,

Chey

Paris in Solidarity

I took a rather impromptu trip to Paris this past weekend, and I am so glad that I came. Paris definitely surpassed all of my expectations, living up to its hype as one of the most iconic cities in Europe. As I walked around and saw the famous landmarks such as the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Pantheon, and the Luxembourg Palace, it really didn’t sink in that I was actually in Paris, feeling instead like more of a dream. After all, I hadn’t decided to come until a few days before, and the streets were much less crowded than I expected (which I definitely wasn’t upset about!). But the haziness in my mind was totally blown away as we approached Paris’ greatest monument, the Eiffel Tower. The sheer size of the tower was mind-blowing – the pictures (while beautiful) really don’t do it justice. And tourists were absolutely everywhere, for good reason. The sun was about to set, and the Eiffel Tower was about to light up for the night.

We got a good place to sit on the lawn across the Seine River and waited for the lights to come up. The colors chosen for that evening were those of the German flag, to represent France’s solidarity in the face of the Munich mall shootings. It was a somber reminder for me, especially since I’d visited Munich earlier this month and loved the city. Being here in Europe has really shifted my perspective; it’s brought everything so much closer, for both good and bad. I can travel for less than a day and encounter cities of vastly different cultures, but also more deeply experience the pain whenever something happens to those cities. As an American, I feel that the continent’s distance has cushioned me from reality over here. When we learned about the history of Germany after World War II, I was disappointed, but not shocked, by how little I knew; my school system heavily focused on American and Texas History at the expense of a global understanding. I hope this changes in the future, if for no other reason than to better equip us for working in a global market. But I also wish that it would shrink down the physical and cultural barriers between not only us and Europe, but the remainder of the world. I’m hoping for a day when we would light up the Eiffel Tower not only for Germany and Orlando, but for Turkey and Syria. It’s easy to make divisions, to separate “the other” and then look away, but bringing nations together requires much more effort. But for the world to have a bright future, we cannot take the easy way any longer.