Mawena Tafa
April 15th, 2020
SP Critical Analysis 1
Sergei Mikhelson & Jonathan Segal
During the next six weeks I will be exploring the connection between language and culture, the relationship between colonialism and refusal to teach immigrant children native languages, and most of all, I will be learning Twi and observing the personal impact it has. Twi has always been a part of my culture. It’s a part of who I am. The fact that I wasn’t taught Twi because of my parent’s fears about assimilation and digestibility doesn’t sit well with me. I feel robbed. I feel robbed of a beautiful language that connects me to my people. My roots. How many other children of immigrants experience this? How many immigrant parents worry that speaking their language to their children will have negative consequences?
As I continue working on my senior project, I am realizing that the connection between language and culture is a concept that I can only understand in theory. I recognize why language and culture are tied together, but it’s not something that I’ve experienced first hand. Everyday my culture is something that I carry with me, however, I cannot see how not knowing Twi has affected my relationship to my culture because it’s a correlation that I’ve never had the chance to make. I can’t sense the lack of it because I’ve never had it. I wonder whether knowing Twi would have actually made a difference in my cultural experience. Will I sense a sudden shift when I become fluent in the language? Will it reveal a new realm of possibilities that I had been blind to before? I doubt it. If I questioned immigrant children who speak their parent’s language, would their answers be different? Language and culture are indubitably tied. Can one exist in all respects without the other? These questions that I thought I knew the answers to a week ago are becoming increasingly difficult to answer.
I think that your examination of the relationship between language and culture is really intriguing. I think it’s interesting how you explored your sense of “not knowing” whether knowing Twi would have changed your cultural experience/identity. Keep up the amazing work!
From what I can tell, you’ve done some really deep thinking so far. Your personal observation of only understanding the relationship between language and culture in “theory” is really astute and I am interested in seeing how you tackle this idea. At the end of your writing, you write that your questions are “becoming difficult to answer.” Possibly your project is more about an exploration of these questions rather than finding a concrete answer. Keep the self analysis and deep rooted questions going!! They’re super compelling.