Mango Languages

Travel Tuesday: No Speak Americano

Obviously, as the crazed Mango fans that you all are, one of the most exciting parts of traveling to far off lands is the opportunity to utilize all that you have learned and practiced (from the comfort of your own home, using your MP3 player, or even on your iPhone). As someone who has lived abroad, the prospect of conversing with native speakers is just as terrifying as it is exhilarating. What if my accent is horrible? Do I use the formal or informal? Which verb tense do I use? These fears can prevent us from making the most of our travels and speaking the language of the land. It seems so easy to slip back into our English comfort zone. If there is one piece of advice I can give you, it’s DON’T DO IT!!! Some of my best travel experiences have occurred in countries where I only knew a few words (hello, thank you, goodbye, etc.). You don’t have to speak a language fluently to earn the respect of the locals. Merely making an effort with these simple greetings and gratitudes (no matter how horrible the accent) is enough to create a connection with someone.

Take it from Benny Lewis, a world traveler originally from Ireland who has a self-proclaimed “love affair with other countries and speaking foreign languages.” At the age of 21, Benny only spoke English. A mere 8 years later, he speaks English, French, Italian, Esperanto, Irish, Spanish, Portuguese and German fluently, and his newest venture is American Sign Language. His website chronicles his language learning and his travels, and he even has an awesome video where he uses all of the languages he speaks to give a tour of his apartment in Berlin. Impressionant, non?!

I actually discovered Benny’s site through a co-worker who thought it would be of interest to me, and she was right! One blog post I found particularly relevant is entitled “What will I talk about when my language level is so basic?” He brings up an awesome point that really makes you think about trying to use that foreign language you studied way back in high school: To be interesting, you have to be interested.

So what does this mean exactly? It means that to have a great conversation with someone, you don’t have to do all the talking. Crazy concept for us Americans, eh? Being able to ask questions and let someone else do the talking benefits you in two ways. Firstly, you really get to know the other person and discover the ways in which we, as humans, are all alike, despite our areas of origin. Also, it allows you to sit back and listen if you are not as comfortable with your speaking skills! He also addresses the common fear that locals will be upset if you speak the language incorrectly. While I can’t say this is 100% untrue, I can say that in my experience, it is almost NEVER the case. Definitely the exception and not the rule. Usually, they are thrilled that you are making an effort to preserve their language and culture.

I highly suggest checking out Benny’s site and taking a look around. He encompasses all that is Mango Languages and definitely lives out our core values. And next time you travel, I encourage you to use your language skills in any capacity that you can. I promise you will not be disappointed. If nothing else, at least be a little more understanding the next time someone from another country speaks to you in broken English. Pay it forward for the next time you are abroad and struggling while asking how to find the restroom.

Have you ever visited a country where you did not speak a word of the native language? How were you able to get around? Did you learn anything by the time you left?

Mango goes to DC

Earlier this week Jane (government ambassador) and I visited the nation’s capitol to spend time with a few government customers, give a talk on alternative uses for a library degree (aka librarian gone vendor), and talk to a few potential mango customers.

First stop was Gallaudet University where we stayed. What a cool college…it is the world leader in liberal education and career development for deaf and hard of hearing students. They had a fantastic little shuttle that took us all over the city.

Second stop was dinner at Jaleao…and bonus it was resturant week…. OMG! We had a five course Spanish Tapas meal for a steal! We met some Mango friends and enjoyed wonderful conversation and the ambiance of a national landmark in Chinatown.

Third stop was to be complete tourists and enjoy the city by moonlight. We had both been to DC several times but never have enjoyed the monuments all a glow. We were both in awe of how grand and majestic the city was at night.

Fourth Stop was in the morning of the next day – we had to get some more delicious food. And stumbled upon the cutest little French cafe which transported us to Paris with its Cafe au Lait and Pan au Chocolate (chocolate filled croissant) and enchanting French music.

After we filled our tummies we headed over to the Library of Congress. Now if you are a Librarian this is the mothership of all libraries. I felt smarter just walking in. Jane gave a great panel presentation from a former medical librarian’s perspective and how she came to work for Mango…FYI she now wears a Hawaiian lei and tie dye t-shirt to work!After her awesome speech we had other meetings at the Library of Congress and got to walk in the underground tunnels between buildings and see the reading room on the 5th floor. The business library…it was so cool. It has an art deco influence and had the coolest carvings of owls.

Our last stop for the day was at the National Geographic Society. This was really cool! I am a travel addict and this was travelers dream. Books upon books on languages, places and maps of all around the world. I totally geeked out! They even had an exhibit on Machu Picchu which I hiked back in 2007. It is a beautiful place with amazing building skills. On top of all of that, we got to go to the Explorers Hall. Where the explorers used go to report on their exhibitions. All we could think about was the travels and stories that were shared in that room. Soooo amazing! People like Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Jane Goodall and so many more. WOW!

Our last visit was to Rand Corporation where we met two great librarians and chatted about world peace! Lots of great things happening there!

Overall, we had a great time, met some great people and have great memories. What is your favorite thing to do in DC?

The Sounds of Silence

One of the most famous and moving stories is that of Helen Keller, a deaf-blind woman who managed to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree despite her adversities. The oft-quoted part of her story is when she managed to make the connection between the words her teacher, Ann Sullivan, was making in Helen’s palm and the objects they represented; Helen came to understand one day that every object has a name, and this was the beginning of everything.

Ann Sullivan used fingerspelling –spelling words with the fingers– and “spelled” the letters of each word in Helen’s palm in the hope that Helen would make this connection. Fingerspelling though is only a tool in the languages of the deaf, the so-called sign languages. There is a misconception that sign languages are just an imitation of oral languages, just a compilation of gestures, and that the deaf represent the letters of the alphabet with the fingers and “speak.”  However, this is far from the truth. Sign languages are not another way to represent oral languages, and what’s more, they have nothing to do with the corresponding oral languages that are spoken in a place.

For example, although American and British English speakers share the same language, American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) are different and mutually unintelligible. Sign languages are natural languages, like English and Spanish, for example, with the only difference that whereas oral languages use the sound-hearing mode, that is we pronounce them through the vocal tract and we hear them, sign languages use visual-place mode, that is we “pronounce” them by using the fingers, face and body, and we see them. One very interesting event is the birth of the Nicaraguan Sign Language: when schools for the deaf were created in the country, the deaf children, who were isolated from each other up to then, were taught lip reading. However, when they met in the playground, the children invented their own sign system (LSN).

This brings us to a characteristic of all sign languages, which makes them similar to their oral counterparts:  they follow the same phases of first language acquisition, i.e.,  the various structures of language are acquired at the same age in both hearing and deaf children, and there is a critical age between 0 and 4/5 years for both. For example, at the same age when hearing children mistakenly use “you” to refer to themselves, the deaf children point to the other person (the sign for “you”) to refer to themselves.  Nicaraguan deaf children were past the critical age and so they developed some sort of a pidgin which slowly evolved into a language (ISN).

Sign languages have their own grammars, which are far from simple.  ASL’s grammar, for example, is reminiscent of Navajo. The various grammar structures are shown with a combination of hand shapes, movements of the palm, hands and body, facial expressions, and body postures. To give an example, in ASL, to show the part of a sentence that is the subject, as in “John I really like” where we want to stress that it is John, and not Mary, that I really like, one raises the eyebrows and lifts the chin together with the sign for John. To understand what a signer signs, one has to literally have in view everything and not only the sign.

I will end this post on a personal note. Sign languages have been persecuted and forbidden as usually happens with languages of minorities. In the book by N. E. Groce, “Everybody here spoke sign language” we read that in a small town in Martha’s Vineyard, an island outside Cape Cod, for about three centuries the hearing inhabitants also knew the local sign language because the deaf population of the island was numerous and rich. In 1960, William Stokoe argued that sign languages are natural languages. From then onward much research has been done in Linguistics which has revealed many interesting things about the structure of sign languages and how similar in structure they are to oral languages. Moreover, many discoveries have been made regarding the nature of human language which would never have been made if we just studied oral languages. All this as well as the work of many psychologists and educators has helped give sign languages and signers the place they deserve in society.

Do you have a story that relates oral languages to sign language? Please share!