Hi Prerna!
Thank you for sharing your reactions to Shaw's presentation and some of your own personal experiences with Nepali and your family. The "Incomunicado" video was also my favorite piece from this week. I thought it was so beautiful the way she explained the interaction of her languages and her grandparents, and I loved the way she included personal anecdotes, funny stories, and voice recordings of her loved ones. I really like how you draw attention to the fact that children often don't fully grasp just how valuable their multilingualism is until they are older. As you stated, once children reach this age, it is often much more difficult to learn new languages, and aging has made it more difficult for them to communicate with many of their loved ones. What this comment made me think about is how we can make sure that children recognize the value of their multilingualism starting when they are very young. Considering how much monolingualism is framed as the norm in the United States, it makes sense that many children feel as if their bilingualism is not valuable. After all, they are often told that their bilingualism is something that should be looked at as a deficit, and that it takes away from their ability to use language. Therefore, our youngest students often don't realize the full value of their multilingualism because we have already told them that it is a deficit. I wonder how this would shift if we stopped framing bilingualism as something that is strange or bad. What would it be like if multilingual learners did not have to unlearn the idea that their multilingualism is wrong or shameful?
Thank you for sharing your reactions to Shaw's presentation and some of your own personal experiences with Nepali and your family. The "Incomunicado" video was also my favorite piece from this week. I thought it was so beautiful the way she explained the interaction of her languages and her grandparents, and I loved the way she included personal anecdotes, funny stories, and voice recordings of her loved ones. I really like how you draw attention to the fact that children often don't fully grasp just how valuable their multilingualism is until they are older. As you stated, once children reach this age, it is often much more difficult to learn new languages, and aging has made it more difficult for them to communicate with many of their loved ones. What this comment made me think about is how we can make sure that children recognize the value of their multilingualism starting when they are very young. Considering how much monolingualism is framed as the norm in the United States, it makes sense that many children feel as if their bilingualism is not valuable. After all, they are often told that their bilingualism is something that should be looked at as a deficit, and that it takes away from their ability to use language. Therefore, our youngest students often don't realize the full value of their multilingualism because we have already told them that it is a deficit. I wonder how this would shift if we stopped framing bilingualism as something that is strange or bad. What would it be like if multilingual learners did not have to unlearn the idea that their multilingualism is wrong or shameful?