Other Languages

I’ve tried to learn two languages in my life. During my Spanish phase, I subscribed to Latina magazine, listened to Shakira, and went salsa dancing every weekend. I worked in social services for migrant workers in Oregon and dated an earnest young man from El Salvador living in Texas. After grad school, I decided to teach English in Japan and so began learning Japanese.  The teachers at the junior high where I worked disappointedly commented on my “Japanese” demeanor. I think they were looking forward to meeting a more outgoing American. In both cases, I was never able to test the theory that the best way to learn a language is to fall in love since the love of my life happens to speak English – granted with a South Texas accent. However, in two books I read recently, falling in love does inspire the characters to learn a new language and consequently change the course of their lives.

The Other Language by Francesca Marciano

In the title story of this short story collection, Marciano writes about a grieving family who travels from Italy to Greece for a holiday. The older boy, Luca, gravitates towards an older Greek girl and leaves his younger sisters behind. His younger sister Emma marvels at how quickly they are able to communicate. Later in the summer, she herself becomes entranced, from afar, by two English brothers vacationing in the village. English, to her ears, sounds “authoritative, distinguished, exact.” After returning to Italy, Emma spends the next school year attending a weekly English class and obsessively listening to The Beatles and Joni Mitchell. Magically, she is able to talk to the boys the next summer.  Later in the story, after recalling the story to her American husband while on a road trip, she says, “I wouldn’t be who I am today if it wasn’t for those two. I wouldn’t even speak English.” Or be married to the man sitting next to her who simply asks to see the map of where they are going.

Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

In this middle grade novel, the protagonist Willow Chance loves gardening and the number seven. After being mistaken for the janitor due to her wardrobe choices and being accused of cheating on an achievement test that she aces, she has had little success in making new friends. After meeting an older girl, Mai, and her brother at the counseling center, Willow decides the solution to her problem is learning to speak Vietnamese. Willow accurately remarks, “I’m right now someone that other people might find interesting to observe. I’m speaking Vietnamese, which is not my ‘native tongue.’”   Little does Willow know that  the reader will find her, and Sloan's other characters, even more interesting to observe even when a tragic even leaves her speechless “in any language.”