¡Luces, cámera, acción! – Lights, Camera, Action!

Luis and I being married in Lima, Peru, January 13th, 2002.

It happened again just a few minutes ago.  Luis and I had another really lively conversation about how each of our native languages sets up the way we see our world and as a result, how we interact with it …. he, obviously through Spanish  and me, correspondingly through English …. and the cameras weren’t running!

He and I have always lived and breathed communication.  Obviously, since he knew little English when we met and I knew NO Spanish ….it was upon our ability to communicate, or not, that our relationship developed.  Where and how we would go forward together was a halting, painful and exhilarating process that continues to this day.   And now, as we try to recreate this journey for all of you, so that you can not only learn Spanish and learn it quickly, but also so that you can get a real taste of the experience of learning, we find ourselves being even more reflective about what works and why and what trips us up and why.

So many times I have said to Luis in the midst of these conversations;  ”Gosh, I wish the camera was running.”  I feel angst around these vaporous moments of insight because this experience of learning is lonely – no, more than lonely, it is isolating.  It makes sense to me that the more we can share our experience and insights with one another, the better chance we have at sticking to it and reaching our goals.  We thrive in this sense of community and fellowship and support.

This goal, to become fluent in another language, brings with it surprising bonuses.  Unless of course this is your 3rd or 4th or 8th language, you may not know that along with the new vocabulary comes a new way to view yourself, and others, and the world we all share together.  The scales fall from your eyes so to speak.  It is magical and mysterious and altogether captivating.  I’ve been so busy with Spanish, that I’ve not yet gotten to all the other languages I have decided that I must learn.  I want to see the world through the eyes of others.  This enriches me in ways that are beyond all words and languages put together.

With a simple shift in perspective we can see a glass half full or half empty. Learning a new language is like this kinds of shift in perspective … only on steroids.  I apologize for using this very worn coinage, but it does a good job of communicating my meaning here.

Now when I talk about having insights, what I am talking about is not an academic exercise in grammar.  That kind of cerebral engagement is a world away from what I am referring to here.  I am speaking about one’s very personal epistemology, (how one knows their particular world) which is informed by one’s family, political and cultural history and expressed through language.  I am talking about how Language compresses and reflects in the most rich and lean way, centuries of happenings, their collectively determined meaning by the people to whom they occurred, the resulting impact on how life is currently experienced and viewed by these people, and a given culture’s hope or lack there of regarding their individual and collective future.  The idea of  ’learned helplessness’ is an expression of this idea.  It know that these are dense sentences filled with dense ideas.  Luis tells me I need to try not to be so “deep”.  But this is important to grasp, interesting even and I know that it’s not beyond anyone reading this Blog.

More directly put, conceptualize all of the stuff that goes into making us who we are.  These things impregnate our language.  It is then with this language, heavy with life, that all kinds of things are predetermined up to and including the trajectory of same. Can we step outside of our own collectively used reference systems?

I heard it said once that various cultures have actual moods that predominate them and for which there is evidence in the sound of their native tongue.  German, serious, stern and little pessimistic. French, on the arrogant side, but romantic.  Italian, a bit impatient, but familial and including.  Spanish, romantic, ever hopeful.  I am not talking stereotypes about the people here … or am I?   What came first?  Was it the language?  Or was it the people.

Whatever the truth might be …. the insights that are felt  in our gut while we are in the process of  learning another language seem to point to a shift taking place at a tectonic plate level of our epistemology.  Wow!  Isn’t that cool?  At a single moment in time, all at once, we are able to see things from a wholly other point of view … legitimately so, understandably so.  There is a discontinuity to the experience. Often one can’t get there from here, exactly.  There is a sort of time travel aspect to the moment where even though all along we were doing the math, suddenly we realize that the new ‘whole or perspective is way greater than the sum of it’s parts’ and we find ourselves as though in a parallel universe.  We are cold fusion, we are part and party to quantum physics. Very cool!

So, when Luis and I have these discussions where one or the other or the two of us …. go “Ahhhhhhhh……”, it is a moment I really wish I could share with you all.  Sure we could just try to report it to you, but it might be mistaken for a lesson in structure and grammar.  If you could see it happening on the other hand, you would see that it is not grammar at all.  Grammar as a science may have made an attempt to capture the phenomenon to which I am referring, but the phenomenon itself, I assure you, is certainly NOT grammar.  It is rather a glimpse at the Altered State this insight birthed.

We will do the best we can to bring you along on our journey … but it would be sumamente mejor if you were to have your own ‘a-ha’ moments.  In other words, STOP trying to force Spanish into your world view.  There are places yes, where it appears to fit comfortably and tidily …… but there are also many places where it does not and will not no matter how you insist.  In fact, if you are determined to make it fit … you will struggle on, but even worse, tragically even, you will be miss the real treasures that lie hidden in plain sight.  Relax and fall into Spanish, let it have it’s way with you.       Aquí estamos,  Joan