On her first day of seventh-grade summer school in Germany, freshman Alina Fleischmann introduced herself to her teachers and received the expected reactions from all but one: her health teacher. It wasn\u2019t until she tapped her teacher\u2019s shoulder that she found out that she was deaf. This interaction elevated Fleischmann\u2019s interest in language through showing her the importance of communication.<\/p>\n
Fleischmann\u2019s journey with languages began early. Born into a multilingual family in California, her parents introduced her to German and Danish when she was a baby. Alongside these two languages, Fleischmann\u2019s mom spoke Italian and her dad spoke French, further diversifying her language exposure.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, language is a form of self-expression,\u201d she said. \u201cKnowing more languages makes our house a lot more expressive and a lot more vibrant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Fleischmann was born in the U.S., she moved to Germany when she was a few months old. There, she attended a British international school, where she learned English.<\/p>\n
\u201cI say words such as \u2018hoover\u2019 instead of \u2018vacuum,\u2019 or \u2018queue\u2019 instead of \u2018line,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cBecause I learned British English, it\u2019s always a really funny conversation to have because (people ask), \u2018You were born in California, German\u2019s your first language and you learned British English?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
By the age of 5, Fleischmann had moved back to the U.S. and begun attending Ohlone Elementary School, where she participated in the Mandarin immersion program for four years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a thing in my household where everyone knows a special language that no one else in the household speaks, so (my parents) wanted me to have my special language as Mandarin,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Although Fleischmann became mostly fluent in Mandarin, she lost her proficiency after leaving Ohlone when she was 9 and started German Saturday school instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I don\u2019t use (a language) regularly, I will simply forget it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s harder for (me to forget) languages like Spanish, English and German because I am (completely) fluent in them, but definitely for upcoming languages, if I don\u2019t practice or use it, I\u2019m going to lose it \u2014 and it\u2019s scary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even when Fleischmann lived in Palo Alto, she occasionally visited Europe during the summers. She learned two more languages during these trips: French and Spanish. She began learning French at around 8 years old after an interaction she had at a party with a businessman her dad knew.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe and my dad were talking about (me), so this guy said, \u2018Introduce me to her,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI walk up to him, he goes full-blown French on me and I (could not respond).\u201d<\/p>\n
After this exchange, Fleischmann\u2019s parents urged her to learn French. Her lack of genuine interest in the language caused her to dislike it, however, and when she was required to choose either French or Spanish in fifth grade at her school in Germany, she opted for Spanish.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew (French) and hated it,\u201d she said. \u201cMy parents thought I should have done French. … In hindsight, that was probably the smart move because I\u2019m now \u2018bad fluent\u2019 in both French and Spanish. I should have just stuck to one.\u201d<\/p>\n
That said, learning Spanish has allowed Fleischmann to better understand her mother when she speaks Italian, as the two languages share important linguistic similarities. For example, the word for a male cat is \u201cgato\u201d in Spanish and \u201cgatto\u201d in Italian.<\/p>\n
When Fleischmann was 9 years old, she began classes to help her with her dyslexia. Fleischmann\u2019s teacher taught her Latin word bases, which led her to fully learn the language.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am dyslexic, which makes learning this many languages even more freaky because learning languages is really hard for dyslexic people,\u201d she said. \u201cLearning Latin bases actually helps you a lot to decode (a) word. I was also really interested in Latin and kept learning it because I\u2019m interested in medicine, and everything in medicine is Latin.\u201d<\/p>\n
In eighth grade, Fleischmann\u2019s family moved back to Germany for a year. Hearing people speak a familiar language in a new setting allowed her to begin understanding and gain appreciation for the culture.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Living) in Palo Alto was quite the bubble,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy. People don\u2019t realize that there\u2019s a world out there. I didn\u2019t realize that either, and then I went and lived in Germany. I felt like I put glasses on for the first time because there was so much out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fleischmann quickly noticed that culture shapes language, and vice versa: Some words encapsulate ideas that simply don\u2019t exist in other languages\u2019 lexicons. These words are often adopted into other languages because they capture such a specific sentiment. For example, the word \u201cschadenfreude\u201d in German means finding pleasure in others\u2019 misfortunes.<\/p>\n
During her time in German school last year and the two summers prior, Fleischmann learned American Sign Language from her deaf teacher.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the first few weeks of school, I was completely fascinated,\u201d she said. \u201cEvery time she said something, I asked, \u2018What\u2019s that in ASL?\u2019 Eventually, she got so annoyed with me constantly asking her what things meant that she just offered to teach me after school.\u201d<\/p>\n
ASL opened Fleischmann\u2019s eyes to both the possibilities and limitations of language. Before, she had not recognized the significance of the languages she knew because they were such a quotidian element of her life.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main reason I learned (ASL) was to try to connect with someone who wouldn\u2019t normally be able to connect,\u201d she said. \u201cMost of (my background) of languages was that I just grew up speaking them, but this one specifically had a reason and impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overall, however, Fleischmann has found that each language she has learned \u2014 verbal or not \u2014 has improved her ability to communicate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so much more powerful for me to say \u2018I\u2019m feeling exuberant\u2019 instead of \u2018I\u2019m happy,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThrough the ability to manipulate and understand language, you\u2019re able to connect with people because it evokes this emotion that all forms of self-expression do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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