Peer

Nhi Tran

English 101- Fernando Pérez

January 31, 2021

My languages

Since I was little, I kept speaking Japanese and Vietnamese as mix with the people who were around me, mostly with my family. One day, my friends in school asked me why I spoke another language and sometimes they could hear me speaking Japanese at the same time while I was speaking Vietnamese with my family. To me, it seems normal to change languages while speaking because that’s how I grew up. After I heard they’re questioning me, I asked myself “why am I” because I didn’t have an answer for that. As I grew, I noticed that I was a Multilingual. There are three things that I can explain why I am so. First, the most comfortable language that I use the most. Second, When I switched languages and why I’m code-switching. Last, How do I feel about when I use different languages?

Japanese is my first language which is the most comfortable one that I use the most. I was born and raised in Japan, Japanese was the only language that I could speak when I was little. When I used to live in Japan and the school that I went to, there were only Japanese students which means I only had Japanese friends at the moment. So it means that I had to speak the same language as they were so that they could understand what I was trying to say. Also, I used to talk with my sibling in full Japanese. That being said, I could say I’m Japanese but I am actually not.

My second language is Vietnamese. I remember when I was little, I could not speak Vietnamese at all. I was speaking “broken Vietnamese” which only my family could understand me. As I grew, my vietnamese got better even though I have never learned Vietnamese. I think I tried to speak it as much as I could so that I could learn a lot of it. I speak Vietnamese when I’m with my family at home. Since I wasn't good at speaking it, I often find myself switching languages mid-sentence when I forget a particular word which I switch to Japanese. The reason why I’m “code-switching” is that to my family, Japanese isn’t the first language. They can’t understand me fully if I speak Japanese only. I switch languages when my family needs me to help translate something for them as well. For example, if there was an important document that they need to work on but it has a lot of difficult Japanese which is “Kanji”, they might need my help.

English is my third language and I learned it when I moved here. I was struggling a lot with English and needed some help with my school work and communication with other people. Now, I feel like my brain’s becoming English little by little such as when I’m thinking of something to say, I would think of it in English first. Since my English isn’t perfect yet, I still sometimes look at other languages and translate them to English. Personally, learning a new language is not easy. It is really hard to speak multiple languages at a time. But I got this skill since I was little as naturally so I feel like I’m a special person. I’m lucky to have a family who gave me a chance to have the skill that I never knew I had it.

In all, my brain processes different languages in different ways. For example, when I am upset, I automatically think in Japanese which is my first language. Because I speak multiple languages, I think and act differently according to which language it is. And that is how I grew up.

Work Cited

Hamilton, Kathy “Code- Switching in My Multilingual Family” Code-Switching in My Multilingual Family

Tan, Amy “Mother Tongue”,The World is a Text: Writing, Reading, and Thinking about

Culture and Its Contexts (2003): 291.