Language Crossings: Negotiating the Self in a Multicultural World. (Reviews).

Karen Ogulnick, ed. (Teachers College Press, 2000)

In a world where the media are filled with commentaries on bilingual education versus language immersion, Karen Ogulnick has edited a hook of essays and varied personal accounts of peoples' experiences of learning a language and how this has shaped their cultural identities. She has divided the collection into a number of parts, including "Dislocations," "Mother Tongues," and "The Difficulties of Language Learning" with incisive short introductory essays preceding each part.

Great Hofmann Nemiroff, a resident of Montreal whose original language is German, second language is English, and third language is French, writes: "If German inhabits my body, English clothes me in a well-tailored somewhat elegant costume." Being Jewish and English speaking, she is "other" twice in the context of the French-speaking majority of Quebec. In a community of outsiders in Israel, Elizabeth Dykman, a Polish immigrant, describes connecting to other immigrants from diverse cultural backgrounds. And Rita E. Negron Maslanek, a Puerto Rican migrant, describes how she fought against racist attacks with humor, while being immersed in an English-only school environment. But she notes that a cousin of hers was traumatized by the immersion method of language instruction. Ultimately, she defends the linguistic "sink or swim" approach to language-learning against bilingualism, which, she says, does not prepare students to function in a highly competitive modern society.

In a search for their cultural roots, a number of the writers describe their efforts to reconnect with their native language after assuming the dominant language of their society -- usually English. Schooled in English, Pramila Venkateswaran charts her journey back to her maternal roots in India: linguistically to the Tamil language, culturally to her native land, and personally to her mother through their intimate communication in Tamil. Mimi Bluestone returns to her mame loshen (mother tongue), Yiddish, in adulthood, to rediscover a world that has shaped her perceptions and emotional reactions. In "Recollections," Margie English, a deaf woman, reflects on the interaction of English and American Sign Language in her life, and concludes: "I shall forever be a student of both languages."

Many people have difficulties learning another language. Robert Roth describes his struggles with Spanish, Hebrew, French, and (ironically) with English, in sharp, impressionistic vignettes: "My problems with English, my native language, are pretty acute. Only ever so often can I write anything that makes any sense." Stephanie Hart was traumatized when trying to learn another language because she could never measure up to the standards of perfection set by her father, a gifted linguist.

And then there are the multi-language learners. Watson R. Millison recounts the joys of mixing several languages in a multilingual family. George Jochnowirz states unabashedly that he has "always loved languages," and describes how his passion led him to study linguistics. In a mythological excursion, Christina Kotchemidova writes of her search for the god of language and concludes: "No wonder the ancient Greeks didn't need a god of language. The place is taken by the human race."

The last essay in the book ("Learning Language, Learning Self"), by Karen Ogulnick, the editor, is about inner and outer journeys. Trips that she took through various countries and cultures--especially Japan--helped her to see the social structures that oppress women in both Japan and the United States. "Beyond knowing words and grammar," she writes, "learning a language involves acquiring a role, and knowing how to act according to that social definition."

Language Crossings presents a large and varied cross-section of views on learning languages. The essays are intensely personal and generally well-written. They open our eyes and ears to the many ways that people learn languages. Cultural background and differing learning styles figure heavily in the process of language acquisition; this collection makes you realize that learning a language is a complex process--nor only linguistically, but also emotionally.

HOWARD PFLANZER is a playwright, most recently of Cocaine Dreams; and an adjunct assistant professor of Theatre and Speech at the City College Center for Worker Education.