Written Task 1

Written task one – Interview with Julia Alvarez

Rationale

Bilingualism has become largely common as a result of pursue of education and work or people who are multi-cultured. This is often expressed in literature and it is a popular theme among bilingual writers. Julia Alvarez, originally from the Dominican Republic, has gained fame from her work in bilingual literature. This interview aims to explore the impact of bilingualism on literature through the investigation of Alvarez’s work. I chose to write an interview because it allows me to speak from the other person's perspective and to fully express the topics at hand. A relatively personal point of view is expressed in an interview and therefore we can discuss the impacts of bilingualism throughly. I particularly chose an integrated interview because it allows the interviewee's voice to also be heard. This allows us to introduce background information, link ideas and discuss implications.  The target audience of this interview is people who are interested in bilingual literature. It can also be of interest to any linguistic enthusiasts as it discusses a unique aspect of literature. The ideas this interview will discuss include code switching and the connection of master identity to language. Master identity is the part of your identity which you are born with, such as nationality and language. This connects to the topic explored because it shows how your background and language can affect your role in literature. Furthermore, as a result of bilingualism becoming so widespread, it is worth looking at the impacts of it. This interview is written during current times, where bilingualism is widely spreading, especially among children. The idea of other languages making you loose your mother tongue is common, and this is playing a role in literature.

Interview

Although it may have been easier to meet in New York City, I requested that this interview took place in the Dominican Republic, Alvarez’s home country. I did this because I wondered what the sun and sky looked like as sol and cielo. I wondered if I could possibly feel the intimacy that Alvarez speaks of in the form of the warm island waters. I wondered, if I could visually see the simplicity of Spanish when compared with complex, dense English. And sure enough, as I walked across the ground of Santo Domingo, I found it hard to see as it as anything other than the tierra that Alvarez describes. It made no sense to speak in my regular accent, which to me now sounded dull and overly strong.

During our encounter, I often asked the meaning of various Spanish words that I heard around me. Often, she had not been able to give me a direct translation, telling me that it didn’t have an exact English equivalent. Which brought me to my first question about the impact of bilingualism on language. Bilingualism often leads to code switching, and is usually a result of linguistic gaps in either language. However this has become comparable to fluency as it maintains an even flow of speech where speakers understand one another clearly. I asked Alvarez if that was what “Bilingual Sestina” was about. She replied, “Definitely, as I discussed in my poem, there are some words in Spanish that cannot be said in English. That was the overall idea of ‘Bilingual Sestina’, where often I needed to fill gaps with Spanish. Sometimes, even though there was a translation for the word in Spanish, it would not be as personal as I intended” This was an interesting concept in literature, language was about expression and emotion, and therefore it was important for the author to be able to capture intimacy. However, intimacy is often closely related to the language that one learns growing up, as Alvarez mentions. Therefore, Alvarez uses Spanish throughout her poem, in order to capture as much intimacy as she can.

I noticed a pattern in bilingual writing, where certain words are repeatedly written in one language. When i questioned this, Alvarez discussed the idea of growing up and learning the simple things around us in one language. "This is where intimacy is built, in the simple, tangible things we come across in the early stages of our life. When I started learning English, it was like vocabulary words written on flashcards. I learnt it as that moon meant luna, not that luna was the moon. The first thought that came to my mind was the Spanish, however I would then change it English as i spoke. These everyday words that children first learn as the grow up are more familiar to me in Spanish, and that’s how I wrote them in my poem.” I noticed that her final words in the poem were en ingles, which is “in English” in Spanish. Alvarez commented on this by saying, “Spanish was still my first language, so even when I say the word English, I would say it in my first language. Spanish is the still the language of my childhood, the language in which I feel emotion and intimacy.”

To move away from the concept of language and emotion, I questioned if "bilingualism weakened the speaker in both languages, or gives them an advantage?" The reply did not come straight away, but rather after a few minutes of thinking. “It’s hard for me to say, I think it is one of the things that I can never quite decide on. Spanish to me is very familiar, and I am also able in English. However there are often awkward gaps, because a bilingual person may think in one language and write in the other. Does this give them an advantage? Yes, because it gives you a unique perspective that someone who only speaks one language does not have. Language is different between people, we should not think it is the same for everyone, that is what makes each writer unique.” When looking at this concept in terms of linguistic ability, we can see that bilingualism does have an effect. It is estimated that over half of the world’s population is bilingual, if not multilingual. I asked if this has ever played a part in her ability as writer. Alvarez replied, “I don’t think that speaking more than one language can decrease your ability to write. Here is where the difference between the ability to write and the ability to express comes in. Most bilinguals are able to write properly in both languages. When it comes to expression in poetry and novels, they may not be able to do this in both languages. This does not make them less capable of speaking and writing.”

To conclude my interview, I brought up one final concept, which had to do with the relationship of language and emotion that resulted from growing up speaking in your mother tongue. Thinking about this made me wonder if English, and the idea of bilingualism, weakened this relationship. Alvarez writes “where palabras (words) left behind for English stand dusty and awkward in neglected Spanish”. This depicts a sorrowful image of ones mother tongue being neglected for the sake of learning and communicating in another language. From these ideas, I asked "do you wish you could only speak Spanish?" Alvarez replies, “for me, things are so closely associated with the Spanish word for them that I don’t feel as though English can change this relationship. The Spanish is still there even when I am speaking English, as though its part of the meaning.”