A Very Personal Issue

I love playing Words with Friends.
"You're way too competitive,"  says Liz.

It's strange how my brain works.  Are people the only animals aware of  paths thoughts moving through their brains?  I am aware of this.  From a young age I could switch areas of my brain off and on, moving into German language or into English, searching for the correct words, whether I was speaking to Opa, or in school.  I was not in translation mode until I learned French, and that became another skill, locking little equal signs next to similar phrases(not words, but emotions and ideas in my feelings that equated equal groups of words) that I learned the idea of translating.

I do  similarly when I play word games, flipping back and forth between languages, taking a while.  That is why timed games do not work well with me.  I am a bit slow.

My mind grinds through issues and rethinks connections.  The distance between the words and the feelings are intense in German, a bit farther away in English, and very far away in French.  It just shows how long the electrical connection is in my brain.  It is instantaneous in German, since that was my first language.  I think if you measured it, you could not see a difference, but I feel it.

I watched a video today, about a barnraising.  The community in Oregon was establishing a Spanish speaking radio station, for its largely non-English speaking farm workers.

I have often felt, "You come here to work, you should learn the language," just as so many voices agree.

I have also been annoyed at pushing 2 to hear English at the phone for just about anything.

This was different.
Instead of cutting those workers off from their culture, they were shown how to connect to two valuable cultures their own, and ours.  Instead of denying their birth heritage(which is in their brain tissue, unchangeable to death) those volunteers were giving them the tools to move forward in assimilating into the American culture.  They were given  the tools to translating their language into English, making their lives better, showing how to become a part of this country.

For some of the elders, I think the time is too late for much change.  For the young, it is a significant movement to the future. Watch this You Tube link, to which I am referring

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kDnmTB5Ves

 I hope you see the Aztec blessing in the end.  It is beautiful, showing how deep the culture is within the heart of the people of the area.