Languages

I am often asked if I am bilingual; bilingual is an undefined term that can mean many things. For those who have studied other languages, it generally means someone who is a native or near-native speaker in two languages; under that definition, my answer to this question is no, I do not have native or near-native abilities in any languague.

That does not mean, however, that I do not have language abilities. In fact, I do speak Japanese quite fluently, having spent two years living on a remote island in southern Japan called Yoron Island (Kagoshima Prefecture) from 1998-2000. The remote nature of my home there, as well as the complete lack of native English speakers, meant that I learned far more Japanese than the average ESL teacher.

When I left the island, I could read 1000 kanji and was working on reading newspapers, the height of kanji practice. I also translated for the city tourism board, primarily because I was the only city employee who could speak English and Japanese. I spent another six months on Okinawa, and in Washington, D.C. I took an advanced conversation class at the Japanese cultural center there. Shortly after moving to Tucson, I took an upper-level Japanese course at the University of Arizona. It has been five years since my last Japanese course and, although I can still speak and understand Japanese relatively well, I cannot read or write much anymore.

Spanish speakers are often in demand and many hope that I might have strong language skills in this area, but I only know very basic Spanish. I can carry on a conversation so long as it does not get too deep; I can explain to a patron the concept of fines, book returns and basic library policy. I am still at the beginner-intermediate stage of the language, where I have to think through each sentence and must translate sentences internally. Here in Tucson, I was officially classified as a Spanish "muddler" and a muddler I remain.

I do speak a smattering of other languages; I know greetings in French and Arabic, for example, as well as Chinese. That is the extent of my language ability.