–Dantong
I know a Chinese immigrant family in Montreal, after participating several family parties with them, I discover some interesting and typical family language policies which are influenced by political, economic, and cultural factors, similar to what has been talked about by Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen (2009).
This Chinese immigrant family was from Taiwan, my friend Chen moved to Montreal with her parents when she was 10. Her father can speak Taiwanese, Mandarin, English, and learned a little bit of French after he came to Quebec. Her mother can speak Taiwanese, Mandarin, and a little English. And my friend Chen can speak fluent Taiwanese, Mandarin, English and French. Through several conversations with her, I realize that her language repertoire is closely linked to some “invisible language planning” (2009) which is embedded in a particular context of Montreal.
The first is the political factor. Given the strong French policy in Quebec, my friend Chen went to a French public school after she left the accueil programs. She shared with me that in the first year when they moved here, her parents told her that only by learning French well, could she gain an access to equal opportunity for education and job market in the future. And it is true. Just as what has been proposed by Sue and Okzaki (1990), that the opportunities are not equal between immigrants and mainstreamers in the job market and other socio-political situations because of race and language visibility.
The “invisible language planning” is also related to economic factors. Given the realities of the bilingual nature of Quebec society, apart from learning French, my friend Chen was also expected to speak English well because multilingualism could provide her better career opportunities and economic advantages. This can be supported by an example in Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen (2009): “We have to face reality. In Quebec, … everyone is bilingual [English, French], even if you work at MacDonald’s, you have to be bilingual. What can you do? Knowing two languages is a bonus, right?”According to this, it’s clear that even if you want to find a job which doesn’t require high education level, at least, you are required to be a bilingual, not to mention the more intelligence-oriented jobs.
Moreover, during the cultural factors, “identity marker” (2009) is a significant feature which indicates that identities are defined by the language that we use. Chen can speak excellent Mandarin and Taiwanese because her parents taught her Taiwanese at home and sent her to Chinese learning school on weekends after they moved here. Her parents believed that her identity would be validated by Mandarin and Taiwanese, and that if she lost her heritage language, she would also lose her belonging and roots as a Chinese. Besides, they thought that it would also be a great loss if she couldn’t access China’s 5000 years’ of rich culture and literacy through Chinese anymore.
Finally, just as Canagarajah (2008) pointed out that ‘‘the family is not a self-contained institution’’, so the family language policies in each immigrant family will be influenced by various social and economic pressures and institutional impositions.
Discussion prompt:
- If you are from an immigrant family, what are the family language policies during your development? Why?
- If you plan to immigrate to a new country, what kind of family language policies/ language repertoire expectations will you have for your children?
References:
Canagarajah, A. S. (2008). Language shift and the family: Questions from the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 12(2), 143–176.
Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. (2009). Invisible and visible language planning: Ideological factors in the family language policy of Chinese immigrant families in Quebec. Language Policy, 8(4), 351-375.
Sue, S., & Okzaki, S. (1990). Asian-American educational achievements: A phenomenon in search of an explanation. American Psychologist, 45(8), 913–920.
Hi Dantong, I like how you closely analyzed your friend’s case. From my experience in Montreal, it is really amazing that she can speak four languages fluently. I have met some Chinese kids who could only speak English and French or were not confident in speaking Mandarin. It always made me sad.
I do support that political, economic, cultural, and family (thinking about how Mela told her kids not to speak French to her) factors are crucial to children’s language development. Linking to your point of cultural and family factors, I remember a colleague of mine, whose wife was pregnant at that time, told us, “I don’t mind if my kid speaks English or French outside our home. But at home, he has to speak Mandarin.”
Mengting H.
The answer to the question you ask in your title is, for me at any rate, “At least two…three is more likely…and four or more not at all uncommon!” But when it’s two, it’s French and English—which Canadian and Quebec language planners are presumably very pleased with. This is a complex question!