Fangzhe
On my last trip to Cuba, I was struck when the tour guide on the bus was introducing the whole trip to us in very fluent English, French and Spanish. He explained everything in all three languages, in an order based on the number of people who can only understand a certain language. He seemed to have no troubles traveling through these three languages. And with the ability to entertain his target audience in each language, he gained an abundance of tips at the end of the trip.
I was surprised because in China, normally mastering English, a language most people learn since primary school, is not common and can be regarded as a great attribute. However, the first Cuban guy I met can speak three different languages in such a good way. Does it mean that in Cuba, even to be a tour guide, there is a such demanding requirement of being multilingual, or most people there actually are good multilingual speakers?
Obviously, I soon got the answer when I was staying in the city of Havana. The fact is that in Cuba, most people (even the younger generation) cannot speak English. Among those a small bunch of people who can speak functional English, the majority of them are working for tourism in places such as starred hotels, restaurants crowded with tourists. So, it is in fact not easy to find someone like the tour guide who is fluent in three different languages in Cuba.
Another surprising fact is that the average income of the Cuban people is very low. However, the tips the tour guide got from the tourists on that bus were close to the amount of money that common Cuban people earn working for a whole month. So, being multilingual absolutely gives him a huge advantage working in Cuba.
To compare the situation in the contexts of China and Quebec, I find the general trend is very much the same, despite some tiny differences. In China, the fluent use of English is no doubt a big advantage, as I mentioned above. In addition to jobs like translators and interpreters which demand a broad knowledge in both the two languages, there are a lot of occupations that involve frequent use of English and negotiating with English speakers. Even for those jobs that require higly specialised techniques, knowing English will make you more competitive. It is true that in China now, nearly all students know some English, which is a mandatory part of our Education, but there is a huge difference between ‘knowing something’, ‘being functional’ and ‘being an expert’. While lots of students in China are struggling for the English tests for College Entrance Exam and Graduate Entrance Exam, or IELTS and TOFEL, which are a prerequisite if they want to go abroad, those who speak English very well are free from all these troubles and have a much wider range of choices in terms of employment, study and life. In Quebec, where the majority of people are bilingual, those who can speak more languages are definitely more popular in the job market. Some employers started to hire Chinese people because of the large population of Chinese people coming in. But the requirement is always at least ‘fluent in English, preferably fluent in both English and French’. Then sometimes the fluency in French becomes the vital factor to make the decision.
It seems that being multilingual, at most of the time, should be better than knowing just one language. But the learning process can be tiring and time-consuming. Once I heard the complaints of the father of a student, who is a French person growing up in Hong Kong and who speaks English, French and Mandarin. He said sometimes thinking in all these three languages can be a burden because you are dealing with too many different messages at the same time. Although I could not fully understand what is going on in the head when you have to switch between three or more languages in life, as a person who decides to include French as a part of my language repertoire, I probably will have a taste of that feeling in the future. But one thing for sure, learning an additional language itself costs you time and energy.
The questions for discussion are:
- Do you think the advantages of learning two or more languages are worth the time and efforts you put in?
- As a multilingual speaker, do you have a moment feeling that learning too many languages can be a ‘burden’?
My response to the two questions above is 100% YES. I think making great efforts to become a multilingual is a thing that a person would never regret in his/her whole life, because all the hard work you have ever done will definitely pay off one day, and for sure the gain is way bigger than the pain. The advantages brought by the mastery of a new language can be divided into two parts: tangible and intangible ones.
On the one hand, if a person can speak more than one language, he/she definitely will gain a competitive edge in the job market and survive better in the globalized world. As a Chinese who wants to stay and live in Quebec in the future, French is a great challenge I have to conquer to gain the permanent residency. If I can speak French, then I will be a lawful immigrant here one day and enjoy equal privileges and social welfare as the locals.
On the other hand, being multilingual means you have the ability to communicate with people from different places and you can be exposed to a very culturally-diverse environment, which is quite helpful for us to broaden our mind and expand our knowledge, from this perspective, I think the reward is invaluable.
As for the second question, I think it’s a complicated feeling when asked about it. But one thing for sure is that if we learn a new language out of sheer utilitarian purpose, then the learning process for sure would be very painful and burdensome.
Yating Xu