The words I yearn for: A personal essay
Sometimes, I reach the border of the translatable, where the languages that normally exist happily together in my mind disaffiliate.
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Call me by my (real) name
Cal in Color
It’s been only since arriving in the United States that I’ve subconsciously “Americanized” my name to suit the American English phonetic pronunciation.
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Language, power, and agency
Like many of us, my morning routine includes anxiously scrolling through the news as soon as I wake up. Lately, I’ve noticed a curious trend in how certain events are described. See, for example, this The Washington Post headline from December 2021: “A Black teen died in custody while being
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Lost in language: A poem
you speak four languages. you use these words to be you. and yet you still don’t know if language empowers you? if your language and their language is the same language? I. you have an identity crisis — or at least your lousy English makes you think you do.
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Lost and found in translation
I know from school and dictionaries that language has defined meanings, but I learned from my experience of speaking Spanish how words also have tastes, smells, sounds and sights.
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Beyond ‘words matter’: The language of mental health
As with most abstract concepts, the language we use to approximate mental health shapes our attitudes toward it. In the case of mental health, this often results in growing up with stigma.
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Bajan-isms: Translating Barbadian slang
One of the weirdest things about being an international student is dealing with two or more sets of slang. Here are some of my favorite Bajan words to add to your speech.
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Nicki Minaj, apologi(s)ing and ‘the britishism’
Hopping the Pond
Our local Berkeley alley is now “dodgy,” not sketchy; elevators are labeled as “lifts;” American friends use “bloody” and “bum” in place of ruder options.
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Invoke the Vocative
I’m an immigrant, and Malayalam is my mother tongue. I’m an immigrant, and Malayalam is my second language. Both are true, but the latter I’ve always hated.
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The disconnect between my culture and the language I speak
The language of our family or our culture can help ground us, but what happens when a person doesn’t know the language of their culture?
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