By Gibron Rahim
“LEARNING another language is not only learning different words for the same things but learning another way to think about things.”

The above words, spoken by the late American journalist Flora Lewis, are a reminder of how truly powerful learning another language is. Though the ongoing process of acquiring a language other than our mother tongue can prove challenging, it is undoubtedly a worthwhile endeavour. Indeed, learning another language is beneficial in numerous ways.
Spanglish GY exemplifies the difference that learning at least one other language can make. It was founded by Christian Vargas Yaconi from Chile, Charlie Tokeley from the United Kingdom and Gordon Roberts from Guyana.

Christian told the Pepperpot Magazine that Spanglish GY started hosting events this past February. He explained that their focus from the beginning has been on language exchange for those looking to learn a second language, such as Spanish. “The idea when we started was to have meetings where people could exchange language skills through conversation.”
The meetings are designed to last about two hours. The language of conversation switches between Spanish and English during that two-hour period. The idea, Christian related, is to change languages at every 15-minute interval. That switching between the languages is a fixture of Spanglish GY’s Spanglish Nights, which are currently being held in the evenings on the first Wednesday of every month at YMCA on Thomas Lands.

The event has proven to be very popular. “At the moment we are hosting more or less 80 people per event, mainly people that study Spanish,” said Christian. They have hosted groups from various government ministries, including a group from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Venezuelan Institute. Christian noted that there are also many attendees who study Spanish at school or university. “I think for them it’s a good opportunity to use it,” he said and pointed out that, though there are chances to write and read in the classroom when learning a second language, opportunities to practise speaking are rarer.

Learning another language is not without its challenges. One of the main challenges is confidence according to Charlie. “You can’t speak another language without confidence,” he stated plainly. “It’s kind of a block but at the same time it can be almost a wind in your sails when you put it behind you.” An additional difficulty is the fact that speaking another language is about more than learning new vocabulary and grammar. “It’s a process of getting into the minds of people from that culture,” said Charlie. “People see things in different ways in different cultures.”

As an example to illustrate his point, Charlie related that, while in English we might say “I am embarrassed”, in Spanish the equivalent phrase is “Me da vergüenza” which translates literally to English as “It gives me embarrassment”. The difference he said is not just grammatical but rather, reflects a difference in viewpoints across cultures. “This is something which I think people find very difficult, not only learning the grammar but also trying to understand the cultural perspective behind different languages.”

One of the ways Spanglish GY addresses the difficulty of understanding different cultural perspectives in the Spanish language is by assigning a theme to each Spanglish Night. Each month, a different Spanish-speaking country is the theme of the evening’s discussion. “We know that it is important to speak the second language in a cultural context,” explained Christian.

The country chosen for this past Wednesday’s Spanglish Night was Argentina with the
evening’s discussion focused on different topics related to the culture of that country. Christian pointed out that setting up the event in that way allows participants to become more immersed in the culture chosen. He said, “Through this immersion people can realise more about the language,” while also starting to have a little more confidence and becoming more comfortable with the language.

The challenges and the benefits of learning another language are related according to Charlie. “When you kind of get inside the head of a different culture it’s a really enriching experience,” he related. Learning another language grants access to the literature, art, films and music of the culture that speaks that language. “Most of the world doesn’t speak English so you’re cutting off your ability to have basic conversation and human relations with most of the world if you don’t speak another language.”

Charlie noted that learning Spanish alone makes travel across most of South America possible with opportunities to meet people, make friends and learn new things. Besides the professional and workplace benefits of knowing another language, “I think it also helps you, from a personal standpoint, in terms of being humble in lots of different situations,” Charlie affirmed. “You know what it’s like to be someone who’s not understood, you know what it’s like to be someone who can’t get their point across.” He added, “I think it helps you to listen to people a little bit more and be a little bit more understanding.”

Notable as well, as Christian explained, is the fact that Guyana maintains close ties with countries that speak other languages such as Brazil and Cuba. Citizens of these countries visit and, in some cases, live and work in Guyana. “From this point of view, it provides the opportunity to integrate them into Guyana but also it gives opportunities for Guyanese people to work in these languages.” Portuguese, for example, could currently be very useful to someone living and working in Lethem and for developing a business in the area of tourism. Additionally, he said, some organisations such as the United Nations requires their staff to know a second language.

The benefits cannot be overstated. “It gives the opportunity to open your mind to being informed about different perspectives of the world,” said Christian. He recalled that when he was learning to speak English he would read newspapers in English. He found that the points of view were completely different. Knowing another language, especially with the internet at our disposal, provides us with the opportunity to be globally informed.
To further its goals Spanglish GY has recently created another event – Language Lounge.

The event focuses on more than one language. The first Language Lounge had Spanish, French and Portuguese tables. The Portuguese table was hosted by the Centro Cultural Brasil-Guyana (CCBG) while the French table was hosted by the Alliance Francaise du Guyana. “We are hoping to do this kind of collaboration with other cultural centres and other language centres in Georgetown and Guyana and our perspective for the future is to reach more organisations.”