‘Vers un
monde sans frontières’;
[Pause]
‘Per un mondo senza frontiere’;
[Pause]
‘For a
world without frontiers’.
[Pause]
‘Sınırları olmayan bir dünya için’
[Pause]
‘Għal dinja mingħajr fruntieri’
[Pause]
‘For en verden uden grænser’
[Pause]
My fellow students,
Are you asking yourselves: ‘Why did she make use of so many languages,
to state the motto of the school, when we all, very well, master English?’
Each one of you, deeply reflect on
the sentiment of confusion you experienced, just a moment ago, when you heard
me emit sounds, which were uniquely nonsense to you.
Now, gather the frustration that
rose in you, when you realised I could have simply expressed myself in English.
Very well, I feel a high
concentration of extremely strong emotions in the air.
[In a slight mocking tone] To avoid stimulating your frustration further, I will answer your
doubts. ‘Why did she make use of so many
languages, when we all, very well, master English?’
Listen closely: [voice growing louder, aggressive in tone] because
many of you have forgotten your role as members of an international school’s
community! I’m not at all impressed. Upset, rather.
Lately, I have witnessed episodes of
bullying: linguistic bullying.
As president of our school’s student
council I cannot ignore an issue of such great importance, especially in an
international environment.
Some individuals have felt excluded
because of peers purposefully speaking, amongst them, in their own languages. These
individuals have experienced the same frustration that tormented you seconds
ago. One difference: they have constantly
(emphasis). What would YOU feel like
if I were to say your name in between a dozen Russian words and then laugh my
head off?
[Pause]
Not only.
Others have been mocked due to particularities
of their languages and cultures. Since I don’t understand, would someone else
please explain to me what is so
funny about your friends, Isaac and Mohamed, feeling they ‘cannot translate the Koran to any other language’, about them
feeling that ‘if it were translated it
would lose its perfection’ since ‘Arabic
was given by Allah to Mohamed’?
[Pause]
The
aim, I am strongly willing to pursue, with my speech, is the achievement of
everyone’s awareness on one important issue: language’s power and its closeness
to culture. Thus, the importance of respecting every language.
Firstly, what you should always keep
in mind is that each culture is composed of symbols, heroes, rituals and values.
Language is a symbol which holds a culture’s values.
Mocking someone’s language is
mocking someone’s values.
Mocking someone’s values is mocking
the core of someone’s culture.
It is stabbing someone’s culture’s
soul.
Thus, in the international
environment which we co-inhabit, we should keep cultural relativism in mind. I
will explain what the latter means.
Our school is a blank canvas waiting
to be painted. Each student can offer the infinite colours and fascinating
shadings of his own culture. But each one of us has a choice to make. One can
either paint over someone else’s work with the paintbrush ‘Judgement’ or instead, use the paintbrush ‘Respect’ to intermingle his own art with that of others.
Today, I want to persuade you all of
ALWAYS making the latter choice so that together we shall complete an
infinitely colourful masterpiece.
Moreover, I want to emphasize the precious
advantages we, as international students, treasure. We are all sons of
Bilingualism and the English language: and what a great family we make as such!
Everyone here present speaks at
least two languages, one of which is English.
Keeping our canvas in mind, consider
this: bilingualism makes us artists. We must use our multilingualism to improve
our lives, not to deteriorate others’.
Life is composed of many homogeneous balls of white clay. By switching
from language to language, in order to address different people in various
social contexts, one can model the clay to one’s own will and preference.
Bilingualism guarantees us greater control over our existences.
Being bilingual is like possessing two keys to
the door of Life. ‘It is said that to
have a second language is to have a second soul’. If you think of it, one’s
thoughts are infinite and language is the translation of thoughts. However,
words are not equally unlimited. Thus, the knowledge, of more languages, will
allow an individual to expose his mind more thoroughly and precisely than a
monolingual. Undeniably, bilinguals have great power.
We have the possibility of creating
different situations simply by switching the language we are speaking in. For
example, many of you might associate English with the school environment;
English is the tool with which you address your teachers and international
classmates. Similarly, many associate their native language with the family
context.
Bilinguals, cunningly exploit their
superiority when they don’t want to be understood by a certain group of people.
They decide to speak one language to avoid being understood, or the other to
ease communication instead. It is a defence tactic. In some way, it strengthens
the sense of one’s nationality. However, this faculty must not be adopted
aiming to isolate non-speakers of your own language, which is, in fact, what
has occurred amongst some of us. By doing so, some of you have erringly taken
advantage of language’s power, conferred to you by education. You have become
the antagonists of our story. What a pity when you have the power and
possibility of being its heroes!
As bilinguals we should make the
most of our dote. We should let our minds switch from one language to the other
to make use of the most proper words that describe our feelings and which best
suit any situation. We should let the languages we master intermingle in our
mouths, if necessary.
In fact, language mixing is the unique,
harmonious melody of our school days’ soundtrack. We speak continuously amongst
each other first in English, then in Japanese, Deutsch, Italiano, Français,
Portuguese... dancing and swaying to
international sounds. We must never stop dancing : we must never forget the
uniqueness and beauty of our own mother tongues and must never stop sharing
them with each other, but...
My
fellow students, remember one last point. We have the fortune of being English
speakers. The latter is the world language, no doubts.
380 million people have English as
their first language.
260 million people as their second.
1000 million people are learning it
presently.
The prediction is that, by 2050,
more than half of the world’s population will averagely proficiently speak English.
English’s destiny is that of the
global language and we are included, already, in its heroic fate. We have the passpartout to world-wide communication,
being bilinguals and English-speakers.
But we must remember: Respect is
Communication’s son. Therefore, we must use our multilingualism to open
ourselves to others and trade our cultures. We must not make use of our power
to repel people, starting right here, at our school, amongst us.
Linguistic Bullying shall never be
heard of again.
All together, simply:
‘For
a world without frontiers’.
Rationale for my speech:
The aim of my speech, or rather, of
my appeal, was to raise awareness about language’s closeness to culture and
thus the importance of respecting all languages, included those which are not
your own.
As
my audience I chose high school students of an international school such as my
own. Such a group of people already has an international, open-minded view of
the world and probably already has an opinion on the issues I raise with my
speech. My aim was to persuade them of my own opinion and of the importance of
the issues considered: ‘linguistic bullying’.
To
address this type of audience efficiently, I structured my speech into many
brief paragraphs with intermitting pauses. I made this choice in order to allow
variance and suspense in my tone of voice and thus avoid boring my young
audience; conveying my message as successfully as possible.
I
made my speech direct and very informal to involve my audience as much as
possible. I did this by using repetition, as in the case of the opening
rhetorical question: ‘Why…English?’.
In fact, the choice of opening my appeal with a rhetorical question was to grab
my audience’s attention, interest and involve it immediately.
The
infrequent punctuation allowed my speech to flow easily. Its rhythm and pace
were made quick, thus maintaining my audience’s attention high throughout.
Also,
whilst studying this option, I came across Bryson’s novel ‘Mothertongue’ and a
variety of articles. To explain issues relative to language, these sources made
use of concrete examples. I used this tactic in my speech too as I consider
language and culture to be a very delicate and abstract topic to deal with,
especially for young people like me. The use of specific examples (such as
Isaac’s and Mohamed’s story, the data relative to English’s divulgation
world-wide…) and the inclusion of the motto of my school in many different
languages allowed me to make my point more tangible and real.
The
continuous references to language as art and music, through metaphors and
similes (‘canvas’; balls of
clay’,’harmonious melody’) allowed me to create visual images and thus,
confer strength to my speech. Moreover, by doing so I intended to invest
language with a sense of beauty and splendor (which are in fact connotations of
the artistic disciplines).
Finally,
I attempted to create a sense of intimacy between myself and my audience. I
tried to attribute to language the power of uniting people: ‘We must use our multilingualism[…] we shall
complete an infinitely colorful masterpiece’. Moreover, by repeating ‘we’, I tried to make my appeal a
collective challenge and thus raise the responsibility, of fighting against
‘linguistic bullying’, amongst my audience.
I
felt engaged in writing this appeal because I tried to develop it as if I was
actually going to read it out loud eventually. This is what made me
continuously think about the context and my audience and thus, I believe,
encouraged me to portray the main issues efficiently and persuasively.
