Q:

What are your thoughts on the video?

 

I've seen the video before, but seeing it again just reminded me how ignorant the man in the video is because he studied law, so I think,  coming with that background to be so racist, I don't understand how he does it. Like what's his secret, you know, to be able to hold such contradictory perspectives. But in general I thing that the video is just a symbol of a much larger problem in the US.

 

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Q

How do you think Americans view people who speak a different language?

 

Well, there's that joke that people who speak three languages are trilingual, people who speak two languages are bilingual and people who speak one language are American and so I feel like Americans, a lot of them want to know another language but they just don't because it's just not prioritized here. And then they get weird out when they hear somebody speaking another language. I mean, I guess it's natural to think  oh, they're talking behind my back, which yeah, that's usually the case. If I'm talking in Arabic, it's because I don't want you to know what I'm saying. So it's probably about you, but it's probably nothing bad about you. And the other thing too that goes along with that is that sometimes it's not even about you. I think a lot of people, want to make it about them. But most of the time when I speak Arabic it's just because my mom doesn't understand English and I have to talk to her in Arabic or you know, for whatever reason I need to communicate my thoughts in Arabic which doesn't come out right in English. And I feel like it's weird to a lot of people, they get scared, especially Arabic because it sounds so harsh. People who don't have those sorts of phonetics in their language, like Americans with English, Arabic can sound straight up like you're vomiting on the other person with certain words that are used so I can see why that might scare some people. There's Obviously also the association with Arabs and terrorists which also scares people so often times when there're people speaking Arabic on the plane, obviously, you try to avoid that and that sort of thing.

 

 

Q:

Do you think that there is a strong English first narrative in America?

 

Yeah, I definitely think that there is a strong English first narrative in America. The language is like a big factor in assimilation because if you don't speak the language, that's probably one of the first things people notice about you. Like if you have an accent, you hear it right way. I think that this hyper-focus on language becomes this thing that is used to judge people and it's used to categorize people. Like I told you, even when I would say things people would think that I'd say them differently, ‘I had the confidence to say no, I'm saying it right. You just think that I should have an accent so you're trying to put one on me’.

So, yeah it's Kinda like that. Anything that makes you stand off or look different. People want to reinforce that stereotype so they'll try to find anything that you do that's different, so they can say ‘aha! more evidence that this person is foreign’. I don’t think it’s something people do consciously, of course, but unconsciously they're trying to find all the reasons why a person could be foreign or different. Um, I think that of course language isn't the only thing that might pressure somebody to simulate it could just be cultural, like wanting to make friends and do the things like Americans do like Halloween. For example, I've heard of my friends not bringing their smelly ethnic food to the lunch table because people might not like the smell. They might get weird looks from people who might say eww! why are you eating seaweed or why are you eating curry it looks like poop, you know, all these things that kids will say will make you bring in a bland peanut butter and jelly sandwich to the lunch table next time even though you hate it.

 

 

Q:

Did you or your parents have trouble assimilating to the American culture and what were those troubles like?

 

I don't really know what my parent’s assimilation experience was like. My dad's been here for 30 years now so he doesn't have an accent or anything. When I was a kid sometimes he'd give me his essays and be like, find the grammar mistakes. But he’d just do that because he wanted me to correct his essays.