My kids are at least the 5th consecutive generation of "outsiders" in our family, ie living in a country different from the one where we were born. And I suspect there were more in previous generations. I wonder if "outsiderness" is inherited / passed on....
When I started to speak it was simultaneously in English and Hebrew and I was making words up from English verbs in Hebrew forms... Also have just spent the morning in a discussion with my partner in life and crime about multilingual place names (and the multitude of histories that sometimes come with them) as part of our work on Kima, the Hebrew place name gazetteer we maintain at https://data.geo-kima.org/.
Another story about multilingualism that just came up is a translation from a Russian language newspaper interview with my grandfather (the one from Riga) whom I always knew as an English and Hebrew speaker. The interview was from the last year before his death in 1994 and the interviewer was a relatively recent immigrant from the Soviet Union. The interview was just translated for us recently and has purposefully retained the soviet style language and tone it was apparently written in. So it is very strange and almost jarring to 'hear' my grandfather 'talk' about the great anti fascist war and the proletary regime...
My son and daughter as well as my partner have been studying Arabic. They are constantly bringing up examples of the parallels and differences with Hebrew. My partner is fluent in German as well as in English and knows some Italian and French so I am surrounded by languages. I, having both Hebrew and English as mother and father tongues have been very lazy because I never had a need or enough drive to really learn a new language. Maybe now, with the new German nationality we are receiving this week, I will get into German, which two of my grandparents had as their first languages.
Thanks for sharing this simple, beautiful and eloquent conversation. Although not necessarily inspired from my own parenting experience directly, I'm tempted to suggest one useful thing to try to instill in children (or ourselves for that matter) is to come to embrace life as it comes. If you feel like a stranger, or outsider, find ways to embrace it rather than struggle against it.
Very interesting. How did I miss the Bad English episode? I’ll listen to it now. I so miss the show.
About jargon… I just wrote to an introvert-oriented employee resource group at work about the exclusionary nature of idioms. A French friend and colleague jokes because we throw ‘cookie’-laden phrases at him. “X is a tough cookie.” “Y is a smart cookie.” “That’s the way the cookie crumbles.” Then we have to explain ourselves.
Leave it to a pro like Gregory to turn a bunch of random thoughts into one coherent (and maybe even moving?) story. Thank you so much for sharing all your stories too! There are so many chains of un-belonging out there.
Putting together the various facts of my life makes me feel like I could see the reflection of myself via a full-length mirror... for the first time in my life. I know the various parts of myself, of course. But I've never "seen" myself in its entirety. This post gave me the revelation, "Oh so THAT's what I look like!"
As an immigrant, Esther's story made me realize that my mother, too, was an immigrant - something I'd somehow never realized until now. "Outsiderness" is something I've dealt with my entire life - though the ways I've confronted it (or chosen to hide from it) have changed as I've gotten older. Growing up as a teenager in an international school in Beijing, I wrote angsty poems that I published in my high school's "literary magazine" about being stretched between two worlds (East vs. West) and belonging fully in neither. I felt more brave about proclaiming my "outsiderness" then. As I've aged, I've gotten a lot more subdued and now just hope to blend in. I have a very "ethnic" name that trips up most non-Chinese speakers and I've been thinking about getting it changed legally to something that's easier to pronounce. Zooming out, it makes me sad that I think about myself, my culture, and my story this way - as something to hide instead of celebrate - but I think it's because I started realizing as an adult how difficult it is to be an immigrant and an outsider in this country.
Despite my misgivings about yet another newsletter and the medium in general, this one is shaping out ok...
While in Jerusalem you'll be able to meet many who have inherited otherness. I was born in England, my grandparents were born in Riga, Calcutta, Vienna and Mainz... And I'm not sure where my children will raise their families.
glad to hear it (about the newsletter). But don't worry, audio projects are in the works. As for Jerusalem, I'm mainly interested in the experience of bilingualism and the challenge of translation.
So in Montreal, the St Jean Baptiste flag-waving classics are the parade and big concert in parc Maisonneuve. For a more low-key, typical Montreal summer experience, I would recommend just hanging out in a public park with a picnic and local beer. Parc Lafontaine, Laurier or Jarry, and the banks of Canal Lachine will be full of people doing the same.
Celebrations will be more prominent in the French-speaking neighbourhoods, located east of St Laurent boulevard, like Villeray, Rosemont and Hochelaga.
It is also very frequent to have a lot of rain or a thunderstorm on that day!
In that case, I’d go see Le Vent du Nord at Le Grand Spectacle in parc Maisonneuve. There will also be traditional music and dancing in parc Ahuntsic on the 23rd (https://www.espacetrad.org/fete-nationale-2024/)
Curious to see if any stories will emerge from your trip!
“A chain of un-belonging, as it were. An inheritance of outsiderness.”
Wowza does that resonate!
I will not shut up about the Bad English episode. I live in a multilingual world & almost everyone in my life speaks a mish mash of Italian & English, (& now Venetian!) using whichever word fits best.
Venetian! Curious: i've been in several conversations recently about 'untranslatable' words - words with no direct equivalent in English, say. Is there a Venetian word that you've acquired that lets you describe something you had no word to describe before?
My kids are at least the 5th consecutive generation of "outsiders" in our family, ie living in a country different from the one where we were born. And I suspect there were more in previous generations. I wonder if "outsiderness" is inherited / passed on....
How beautifully Esther expresses herself. And I am SO glad to hear from you personally. I long for your stories.
This resonates with me so much! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much for sharing your Q&A! What a nice conversation
When I started to speak it was simultaneously in English and Hebrew and I was making words up from English verbs in Hebrew forms... Also have just spent the morning in a discussion with my partner in life and crime about multilingual place names (and the multitude of histories that sometimes come with them) as part of our work on Kima, the Hebrew place name gazetteer we maintain at https://data.geo-kima.org/.
Another story about multilingualism that just came up is a translation from a Russian language newspaper interview with my grandfather (the one from Riga) whom I always knew as an English and Hebrew speaker. The interview was from the last year before his death in 1994 and the interviewer was a relatively recent immigrant from the Soviet Union. The interview was just translated for us recently and has purposefully retained the soviet style language and tone it was apparently written in. So it is very strange and almost jarring to 'hear' my grandfather 'talk' about the great anti fascist war and the proletary regime...
My son and daughter as well as my partner have been studying Arabic. They are constantly bringing up examples of the parallels and differences with Hebrew. My partner is fluent in German as well as in English and knows some Italian and French so I am surrounded by languages. I, having both Hebrew and English as mother and father tongues have been very lazy because I never had a need or enough drive to really learn a new language. Maybe now, with the new German nationality we are receiving this week, I will get into German, which two of my grandparents had as their first languages.
I think multilingualism is a very Jewish thing.
Interesting site. Congrats on German citizenship! I'm curious, why is your family all learning Arabic, if I may ask?
The need and desire to be able to communicate.
Thanks for sharing this simple, beautiful and eloquent conversation. Although not necessarily inspired from my own parenting experience directly, I'm tempted to suggest one useful thing to try to instill in children (or ourselves for that matter) is to come to embrace life as it comes. If you feel like a stranger, or outsider, find ways to embrace it rather than struggle against it.
Very interesting. How did I miss the Bad English episode? I’ll listen to it now. I so miss the show.
About jargon… I just wrote to an introvert-oriented employee resource group at work about the exclusionary nature of idioms. A French friend and colleague jokes because we throw ‘cookie’-laden phrases at him. “X is a tough cookie.” “Y is a smart cookie.” “That’s the way the cookie crumbles.” Then we have to explain ourselves.
🍪
lol
Leave it to a pro like Gregory to turn a bunch of random thoughts into one coherent (and maybe even moving?) story. Thank you so much for sharing all your stories too! There are so many chains of un-belonging out there.
Putting together the various facts of my life makes me feel like I could see the reflection of myself via a full-length mirror... for the first time in my life. I know the various parts of myself, of course. But I've never "seen" myself in its entirety. This post gave me the revelation, "Oh so THAT's what I look like!"
It's cheating to interview a well know Journalist as a "Regular Person" ;)
JK! This was wonderful. Glad to see you back Gregory.
PS: My voice was there in the Bad English Episode. One of my proud achievements.
Not just your voice, but your insights and story! Good to hear from you Chanaka!
As an immigrant, Esther's story made me realize that my mother, too, was an immigrant - something I'd somehow never realized until now. "Outsiderness" is something I've dealt with my entire life - though the ways I've confronted it (or chosen to hide from it) have changed as I've gotten older. Growing up as a teenager in an international school in Beijing, I wrote angsty poems that I published in my high school's "literary magazine" about being stretched between two worlds (East vs. West) and belonging fully in neither. I felt more brave about proclaiming my "outsiderness" then. As I've aged, I've gotten a lot more subdued and now just hope to blend in. I have a very "ethnic" name that trips up most non-Chinese speakers and I've been thinking about getting it changed legally to something that's easier to pronounce. Zooming out, it makes me sad that I think about myself, my culture, and my story this way - as something to hide instead of celebrate - but I think it's because I started realizing as an adult how difficult it is to be an immigrant and an outsider in this country.
RGH, thank you for sharing!
Despite my misgivings about yet another newsletter and the medium in general, this one is shaping out ok...
While in Jerusalem you'll be able to meet many who have inherited otherness. I was born in England, my grandparents were born in Riga, Calcutta, Vienna and Mainz... And I'm not sure where my children will raise their families.
Any specific plans for your visit?
glad to hear it (about the newsletter). But don't worry, audio projects are in the works. As for Jerusalem, I'm mainly interested in the experience of bilingualism and the challenge of translation.
So in Montreal, the St Jean Baptiste flag-waving classics are the parade and big concert in parc Maisonneuve. For a more low-key, typical Montreal summer experience, I would recommend just hanging out in a public park with a picnic and local beer. Parc Lafontaine, Laurier or Jarry, and the banks of Canal Lachine will be full of people doing the same.
Celebrations will be more prominent in the French-speaking neighbourhoods, located east of St Laurent boulevard, like Villeray, Rosemont and Hochelaga.
It is also very frequent to have a lot of rain or a thunderstorm on that day!
I’ll bring an umbrella! I’m not much for parades but I’d love to catch some good accordion music.
In that case, I’d go see Le Vent du Nord at Le Grand Spectacle in parc Maisonneuve. There will also be traditional music and dancing in parc Ahuntsic on the 23rd (https://www.espacetrad.org/fete-nationale-2024/)
Curious to see if any stories will emerge from your trip!
merci pour la recommandation! That looks just my style. This trip is just a mini-vacation but you never know...
“A chain of un-belonging, as it were. An inheritance of outsiderness.”
Wowza does that resonate!
I will not shut up about the Bad English episode. I live in a multilingual world & almost everyone in my life speaks a mish mash of Italian & English, (& now Venetian!) using whichever word fits best.
Venetian! Curious: i've been in several conversations recently about 'untranslatable' words - words with no direct equivalent in English, say. Is there a Venetian word that you've acquired that lets you describe something you had no word to describe before?