'I honestly think when a language dies, it means part of you is gone. Part of your identity is in the language and without that language you’re losing part of your culture.'
The Vietnamese, centered in Fields Corner, Cape Verdeans in Uphams Corner and Bowdoin-Geneva, and Haitians throughout Mattapan and Dorchester are at a crossroads in their immigration stories with each group mounting renewed efforts to teach kids to speak the languages of their parents and grandparents. Whether it’s through a church program, a specialized school or even with a children’s storybook, each has found ways to keep the language relevant.
At the Mattahunt’s Toussaint L’Ouverture Academy, K-2 student Nheyseline Mentor, age 5, reads from the Haitian Kreyol book ‘Kijan Tan an ye Jodi a?’ “For me the language was just a thing I did,” she said. “As I got older and had children, I wanted them to understand and speak Criolo. I had left, but we went back to the same neighborhood because I wanted my kids to have the upbringing with the Criolo language. They all speak it now.”
“As we talk about the future – the children – it’s going to be more difficult,” she said. “As a teacher in this neighborhood, I see a lot of my students that can’t speak to their grandparents. That’s sad. Right now, there’s a movement to keep the language alive…There are folks that have been here four generations and are now realizing the mistake of not keeping the language.”
In her spare time, Tavares also teaches Criolo classes to adults who never got the chance to learn the language – a sensitive topic in the community; in some cases non-speakers can be ostracized by those who speak Criolo. Eighth grader Averlyn Truong said there is a lot of pressure on Vietnamese kids who don’t speak the language, and it’s frustrating to know English and not your own native language.
Vincent Nguyen said he wants to learn the language because he doesn’t want to lose his identity. “I just don’t want to be whitewashed,” he said. “I want to be Asian. People ask me if I’m Vietnamese and then they ask me if I can speak it. I don’t want to look dumb. I really want to learn my culture and not just be part of someone else’s culture, not knowing my own.”
K-1 teacher Rose Bourdeau said new arrivals from Haiti in the 1980s downplayed their Haitian identity, in some cases because of the erroneous stigma attached to Haiti in the early years of the AIDS epidemic.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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