Desai 1

Aditya Desai (MLA)

Professor Meyer
ENGL 106
23 September 2016
Question: What role does my ability to speak several other languages play in influencing my
English writing methods and preferences?

Im Lost in Translation
Walt Whitman once said, , ,
, , (Whitman 1). Dont
worry, youre not having a seizure. I just wanted to show you how I interpreted this quote when I
first read it. For those of you who do not speak Gujarati, the language written above, Whitman
said in English, Viewed freely, the English language is the accretion and growth of every
dialect, race, and range of time, and is both the free and compacted composition of all
(Whitman 1). Taking Whitmans statement into consideration, one may wonder how an alien
language like Gujarati can infiltrate and directly impact a universal language like English. Well, I
underwent this exact phenomenon. It started from the day I was bornin India. During my time
there, I primarily learned three languages: Gujarati (my familys language of choice), Marathi
(the statewide language), and Hindi (the national language). After four years in India, we
traveled to the United States. Upon landing in the small university town of Oxford, Mississippi,
the first version of English I absorbed utilized a heavily accented southern vernacular. This
marked the beginning of my relationship with the English language, both as a companion and as
an enemy. A retrospective exploration of my ability to speak other languages reveals its influence
on my English grammar, literary preferences, and writing style.

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Since day one of elementary school, the language department of my brain has been
working two jobs simultaneously. When I first began learning English, I would translate it into
Gujarati or Hindi in my head before formulating a response which was then translated back into
English. This back and forth process continued for quite some time. Not only was this process
evident during verbal communication, but it also began to show in my writing activities. Looking
back on this experience, I can identify the most cumbersome roadblock to my progress as the
order and structure of a sentence. In the English language, a subject precedes a verb in a typical
sentence. The verb does not have to match a subjects masculine or feminine connotation. In my
native languages, the subject typically follows the verb and the verb must be altered to match
the connotation of the subject. Sometimes, word choice was completely altered depending on
whether the subject, animate or inanimate, had a male or female association. Although this trend
is seen in other languages like Spanish, it does not happen very often, if at all, in English. The
consequence of this reversed sentence formation made fluent English communication difficult
for me. Additionally, I would use words in wrong ways such as saying sympathy instead of
empathy when directly relating to a friends woes. My rudimentary understanding of the
English language often left me at a loss for words. I was not able to express myself in a way that
made sense to my friends or teachers. In Learning to Read from Malcolm Xs biography, he says,
I became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters
that I wrote (Malcolm X 119). Malcolm X, a self-taught incredibly pragmatic communicator,
was pushed to learn how to read and write because of many literary sponsors, one of which was
the frustration he encountered at the inability to express himself eloquently. Deborah Brandt
defines the role of a literary sponsor as one that, In whatever form, deliver[s] the ideological
freight that must be borne for access to what they [sponsors] have (Brandt 47). In this regard,

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my original inability to speak English in an English-speaking environment functioned as a
literary sponsor for me, forcing me activate my fight or flight response. Fortunately, I chose
fight. The process of fighting began with my ESL (English as a Second Language) lessons
where I would spend additional time each week learning to speak, read, and write English. At
home, my mother would act as another literary sponsor, watching over my progress as a student,
tutoring me, and enforcing strict practice sessions on a regular basis. I began to notice an
improvement in my grammar and diction. Words I learned appeared for use when I required
them, sentence structure improved so that subjects preceded verbs, and the assimilation into
American culture was tremendously facilitated as a result. I realized that my intensive practice
had trained the language department in my brain to interpret English independently. I had
weaned myself away from having to translate back and forth between English and another
language in my head. Instead, I was now beginning to think in English. Soon, this would lead to
a renovation in my life.
The most immediate change I noticed as I expanded my English knowledgebase
presented itself in the form of communication at home. I began to use more English words in
between sentences of a foreign language. Overtime, speaking English at home became
commonplace. Today, I would consider it strange to use anything besides English to
communicate with my family. The change in my communication at home was accompanied by
the process of acclimatization to American culture. I began to watch American football, play
American games, and discuss stereotypical American topics with my American friends.
Once I had realized what being American meant, I realized that it did not require me to change
who I already was. And so, I began the next chapter of my growth through the amalgamation of
my two cultures, Indian and American. The most evident illustration of this process appeared in

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my literary preferences. As a child in India, I enjoyed mystery and suspense genres. After
considering my current preferences, it is evident that this fascination with works of mystery and
suspense has remained with me across cultural boundaries. Instead of reading the stories in the
Indian series Amar Chitra Kata, I transitioned to reading The Hardy Boys and the Alex Rider
series. Instead of watching Indian television shows on crime and murder, I transitioned to
watching American shows like NCIS and CSI which addressed similar themes. At the same time,
I never left behind my Indian culture entirely. Even today, I continue to listen to Indian music,
watch Indian movies, and share Indian stories. Moreover, I am now able to identify the numerous
parallels shared between Indian and American works. As I realized that American culture was
more than just adhering to the rules of grammar and finding the appropriate words to say in a
sentence, I found that writing and communication became easier. Instead of acting like an
American kid, I could just be myself and integrate American culture into my personality. This
played out especially well in my growth as a writer. Emily Strasser says, I would argue that
writing can and should be much more than sophisticated sentence structure and nuanced word
choice (200). It was when I had such an epiphany as Strasser describes that I was able to begin
overcoming my writing challenges. I started viewing writing as more of an art than a science.
Instead of writing formulaic subject + verb sentences, I could express myself openly. The
rules of writing became second nature when I decided to focus on meaning and ideas instead
of grammar constraints. This transition especially facilitated my verbal English skills which
contained more colloquial nuances. Nevertheless, as they say, old habits die hard and mine were
no exception.
In the past five years, I have spent an increasing amount of time on technical writing,
primarily focused on science. Whether I am working on an abstract, scholarly journal article, or

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poster presentation speech, I find this style of academic writing incredibly easy. Of course,
challenges present themselves once in a while but for the most part, writing about science comes
more naturally to me than writing a fictional story. Although I disagree with Fishs strong
opinions on grammatical perfection, I completely agree with him when he states, Writing is an
act either of communication or persuasion, and to engage in it successfully, you have to do more
than have something to say; you must be prepared to back it up, supply evidence, respond to
objections, expose contradictions, parse the arguments of the opposition and so on (Fish 1). The
science-based technical writing I engage in allows me to harness the power of writing as a form
of communication and persuasion. Beyond mastering the skills Fish mentions, scientific writing
is linearly organized and sequentially structured. In these ways, I find that it aligns well with my
internal thought process. I will always favor technical, factual writing over creative, fictional
works. It seems to reflect my personalityblunt.
After studying my personal literary history, I have developed a new appreciation for the
impact of English. While I initially considered the language as a means to an end, acting
simply as a form of communication, I now realize that by understanding the language instead of
memorizing it, I can utilize it to bring together diverse cultures and express myself more
effectively than ever before. My ability to speak other languages began as an English-learning
hindrance but I was able to turn this issue into a skill which continues to influence my English
grammar, literary preferences, and writing style. I am eager to travel back to India in the near
future, a country where English is not native but often spoken, to study the impact my English
skills will have on communication and expression in that environment.

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Works Cited
Brandt, Deborah. "Sponsors of Literacy." Writing about Writing: A College Reader. By
Elizabeth A. Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 43-48. Print.
Fish, By Stanley. "Say It Ain't So." The Chronicle of Higher Education. The Chronicle, 21 June
2002. Web. 22 Sept. 2016. <http://www.chronicle.com/article/say-it-aint-so/46137>.
Lost in Translation. Dir. Sofia Coppola. Perf. Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. Momentum
Pictures, 2003. DVD.
Strasser, Emily. "Writing What Matters." Writing about Writing: A College Reader. By
Elizabeth A. Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 199-201.
Print.
Whitman, Walt. "Language Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore, 2001. Web. 22 Sept. 2016.
<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/language.html>.
X, Malcolm. "Learning to Read." Writing about Writing: A College Reader. By Elizabeth A.
Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 119-21. Print.