Back to Hamilton College

I was invited back up to Hamilton to give a speech to Phi Sigma Iota, the national foreign language honor society. They paid for the ticket and the hotel and even gave me an honorarium on top of that. I was meant to speak on my language-learning experience at Hamilton and the applicability of foreign languages in post-college life. I had a lot to say. Here's what I said...

Good evening! My name is Andrew Connor, and I am a 2004 graduate of Hamilton College and member of Phi Sigma Iota. I'd like to thank the faculty and students involved with Phi Sigma Iota for inviting me to come back to Hamilton to speak tonight. 

First and foremost, I would like to congratulate all of this year's inductees into Phi Sigma Iota for your dedication to excellence in foreign language learning. Whether you have chosen Spanish, Chinese, Arabic or any of more than 10 languages offered at Hamilton, you have marked yourselves as internationally-minded individuals who have strived to understand the world through the most basic, yet essential tool of human communication: language. 

As I'm sure is the case with many of you, I was drawn to foreign language learning from an early age.  I was born into a middle-class, Caucasian American family, but for many years while I was growing up, Vietnamese refugees whom my parents had sponsored lived with my family. Mine was a household of mixed culture and language. This experience shaped my desire to understand the world, which manifested itself through my inexhaustible love of geography, travel and linguistics. Never could I have imagined that this fascination would bring me to study 6 languages and travel to more than 20 countries by the time I was 23.  

My love for foreign languages specifically began during high school, when I studied Italian. I instantly fell in love with the symphonic sounds of the language, and even the grammar and structure became objects of my interest. But most of all, I had fallen in love with the power that fluency in a language brings ?the ability to communicate with people of a different culture in their native tongue.  

My course of college study was directed by the discoveries that I had made during high school. I chose to attend Hamilton College because of the excellent reputation of its Chinese language program. I had become aware of the crucial position of China as a player in the global political and economic arena, and wished more than anything to become a part of this. I chose to major in Chinese and minor in Russian Studies. In addition, I decided to further torture myself with a brief, but well-worthwhile stab at the Japanese language. Those of you know about honorific forms and Japanese grammar know what I'm talking about when I say "torture." 

The advantage of a liberal arts education is, of course, that the choice of such a track of study does not eliminate the possibility of learning in a wide range of other disciplines. Many of you here tonight have probably taken advantage of this system, majoring in anything from Economics to Chemistry, yet putting aside enough of your valuable time to master a foreign language. Your time has not been wasted. 

From a purely artistic point of view, I think all of us here this evening love languages. We love the beauty and complexity. It certainly might not feel that way when you have to recite Tang dynasty poetry or, worse yet, sing the Russian national anthem to Professor Sciacca, but we all love the way it feels when everything finally falls into place, when we break through that invisible barrier of utter confusion to comprehension. We love the ways in which the languages we study are different from our own, and yet so similar on the level of the human heart.  

Or at least I do. I love the fact that I can use Mandarin to buy train tickets in China or discuss economic reform with a street vendor or order a Big Mac with no onions, super size. I love the fact that my current study of the Korean language has been greatly aided by proficiency in Chinese and a basic understanding of Japanese grammar. I love the fact that I can find my way around Prague or Krakow because of the similarity of the local languages with Russian. I love that I can recognize the beauty of language in the original Russian version of Crime and Punishment in or LuXun's works in Chinese. And I love the fact that my fiancee and I speak a jumbled mix of English, Japanese, and three dialects of Chinese in our daily conversations. 

I know that all of you have had similar personal experiences with the languages you have studied. Stories ranging from humorous tales of miscommunication while studying abroad (there's nothing like getting a plate full of beef intestine when you thought you'd ordered a steak) to true success stories - writing a term paper or thesis in a language which you only began studying four years earlier. I want to say to everyone this evening, hold on to the memories and personal experiences and make the best of them as you move on into the post-Hamilton "real world." If nothing more, your experiences and language skills will be conversation starters and points of common interest with future contacts. For some of you, the languages you have learned will change your lives.  

Chinese has done just that for me. In the past five years I've been to China five times for travel, study, and research. I keep in regular contact with Chinese-speaking friends around the globe. My dinners these days are invariably eaten with chopsticks, and usually involve rice. None of these things make me Chinese, and I am not trying to be Chinese, but nothing in my life seems too far removed from the Chinese language and culture. (On a side note to the Russian department, I've finally found what I've been looking for for five years, a way to connect Chinese and Russian: the Dungan language. Spoken by 50,000 ethnic Chinese living in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Russia, it is a Chinese dialect, but written with the Cyrillic alphabet.) These are the kinds of connections we live for as linguists. None of these things would have happened without the language program at Hamilton, and my life has been so much richer for the experience. 

Languages are fantastic, you might be thinking, but what good are they going to do me in the real world? Sure, I can order in an ethnic restaurant, or understand a foreign film, but that's not going to find me a job.  Two years ago I was sitting where you are today, wondering what I could possibly do with a major in Chinese and minor in Russian. Today, I'm standing in front of you wondering the same thing. But the difference is that now it is a matter of choosing which path to take, not of convincing myself that such paths exist. There is a myriad of possibility for the multi-lingual individual; a world of opportunity is literally before you.  

For the academically minded, there are opportunities to continue studying for MA or PhD degrees in specific area studies or even in linguistics. Look around yourselves tonight - even at a relatively small institution such as Hamilton there are many highly skilled, highly qualified language professors who are not native speakers of the languages they teach. You, too, can engrain a language so deeply within yourselves that you will be capable of sharing even its most complex details with ease. 

Others among you are better suited for business. You will go on to earn MBAs and get jobs working for investment banks or large firms. I urge you to maintain and enhance your language skills with every opportunity. The time will come in your careers when bi- or multilingualism will be rewarded significantly with opportunities to work with international clients or even work abroad.  

Some have argued that globalization has driven English to all corners of the globe, making foreign language learning fruitless and unnecessary. I recently heard that within the next 20 years there will be more English speakers in mainland China than native English speakers world wide. How will my mere four years of Chinese language be of any consequence when compared to the force of a billion or more trained in business English? But then I remember the way a face lights up and ears are more receptive when one's native tongue is heard. I remember the Chinese who invited me into their train car for dinner because I spoke a few words of their dialect to them. I remember the Russians who gave me a bargain in Moscow because I could speak to them about the weather. I could go on and on with examples of how language skills build relationships. The power of language cannot be overshadowed or underestimated. In fact, globalization is making multi-lingual communication skills more necessary than ever.  

Those of you who are American citizens will find a multitude of foreign language opportunities serving the United States government both domestically and abroad. In this era of rising tensions in places ranging from Venezuela to Iran to North Korea, it is utterly essential that the United States represent itself diplomatically with cultural integrity and sensitivity. It is my firm belief that conflicts, crises, and even wars can be prevented through the careful diplomacy of representatives who truly understand the customs and cultures of their counterparts. America needs people with your linguistic skills and ear for nuance of language to represent it in such crucial events as the six party talks with Japan, Russia, China, South Korea and the DPRK. America needs people with your cultural sensitivity to forge a viable peace plan between the Palestinian Authority and the State of Israel. The world needs people like you to build bridges and make bonds, rather than destroy them.   

Every detail of a diplomatic encounter must be thought out thoroughly, even down to the correct wording of a translation. As Chinese President Hu Jintao could attest after his recent visit to Washington, during which his country was incorrectly referred to as the Republic of China, words can make all the difference in a relationship. With able-minded people such as you representing this country, I am certain that the right words will come out.  

Practically speaking, I give the following advice. Foreign language opportunities are available for recent graduates with several US government departments and agencies, including the State Department, Department of Defense, the CIA, the NSA, and the FBI. Personally, I have passed the language proficiency examinations in Mandarin Chinese for one of these government agencies. I am confident that many of you could do the same in your respective languages. Many government jobs offer hiring bonuses of several thousand dollars per foreign language that an applicant can speak. The State Department emphasizes so strongly the importance of speaking foreign languages that those who pass the Foreign Service exam are asked to complete language proficiency tests, the results of which can bump an applicant to the top of the list for international assignment.  

Finally, I would like to mention the applicability of foreign language skills to the social services sector, a topic very near to my heart. I am currently the Office Manager of the Tahirih Justice Center, a non-profit legal aid organization located in the metropolitan Washington DC area. We specialize in representing immigrant women facing gender-based violence. Since opening its doors in 1998, the organization has served more than 5000 immigrant women and children in asylum, trafficking, domestic violence and similar cases. There are literally thousands of organizations such as ours that are in dire need of qualified paralegals, lawyers, and social workers who are fluent in foreign languages and culturally sensitive. I urge each of you, no matter which career path you choose in the future, to consider volunteering your time and the outstanding language skills which you have acquired here at Hamilton to a legal aid or social service organization in your area.  

In closing, I thank the college and foreign language honor society once again for inviting me to be here tonight. And thank you in particular to Professors Jin, Bartle, Xu, and Sciacca for introducing me to the languages I love, and to the Japanese department for making such massive improvements to the curriculum that even beginning students were far out of my league upon my return from an absence in studying the language. And thank you to all of the professors who have made studying languages at Hamilton a joy (and occasionally an agony). Your dedication is deeply appreciated.