I recently came across a fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal on the impact of language on moral decisions made by people speaking their language of origin as opposed to a later acquired language. Though not faced with the same dilemmas, this article triggered in me some thoughts about my work with expatriates living in the US.
I myself grew up in France, speaking French, English, and Spanish. Being almost equally comfortable in all three languages always gave me a huge advantage. However, French was my mother tongue and I do still count in French, even after living in the United States for the last 30 years! I also have to admit that I still feel a special connection when I meet someone from France with whom I can speak in my mother tongue.
Part of my mediation practice serves expats who have immigrated to the United States from French or Spanish speaking countries. They came with their families, sent by their employers, to work in the US, or they came to start their own businesses. Many of them are quite fluent in English, at least to ”talk shop.”
However, when they are caught in a family conflict, facing a separation or divorce and going through deep emotional turmoil, they seem relieved to find someone who can speak their own language and understand their culture. As described in the WSJ article quoted above, expressing yourself in your own language allows you to feel more emotionally connected, while speaking an acquired language seems to create a distance from your true self.
I feel very privileged to be able to offer clients living in a country which is not their country of origin, a place where they don’t have any language barriers, where they can use any expressions or words that they feel reflect who they are and what they want.
Have you had any experiences abroad where you struggled with the language and where much energy was spent trying to find the right words to convey a message? Please feel free to share those experiences with us in the box below.
Jennifer Safian
divorce and family mediation
upper east side of manhattan (nyc)
new york, ny
(917) 881 5206
jpsafian@gmail.com
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When I took the Intelligence testing course as a graduate student I used my(Cuban) mother as a guinea pig to learn how to administer the test. I observed that in the English vocabulary test, my mother would give me a 1 pt. response to a word that I knew she knew. Without translating I asked her to give me the meaning of the word in Spanish. She would give me the two point response. This is another example of the importance of using the person’s language of origin when it counts!
This article is very interesting and and as an argentine ( grouth speaking and writing English, French , Spanish and Italian ) Mediator and litigant lawyer my experience of Twenty years …
My experience in mediation and litigation for 20 years I showed that to achieve a better body and verbal communication without exist an email or understood … that hinder transmission of the phrases and / or ideas… .is quite important parties speak to their mother language. Therefore my legal experience I would always ask translator… Not only to have good light transmission of the language but also to avoid annulments in the trial
Very interesting article. Basal ganglia part of brain that stores information which do not requires efforts feels more comfortable and consequently the level of stress is low when we speak our mother tongue. Being a citizen from an African country where beside the European language( Portuguese) We have African Languages and many of us even when we speak Portuguese we try to translate from our African languages, this article can bring solutions for many situations. During my studies and work, I lived in countries such as : Former Soviet Union, Cuba, Switzerland and many time we had disputes and discussions where the looser were more likely to be the foreigners.
Thank you all for your interesting contributions to my initial thoughts!