Memories from our session archives

Language, identity, and losing your mother tongue

We explored something close to our hearts as multicultural people: Losing your language when you’ve not spoken it for a long time.

Through a Korean short film that transcends language and culture, we related with the complex emotions that arise when our own mother tongue slips away from us.

In the session, there were tears, laughter, reminiscing, and sharing of how we learned our languages, and equally how we have started to lose them.

The image contains the text 'LOSING YOUR MOTHER TONGUE' written in white on an indigo background.

Post-session voice notes
between Hedvig + Beatriz

I'm getting goosebumps even now
Beatriz
The in-person sessions are so different
Beatriz
Let yourself receive the praise
Hedvig

Initially they are all strangers to each other,

and by the end you feel like you know a little bit more about the person

even though you don’t even know their name.

Stories from guests 💬

One guest shared a word that came to mind for them: “saudade” – a Portuguese word that means something like “deep longing”.

Portuguese: A saudade é a presença da ausência.
English: ‘Saudade’ is the presence of absence.
Fernando Pessoa

Poster titled 『Deeply Human Issues』 with an illustration of five people engaged in a conversation at a round table, with the words 'Share. Listen. Learn.' at the bottom, placed on a pink round table with a red tissue box and yellow papers in front of a brown wall.
People sitting on a couch and floor, taking notes with the quote 'immigration is a process of loss...' written across the image.
People sitting on a couch and floor, taking notes with the quote 'immigration is a process of loss...' written across the image.
Colored pencils in a small bowl and a card with a concentric circle logo on a wooden table, with a patterned rug underneath.

Another guest described immigration
as “a process of loss”;

losing connection
to your homeland,
to your people,
to your customs,
to your idioms that don’t translate,
to your language over time…

Photo-illustration by Joanne Imperio / The Atlantic. Sources: Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe / Tribal Museum, Tribal Museum.

The conversation touched on colonial legacies that taught us to disconnect from our roots, and the intentional work needed to reconnect with indigenous languages and cultural heritage in an increasingly Anglicised world.

One guest from the Pacific Islands explained his culture and history, and then said:

“We are on the other side of cultural genocide.”

This sent shivers down my spine.

A person sitting on a patterned multicolored rug, holding a blank notebook and writing with a red pen. They are wearing a patterned skirt, tan sandals, and a beige watch. The scene includes a couch with a woven blanket in the background.
A person sitting on a patterned multicolored rug, holding a blank notebook and writing with a red pen. They are wearing a patterned skirt, tan sandals, and a beige watch. The scene includes a couch with a woven blanket in the background.
A person holding a pink mug, standing in front of a dark red wall with eight printed graphs taped to it. Some graphs have colorful markers, and others have stickers on them.
A person holding a pink mug, standing in front of a dark red wall with eight printed graphs taped to it. Some graphs have colorful markers, and others have stickers on them.

How much is lost when acquiring a new language? A new country to one day, hopefully, call home?

How has your connection to your languages changed over time?

We had guests participate in an exercise that mapped their relationship to their languages overtime. It was very revealing.

Some of the thoughts we were left with… 💭 

Inspired by this conversation, Beatriz spent a few evenings putting pen to paper. A reflection on belonging as a growing garden we tend to over time.

Culture is negotiable and evolving. We are a part of culture and we also shape it daily.

Immigration is a process of loss. Even as we’re moving countries to seek better opportunities, we still leave a big part of our upbringing, culture, and languages behind.

You choose what you connect with about your language and culture – nobody else can tell you you’re doing it wrong.

Language is ever-changing, so we can give ourselves permission to evolve with it.

The process of reconnecting to our cultural backgrounds can be thoughtful, intentional, and on our own terms.