IMMIGRANT…something different, something new!!!

”Wherever you are right now on the earth, you are not native anywhere”… –Minister Louis Farrakhan

My name is Harrielle and English is NOT my mother tongue, yet I speak English more often than my own mother tongue. I grew up speaking Haitian Creole, French and Spanish. Mexican telenovelas were great teachers, it was the best thing to do before bedtime; a great episode of ROSALINDA or MARIMAR to keep you at the edge of your seat, after that we’ve got to say goodnight and dream about what will happen in the next episode. I never got to meet my Cuban paternal grandfather because he died not long before I was born.
My grandfather had to learn the language and changed his last name when he arrived in Haiti so I, along with some cousins from our generations don’t know our original family name, we have been playing around and speculating.

Just like my grandfather, and many other immigrants before me and after me, I too had to learn had to speak the language when I arrived here. Sure I took English classes back home but nothing beats complete immersion, and in a multicultural country like Canada, various people with different nationalities will pronounce words differently because each person has their own accent. I have encountered people who think they do not have an accent and their little close minds cannot fathom the thought of it ” I do not have an accent, I’m Canadian, you immigrants have an accent”. Darling please, we ALL have an accent, what should be said is ” I have a different accent” because that is all it is, we are DIFFERENT. If an argentian goes to Spain, they will know he is not a Spaniard because of his accent; someone from Texas will go to New York and they will know he is not from that particular city.

I went to a french high school when I arrived here, and from there straight to an English CEGEP( college). Best believe I had to struggle a bit because I had to a lot to catch up on. It took me more time to understand simple materials because I had to translate everything, sometimes based on the context the translation would be incorrect. I have felt humiliated once in an English class back in college because my teacher forgot her job was to teach and mine to learn. I had never heard of the word ”siblings” so obviously I asked for clarification. Her answer to my question was ” if you don’t know what this means then what are you doing here”? The fact that she was from the UK made it sound even more arrogant. Not only was I was too shocked to answer, but I couldn’t translate my thoughts fast enough. It was not merely what she said but HOW she said it, meanwhile she didn’t even speak French, I should’ve asked her what she was doing here too? Of course, not all citizens from the UK are like that, I’m not overgeneralizing. I still managed to pass with flying colours, I guess I should thank her for motivating me even more. That same semester I had a psychology teacher who let me retake a test for he understood the reason I failed was that I was mistranslating the questions.

I was lucky to run into Mae, this kind soul from Jamaica to share the immigrant experiences, my friend and unofficial English mentor, classes would be less fun without her. It took me about two years to be fully capable of having a whole conversation in English, I could say learning a new language is a tad easy for me. Some immigrants are unfortunately still struggling with the language barrier no matter how long it has been. Imagine how frustrating that is to have someone humiliating you or thinking you do not belong just because you are different, you speak or learn differently?

”AN OPEN-MIND IS NOT A CRACK OF THE SKULL”, I guess some people will never be able to grasp that concept…

On that note, I’m calling it a night, but first , I need some ginger tea on this cold night.

Until then, BE KIND!

HarryElle