Heritage Language and Cultural Identity
Introduction:
For my topic I chose heritage language and cultural identity. This topic is important to me because it personally affects me. My father was born in Israel and immigrated to America as a young child. He grew up in a home that did not speak English and had to learn the language in school. His home was a relatively religious home. His parents kept their cultural identity and so did my father. They observed all things Jewish in their lives. My mother is a third generation American. She grew up speaking only English in her home; she never learned any other language. My mother is also Jewish, but they never really observed anything related to the religion in her home. Growing up in my household we observed all the Jewish holidays and attended temple on a regular basis. We only spoke English in my house. When we went to my aunt’s house for holidays everyone would speak Hebrew (including my father) and my mother, siblings and I would be left out. I never thought too much about this when I was younger; I just thought it was rude. As I got older, I began to search for my own identity. I was American and proud, but I felt like something was missing from me. After I went to Israel for three weeks a few years ago I realized what was missing, a piece of my culture, my Jewish identity was missing. Even though I was raised with the holidays, not knowing the language meant I was left out of something. I couldn’t communicate with my family and when I was in Israel I couldn’t communicate with the people. I felt like an outsider.
I knew I wasn’t the only person out there that felt this way- that not knowing my heritage language felt like a piece of my cultural identity was missing. I wanted to know why my father chose not to teach us Hebrew. I also wanted to find other people that had been affected by not knowing their heritage language, how this has affected them and the reasons that their parents chose not to teach them.
This paper explores
For my topic I chose heritage language and cultural identity. This topic is important to me because it personally affects me. My father was born in Israel and immigrated to America as a young child. He grew up in a home that did not speak English and had to learn the language in school. His home was a relatively religious home. His parents kept their cultural identity and so did my father. They observed all things Jewish in their lives. My mother is a third generation American. She grew up speaking only English in her home; she never learned any other language. My mother is also Jewish, but they never really observed anything related to the religion in her home. Growing up in my household we observed all the Jewish holidays and attended temple on a regular basis. We only spoke English in my house. When we went to my aunt’s house for holidays everyone would speak Hebrew (including my father) and my mother, siblings and I would be left out. I never thought too much about this when I was younger; I just thought it was rude. As I got older, I began to search for my own identity. I was American and proud, but I felt like something was missing from me. After I went to Israel for three weeks a few years ago I realized what was missing, a piece of my culture, my Jewish identity was missing. Even though I was raised with the holidays, not knowing the language meant I was left out of something. I couldn’t communicate with my family and when I was in Israel I couldn’t communicate with the people. I felt like an outsider.
I knew I wasn’t the only person out there that felt this way- that not knowing my heritage language felt like a piece of my cultural identity was missing. I wanted to know why my father chose not to teach us Hebrew. I also wanted to find other people that had been affected by not knowing their heritage language, how this has affected them and the reasons that their parents chose not to teach them.
This paper explores
References: Avni, S. (2011). Toward an understanding of Hebrew language education: ideologies, emotions, and identity. International Journal Of The Sociology Of Language, 2011(208), 53-70. doi:10.1515/IJSL.2011.012 Brown, Clara Lee Cho, Grace G. (2000). The Role of Voluntary Factors in Heritage Language Development: How Speakers Can Develop the Heritage Language on their Own. International Technical Literature Guide, 127-127 (Jan), 127-140, January 2000. DeCapua, Andrea & Wintergerst, Ann C. (2009) Second-Generation Language Maintenance and Identity: A Case Study. Bilingual Research Journal, 32(1), 5-24, 2009. Doerr, N. (2010). INTRODUCTION: HERITAGE, NATIONHOOD, AND LANGUAGE. Critical Asian Studies, 42(1), 53-62. doi:10.1080/14672710903537472 Hinton, Leanne L Risager, Karen. (2006). Language and Culture: Global Flows and Local Complexity. Toronto: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Page 107