Kansas City’s part of an interconnected world. Branch out and learn a new language | Opinion
The holidays often bring families together for celebrations, conversations, and — most important — food. Many holiday foods are prepared using family recipes that have been passed down from one generation to the next. Although the food often retains the ethnic flavor of our ancestry, those recipes likely went through a major change: They are now in English.
That’s probably not too surprising, given that 90% of the people in the Kansas City area speak English in the home. What might surprise you is the variety of other languages that are spoken in the homes of our local community: Tagalog, Hindi, Amharic, Swahili, French, German, Vietnamese, Arabic, Chinese and Spanish among them.
My mom used to say, “’Please’ and ‘Thank you’ will get you pretty far in the world.” The next time you go to eat at the River Market, try to say “Please” and “Thank you” in Portuguese (spoken in Brazil), Tagalog (spoken in the Philippines) or Amharic (spoken in Ethiopia) to experience a delicious family recipe from around the world without leaving Kansas City. “Please” and “Thank you” in another language may also unlock a part of your own family history as you travel back in time through the memories of older family members who grew up speaking something other than English in the home.
This holiday season, enjoy the many gifts that language can give you. Embrace the languages of your family. Encourage your children, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren to learn the languages of your ancestors. Make a New Year’s resolution to learn a language and reconnect with your own family history. Support foreign language instruction in K-12 schools, colleges and universities to inspire others to break down the barriers that threaten to separate us at a time when we should be coming together.
Because Kansas City is part of a highly interconnected world — 1 in every 5 jobs in the U.S. is related to the import and export of goods and services — language is a gift that keeps on giving, not just to you, but to the whole community. “Please” and “Thank you” in another language may just be the competitive edge you need to seal the deal with an entrepreneur from somewhere else in the world to bring a new company and more jobs to the Kansas City community, such as the Panasonic electric vehicle battery factory under construction in De Soto. Or, if you already have a seat at the table of a company based here — Oracle Cerner, Smithfield Foods or Black & Veatch, for example — “Please” and “Thank you” in another language may open a door to help you bring the products and intellectual assets in Kansas City to other cities around the globe.
I hope you enjoy the holiday season, and the many languages you may hear (or sign) around the dinner table. Now please pass the pierogi and kielbasa (potato dumplings and sausage from Poland). Trust me, “pierogi and kielbasa” taste much better than “potato dumplings and sausage.”
Michael S. Vitevitch is a professor in the Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences & Disorders at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.
