Does anybody speak Italian? No? Alright, it's okay.
You're gonna see a text on the screen and all you have to do is read it and try to pay attention to what your brain is about to do. Ready? Here we go. So what is going on in those beautiful brains? Can you make sense of what it says?
I thought nobody spoke Italian. What you're doing is making connections with your native language and a foreign language. You probably...
we're able to understand revolution, fundamental, mode, paradigm. And if you also speak Spanish, you probably could have read the whole thing in Espanol. Una revolución es un cambio fundamental en el cambio de pensar y visualizar. cualquier cosa, un cambio de paradigma. That is a superpower, the superpower that your native language gives you to understand a foreign language.
In America, 5 million students speak a language other than English already at home, and 80% of them speak Spanish. So why is it that with this diversity of languages in our country, only 20% of people are bilingual? Whereas in the whole world, half of the population speak more than one language.
I believe it's a combination of factors. I think it's lack of understanding on how language works mixed with a little bit of historical trauma. So let's talk about that. Language. What is language?
Let's imagine language is like an iceberg. The tip of the iceberg represents social language. That's the language that we use. at home, at the store, with the neighbors, with our cousins.
And that language is developed rather quickly, one to three years. And you speak fluently a language at the social level. Just imagine a baby.
When the babies are one year old, what do we want to do? We tell them, say mama, mijito, say mama. And they say, mama. But at the time they're three, it's like, ya cállate, mijito, por favor, because they become chitty chatters, right?
Fluency in language. However, However, if we go below the iceberg, under the surface, that is cognitive academic language proficiency. We don't see it on the surface. It's deep, critical thinking.
And to develop that deep, critical thinking, we need five to seven years. It's not until the child comes to school that they start learning how to analyze the plot of a story, make inferences, draw conclusions. In fact, it's the language of thinking. I remember a...
exactly the day I became bilingual. You see, I came to America as an adult 20 years ago already, but I remember two years later, I wake my husband up in the middle of the night, and I tell him, honey, honey, I'm dreaming in English. It was the very first time in my life I was dreaming in English.
I just dreamt in Spanish before then, but then I knew that my brain automatically was thinking in the language I was using. the language I was learning as a second language. So what happens in a bilingual brain? A bilingual brain is really like having a double iceberg. So let's imagine we're in a little boat and we're facing these two icebergs.
Don't worry, it's not the Titanic. We're safe. So we're seeing these two icebergs, and apparently the two languages are very different.
It's almost like if I continue this conversation in Spanish, and I continue explaining the difference between the social language and the language of the world. lenguaje académico el resto de mis 10 minutos. Some of you, you just flip the switch, and you're like, oh sure, I'm listening to Spanish, I'm thinking in Spanish.
But then some of you were like, wait a minute, I didn't sign up for this, right? And that's okay. You're just not balanced bilingual yet. You're emerging bilinguals.
But if that little boat becomes a submarine, and it goes under the surface, what do we discover? that it wasn't two icebergs after all. It was just one, and it was interconnected.
What that represents is that whatever I learn at the cognitive level in my first language, I can transfer it to my second language. It's never a waste of time to learn in your native tongue. So if I learn that 2 plus 2 equals 4 in English, it's not going to be 5 in Spanish. It's still 4. Or if Christopher Columbus came to America and f***ed up the world, 1492 in English.
He didn't come a year later in Spanish just because he came late. in Spanish. No, 15 minutes later, right?
No, he came at the same time with the same people for the same reasons. So whatever I learn at the cognitive level in my native language will help me understand my cognitive world in my second language. But then what happens to students that are not allowed the opportunity to develop cognitively in their first language? Are they going to have it?
anything to transfer? Not if they're not given those five to seven years to learn to think in their own language. So then these students, sure they learn English just fine. They're in middle school and high school speaking English, but now they're illiterate in two languages. And every time I say that, my heart hurts.
Because those children came to us with the promise of being bilingual and biliterate. And someone along the way sacrificed their native cognitive development just for them to learn English. And I want to think that everybody in this audience agrees with this statement, that bilingualism is a gift. So then why in practice we treat it as a curse?
I think it has to do with historical trauma. And maybe some of you went through it. Maybe your parents. So I always try to be very delicate when I talk about this topic.
Decades ago, in America, were punished in the school for speaking their native tongue. So if Juan told Maria at recess, Maria, pasame la pelota, and somebody hurt Juan, Juan went to the principal's office, not only to get scolded, but to get paddled, to get physically punished for speaking the language his parents gave him at birth. What did we do to these children? Now they became adults who maybe subliminally, they feel Spanish is a second-class language.
Because then again, an institution of power told them so. So, what are we doing today? Do we think that historical trauma doesn't exist?
I have to tell you that just a couple of years ago, I visited a high school, and I saw this assistant principal putting posters up. on the wall. So I went and I walked to read the posters and they said, this is America speaking English.
So as she was putting the posters up, I started taking the posters down and she kept walking, putting them up and I kept walking, taking them down. So then finally she turns and she sees me and she's like, Karina, what are you doing? I spent a lot of time and effort creating these posters. The students need to speak English to be successful. I could have been irate, and I could have told her right there on her face that it was wrong, but I didn't do that.
I just told her, okay, mamacita, let's talk. Let's go sit down and talk, because in my 18 years of experience in education, I have learned that one thing, that people need to sit at the same table to have open and honest conversations about language. Otherwise, we will not change anything.
So that day she learned that those posters were a violation of her students civil rights. She didn't know that. But then together we also learned that words can be used as weapons of mass destruction. It is our choice to use them as weapons of mass construction. Why?
Because language is tied to identity. When we tell a child, do not use your native language, what is the message we're sending? we're telling him his identity is not valuable, that he has to become somebody else, that it doesn't matter if they don't see their culture, their language surrounding them in schools, that in order to be successful, they need to be successful. to sacrifice who they are, who their families wanted them to be, and become someone else. And I have to tell you, I thought I was totally immune to this historical trauma, because after all, I was born and raised in Mexico, so I was very sure about my native language.
I just needed to learn English as a second language. Little did I know that that historical trauma had penetrated every... fiber of my being. I still remember like if it was yesterday. when I started my master's degree here in the Valley, that first night, it was probably my second year in the U.S., so that first night, I remember going super anxious to that classroom.
And I enter the classroom, and all I can hear is English, English, English, English, English, English, English. That's all I could hear. Now I know everybody was bilingual.
I didn't know that because I was such in a state of panic that I couldn't hear anything but English, English, English, English, English, English, English. And I... I didn't speak English fluently. So I started feeling like I was not worth it, like I didn't belong, like I didn't have anything to contribute to that classroom.
And as you can see, I'm not one to shy away from speaking in public, right? But that day, I went and sat in the corner, and I felt for the first time ever the worst feeling in my life. I felt like I was the dumbest person in the room, when in reality I knew I was one of the smartest ones there.
So then the professor walks in, beautiful, blonde, blue-eyed woman. So I said, oof, forget it. Stereotyping, you know, it's also my thing. So then this beautiful professor... asks each one of us, can you please introduce yourselves?
And I'm like, oh, okay. So then it was my turn, and I said, I'm Karina Chapa from Monterey, because I had learned to say Karina in Monterey instead of Karina in Monterrey to avoid the look. look, right?
So then she gets all excited and she's like, Monterey, California, like me. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm from Monterey, Mexico. So then for a second she went, oh, and I'm like, right?
So then she's like, even better. You're from Mexico. I'm so happy you're here with us. We have so much to learn from you.
I'm sure your Spanish is beautiful. I'm so happy of all the things you. you have to contribute to our class. Halfway into that message, I had this face, right? But then I started looking around, and I'm like, who is she talking to?
How can I be an asset if I don't even speak English fluently? I had learned to believe that fallacy, but that woman gave me that night hope and knowledge. The two biggest weapons she was able to give me to fight historical trauma.
And that is the same. hope and knowledge that I wish every one of those 5 million students receiving our American school systems to feel empowered for who they are and not who they will become one day. I don't understand why bilingual...
Bilingualism is still one of the biggest debates in the educational system in America. Why is it? If even neuroscientists have determined that bilingualism is good, that a bilingual brain is a stronger brain, that a bilingual brain has better problem-solving skills, more creative thinking, and more cognitive flexibility. Do you want to try it?
You know what cognitive flexibility is? Let's find out. You're going to see some... words on the screen and as you see them you have to say them out loud but you need to say out loud the color of the words. Ready?
Here we go. All right. What? Is that black?
Color of the word. Here we go. Blue. Pink.
Ah, you learned. That, my friends, is cognitive flexibility. And what neuroscientists have found out is that a bilingual brain is better and faster at those kind of tasks. Why?
Because we're so used to seeing this world from different perspectives. The sun is not only the sun. The sun is el sol, lo soleo, or in sign language. We have that cognitive flexibility. And a bilingual brain is not only a stronger brain, but a healthier brain.
A bilingual brain can fight the onset of dementia and Alzheimer's. Who wouldn't want that for themselves? for their own children.
And let me tell you, right now we have one of the biggest opportunities in the world. The United States, it's already the second country with the most Spanish speakers in the whole world. Just after Mexico.
And guess what? Spanish speakers, we multiply quickly and we don't travel alone. So by 2050, we do. By 2050, we will be number one in the entire world. The United States of America will be the country with the most Spanish speakers in the world.
Because in America, somos bilingües. So we currently have the opportunity to develop a whole new generation of adults who are not only bilingual, but biliterate, bicultural, by choice. Because it is our choice to continue educating...
children monolingually or to give them the advantages of a bilingual education. Because we cannot do it alone. We need everybody together. Teachers, administrators, parents, community members. members, business owners, to sit down at the same table and have those open, honest conversations about language.
Because I think we can agree on something. Education can definitely change the world, but bilingual education can revolutionize this world. Thank you. Mil gracias.