As a master in linguistics and language, even Professor Samei had trouble adjusting to the language and culture change when he moved to the United States. Living in Iran, he taught Persian and was proficient in English. He knew English vocabulary and grammar, but he rarely needed to speak English in Iran. After moving to America, he didn’t think the change would be too difficult, considering he was familiar with English, but to his surprise, this shift managed to be one of the biggest challenges for him.
One of the main challenges for Professor Samei was teaching in a language that he was not used to speaking all the time. Because he did not speak in English that much in Iran, he still had to translate from Persian to English in his head. As a result, many objects had two words associated it with it; one was in Persian and the other in English. There was a parallelism between the two languages which Ditza Oren describes in her article, Cognitive Advantages of Bilingual Children Related to Labeling Ability: “learning more than one language may, therefore, be interpreted as internalization of parallel labeling systems for the same set of objects.”
Professor Samei’s experience in a bilingual environment is completely different to Shivanii’s interpretation. While she learns to mix the two cultures together, he keeps the two languages separately, because he links them with two completely different aspects of his life.
One of the main challenges for Professor Samei was teaching in a language that he was not used to speaking all the time. Because he did not speak in English that much in Iran, he still had to translate from Persian to English in his head. As a result, many objects had two words associated it with it; one was in Persian and the other in English. There was a parallelism between the two languages which Ditza Oren describes in her article, Cognitive Advantages of Bilingual Children Related to Labeling Ability: “learning more than one language may, therefore, be interpreted as internalization of parallel labeling systems for the same set of objects.”
Professor Samei’s experience in a bilingual environment is completely different to Shivanii’s interpretation. While she learns to mix the two cultures together, he keeps the two languages separately, because he links them with two completely different aspects of his life.
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