There are hundreds and hundreds of languages and hundreds of different ways of saying something. Something simple can just be explained and communicated in so many different ways. Sure, you can use a translator, but you never get to experience that joy for yourself. That’s changed my perspective and my worldview.
Julia Hosage
Hello! My name is Julia Hosage, and I am a 17-year-old Brazilian-American with a deep passion for languages and linguistics as tools for fostering connection—both within communities and across cultures. Growing up in a multilingual household, I experienced the beauty of blending languages and the power of communication to bridge gaps. This upbringing sparked my fascination with language acquisition, particularly in children and ESOL learners.
Driven by the desire to make language learning accessible and impactful, I founded Globamigos, a pen pal program connecting Brazilian-American students learning Portuguese with a school in rural Brazil practicing English. This initiative highlights my belief in the importance of collaboration and creating opportunities for communities that are often overlooked.
Beyond language, I am an avid reader, debater, and Customs and Border Protection law enforcement explorer. I also volunteer with the ProJov Youth Volunteer Program at my community-based heritage language school, where I teach and support young learners in their linguistic journeys. Whether I’m working as a translator at the Children’s Science Center, assisting in my school’s ESOL department, or simply helping someone navigate a supermarket aisle, I thrive on authentic conversations and connections.
If you’d like to learn more about my work or passions, feel free to explore ProJov Youth Volunteer Program!
On the podcast, I hope to share stories and reflections about multilingualism, heritage language schools, and the public education system, as well as the everyday moments that reveal the transformative power of languages.
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Transcript
0:00:01.9 Norah Jones: My guest this week, Julia Hosage, is a senior at a high school in Northern Virginia, and languages set her life afire, bringing welcome to others, compassion for the world, and possibilities into her own life. Take a listen as she tells the story of how languages formed her joys and perspectives.
0:00:24.9 Speaker 2: Welcome to season five, episode six of Its About Language with your host, Norah Lulich Jones. Today’s guest is Julia Hosage, a James Madison High School senior from Vienna, Virginia. In this enlightening conversation, we explore where language can take you. Whether you’re here to uncover the power of words, dive into inspiring stories, or simply enjoy a thoughtful conversation, you’re in the right place. This podcast connects education, community, and global engagement, showing how language shapes our lives and the world around us. So grab your favorite drink, settle in, and let’s dive in. Welcome to the podcast.
0:01:06.7 Norah Jones: I’m ready for a wonderful conversation with a young new friend that I met at the Coalition of Community Based Heritage Language Schools conference in the fall of 2024 in Washington, DC Julia Hosage, what a pleasure to have you on Its About Language.
0:01:25.3 Julia Hosage: Yeah, thank you so much. I’m super excited.
0:01:28.1 Norah Jones: Well, I’m super excited, too. Why don’t you tell folks about where you are studying, what you are doing, and some about the background that you think is important before we begin our conversation today?
0:01:41.5 Julia Hosage: Yeah, absolutely. So I’m currently a senior at James Madison High School in Vienna, Virginia. And I mean, in school recently, I’ve just really loved studying languages, government, all these different things. While I’ve been in high school, I’ve kind of branched out a bit. So I started off with Spanish my first year, and then I kind of just went to my counselor in school and I was like, how do you feel about me taking Spanish and French?
0:02:06.7 Julia Hosage: So it kind of built up on that. And now this year. I took AP Spanish last year and I’m starting Chinese, so that’s kind of just a little hobby of mine. I’m Brazilian American, so I grew up speaking. Well, I think this is kind of a funny story. So my dad would only speak to me in English as a kid, and my mom would only speak to me in Portuguese. But I also grew up loving Dora the Explorer. So I’d always speak and it’d be some sort of weird mix of like, English, Portuguese, and then random words in Spanish. So, like, languages have always been a really big part of my life, and studying them and learning them have just, like, really changed my perspective on a lot of things and being able to communicate with other people. So that’s just something that’s really important to me.
0:02:49.5 Norah Jones: It’s interesting that you use the phrase there “changed my perspective on a lot of things.” Speak about that because what kind of perspective do you think that it has brought you compared to what you might have had if you didn’t have that background?
0:03:03.1 Julia Hosage: Absolutely. So I think that ties a lot into being multilingual as well. Like I feel like I’ve definitely seen myself associate different emotions or just there’ll be times where I’ll have a thought and the word will pop into my head in Portuguese or no. I have done a little of research on my own in the study of linguistics about what are called domain specific words. And those are words that only exist in one language. So for example, in Portuguese there’s this word called Saudade which means this kind of longing for family or whatever it is. The word for that emotion just doesn’t exist in English.
0:03:38.8 Julia Hosage: And I think there are such interesting occurrences in different languages where you have those words and those like little pockets of meaning that don’t exist anywhere else. And it’s just different ways of being able to express yourself and understand what other people are trying to communicate with you. So that’s definitely changed my perspective on a lot of things.
0:03:58.3 Norah Jones: That’s neat. On a day to day place in school, for example, when you are with your peers, how do you feel that your background and that kind of insight has helped others to understand what language and understanding about language and cultural background can do for them as well?
0:04:20.3 Julia Hosage: Yeah, so I think I’ve also seen that in many ways. So being Brazilian American and where I live, I’m one of just a couple handful of Brazilian people in my school. So that’s always really interesting conversation because I think I look very ethnically ambiguous. So it’s kind of like, oh, like what’s your background, what’s your like ethnicity, whatever. And kind of getting to open that conversation with other people and tell them that I’m Brazilian. It’s always just such a fun talk and meeting other Brazilians obviously when that happens.
0:04:50.5 Julia Hosage: But I mean another great thing is that’s especially helped me to connect with a lot of Spanish speakers at my school because that’s always a very fun thing to talk about because what I didn’t realize until I started having these conversations is a lot of people who speak Spanish have actually started learning a little bit of Portuguese on their own. It’s kind of a interesting current. So now I have a lot of Spanish speaking friends in school that will. I remember the other day this one girl came up to me and I know she’s. I think she’s originally from Honduras, but she came up to me and said, hello, how are you? In Portuguese.
0:05:28.1 Julia Hosage: And I, it like, actually made my day. It was the best feeling ever. So just knowing that other people can appreciate my language and my background from knowing those small things about me, it’s really cool.
0:05:40.3 Norah Jones: That was a beautiful phrase right there. Just made my day. It was so important to hear this in my own language and to have this connection that’s an insight into the impact, the positive impact of reaching across language to others that you experienced right there. How have you lived that in your life and brought that to others? You’re pretty proactive with language learning outreach, aren’t you?
0:06:09.8 Julia Hosage: Yeah, absolutely. So I currently am a volunteer at a Brazilian school in my community. And through that, they’ve been really amazing and empowering me to start my own projects or look at different ways in which I can or find different outlets for language learning and helping our school. So one of those ways is the community my family in Brazil is originally from is, they’re from a very small town in a rural part of Brazil called Hu Casca. And in that town there’s one English school.
0:06:42.4 Julia Hosage: So I came up with this idea of, well, to kind of encourage more literacy, to find ways for the students at our school, ABRACE, to practice writing. Why not try and do like a pen pal program here where the Brazilian students in the United States write in Portuguese and the Brazilian students in Brazil learning English write back in English. And that’s just created the most amazing, like, bond between these two schools. We actually just had our end of semester call where all these students have their pen pals and they write to them for the entire semester. But then we do a day where we all get on zoom and people get to meet their pen pals and ask questions and see people face to face.
0:07:23.6 Julia Hosage: And that’s just like, it’s just incredible. And I mean, on one last note, there too, is this school in Brazil. Before I reached out to them, I actually found out that since they’re in such a rural location, many of them were dropping out of the English school. There was less of incentive to learn English because they’re in such a secluded area that it’s like, what am I going to do with English in my life? And after I started the program, I got to read their letters.
0:07:53.5 Julia Hosage: And it’s just so incredible hearing about all their dreams. And I remember one girl wanted to go study in Korea or another girl wanted to go study in the United States. So being able to actually connect them with people who are kind of on the other side of that journey or like children of immigrants, it’s incredible. Being able to see their reactions and kind of give them hope that there are different outcomes and they can do different things with their life if they put their minds to it.
0:08:22.3 Norah Jones: That’s a wonderful gift of opening the world. In a town that you have a very personal connection to historically in your family then, how about those that are learning Portuguese in the class in your school? What kinds of openings do you see in their lives or in their thoughts about what it might mean to them?
0:08:43.0 Julia Hosage: In my public school, we unfortunately don’t have Portuguese as a class. ABRACE is like a separate school. So it actually started out as a group of mothers in the community who would meet up on weekends and bring their kids. And I’m lucky enough to be part of one of the official classes of when it became a school. So I was kind of raised through this community heritage language school, and I’ve been able to see ABRACE grow from the ground up. It’s been amazing.
0:09:14.6 Norah Jones: That is great. And so this particular experience of it, and I did misspeak. So thank you for correcting me. This is not in the public schools, but it is in this ABRACE Special heritage language School, indeed, that what kinds of ways does this open eyes? What kind of stories have you heard from those that are going to this school or their families? That the first of all, the presence of this community based heritage language school, in this case, Portuguese in general, and then this particular initiative that you created, this pen pal program, that it’s open doors in their minds, their hearts, or their lives. What stories might you have that you can share?
0:10:01.3 Julia Hosage: Well, I think it’s really a magical thing that you see in every single community based heritage language school where, you kind of step into that building and it feels like, we always say, it feels like you’re in Brazil even though you’re United States. Like, there’s always a group of moms, drinking little. We call it cafe zing, like little coffees. And they’re gossiping and they’re playing games together, and you’re kind of. You get hit with that Brazilian culture the second you step into that, into those hallways.
0:10:31.6 Julia Hosage: And I’m sure I haven’t, unfortunately, I haven’t gotten a chance to go to other community based heritage language schools. But just from hearing from other people I’ve talked to and just knowing that that’s an experience, it sounds amazing. And one thing that stood out to me too. This kind of is off topic from your question, but I remember hearing about the Ukrainian Heritage Language Schools and the impact that feeling that Ukrainian community in the United States, while like other things are going on in the world and there’s so much uncertainty, like how comforting that can be. But back to ABRACE.
0:11:06.0 Julia Hosage: A lot of our students or I’m part of a volunteer program within the school, a lot of the new volunteers we get or just different people who join have also just come from Brazil. Whether it be like their parents are here for work or I’m like different, it’s usually work related. But for them especially, it’s very comforting to be able to speak Portuguese. And especially since it’s so hard to find other Brazilians in the area, it’s just amazing you get the chance to practice. And for the people who are still getting used to English and stuff like that, it’s a nice break from like having to tackle that language barrier.
0:11:48.3 Norah Jones: It is stressful. People that have never or have seldom potentially sat in a room in which their brain was struggling to learn a new language, don’t know how exhausting and disorienting that can be. How do you bring the sympathy that you clearly have for people in life in general and in this language area in particular? How do you bring that into your school as well as your life? For those who are learning, say, English in this case. What kinds of other things do you do to bring that language skill set you have to help peers in the school system and the community?
0:12:33.3 Julia Hosage: So I’ve had a, I’ve been really lucky to have the experience this year to start working in my school’s ESOL department. So I am also, I do some math tutoring on the side in school. And I remember the first week of school, this new teacher came in and she was talking to some other teachers and I remember her saying, I’m a new teacher in the ESOL department. I’m tutoring math to students in Spanish. And as I had just finished Spanish that year, I kind of wanted another chance to get to practice Spanish in my school since I wasn’t taking it as an actual course.
0:13:04.5 Julia Hosage: So I quickly introduced myself to her and I said, hey, if you ever need help, I’d love to volunteer, do whatever. And after that, I got involved during the free period in my school with tutoring these students, many of which had just come from Central America and things like English or math Whatever it be. And that’s just been incredibly eye opening for me because all of these students have such distinctly different but incredible stories. One of my very, very good friends in that program, one day we were just talking, having a casual conversation.
0:13:44.6 Julia Hosage: She’s from Honduras, I believe, or she moved around a bit as a child, so don’t quote me on that, ’cause she’s very, very prideful of her heritage. But we were just talking, and we were having a discussion about what she perceived, the differences between where she had previously lived in the United States. And I asked her what she liked more, and she just casually mentioned that, where her family currently is, she doesn’t have running water or electricity. And this is definitely a step up for that. And it’s just, it was such a casual comment, but it completely changed my perspective on a lot of what the students in that room have gone through to get to the point where they can be sitting there and talking with me.
0:14:27.8 Julia Hosage: And I think it always just goes back to compassion. And obviously, my Spanish is far from perfect, and they’re getting the chance to learn English as well. So whenever they see me in the hallways, we always do a little. I speak to them in Spanish, they speak to me in English. And we both get to practice language and share our stories.
0:14:47.4 Norah Jones: And it doesn’t have to be perfect. It just needs to get those stories started and get some of that work done. You probably have heard a tremendous number of stories. That was an especially interesting one of compassion right there, about the life without the running water, for example, because you are so oriented towards and skilled in language and helping others to be so you probably reach out for more stories than some do. Can you sort of give an idea of how your comfort level with the idea that languages and cultures can differ and your willingness to dive right in and learn about that compares to what some things sometimes happens in schools or communities when people with different languages and cultures are encountered. What do you bring to the table that can help people to understand how to interact more fully with others?
0:15:47.9 Julia Hosage: Well, I can definitely say being willing to dive right in, that’s definitely something that did not happen overnight. And I think it is the way. I think it’s this way for many people who are starting to learn a new language. You’re always so scared, like, oh, what if I say the wrong thing? What if I mess up? And it’s taken me years to overcome that idea that I can’t be perfect. And I saw that first when I was trying to, I had the experience of, like, losing a lot of my Portuguese and trying to build it back up to communicate with my family.
0:16:19.9 Julia Hosage: And it’s those moments where you have to weigh like, oh, is my Portuguese going to be perfect? Did I conjugate this right? Or do I just want to be able to express myself and share that message? But back to your original question. I definitely think that with, I think there’s a lot of cynicism shown toward these people, especially knowing that someone is coming from a different background or you don’t know what they’ve been through. It’s easy to say, well, they’re different. I don’t need to engage with them. I’m just gonna do my own thing.
0:16:55.3 Julia Hosage: It doesn’t really matter to me enough to show that sort of compassion. So I just hope that I can set an example in my community and other people can sort of see that and realize that, all it takes is just a little bit of effort and like I said, compassion to start those conversations and hear those stories.
0:17:14.4 Norah Jones: That compassion part, absolutely essential. Thank you for bringing that in several times here, because that is the key. Have you experienced in some of the other things that you volunteer with, opportunities to use your language to help others to settle in or to find their way in a new community if they are indeed coming from another culture and language background?
0:17:43.3 Julia Hosage: Well, I think the beautiful thing of speaking multiple languages is you never know when you will meet someone who, has that language barrier in their own life. So whether it be, I mean, one time I remember being super proud of myself because I was in the aisle of a supermarket and this person came up to me and they couldn’t speak English, and I got to speak with them in Spanish and kind of reorient them. Or more recently, I’m actually undergoing more official training to do this. But I found this experience about like, a year and a half ago to start working as a translator, a Spanish translator for the Children’s Science Center.
0:18:21.8 Julia Hosage: So they put on these science events in a variety of communities. But what ends up happening is a lot of these communities have a high Hispanic population. And although the children speak both English and Spanish, a lot of the parents are the ones that don’t speak English. And you can see that they’re, like, very apprehensive about communicating because they wanna give that, their child that experience and allow them to participate, but they’re worried about their own ability to communicate.
0:18:51.0 Julia Hosage: So having those moments where I’ve just been able to, I’ll have a mother look at me, ’cause once again, I don’t necessarily look like I would speak Spanish. I’ll have a mother come up with me and be really, come up to me and be really unsure about her English and I’ll just break out in Spanish and you can just see like the relief, like wash over her face or whoever it is in that moment. You really just never know. So that’s really my favorite part about language, if I had to say.
0:19:17.3 Norah Jones: That relief. What an interesting insight there is that gives a person permission to not feel out of place and ill at ease. Thank you for pointing that out. That’s beautifully said. You also have a interesting, you have many volunteer things that you do. Obviously you are a very busy young woman. Customs and Border protection, law enforcement, what that’s part of what you have on the biography on my website. And tell me, tell us more about what that involves.
0:19:53.6 Julia Hosage: Well, this does also tie back to language, as does everything in my life. But on my father’s side of the family, my grandfather was a forensic dentist. So in school I was like, why not take criminal justice? And through that I learned about this program called the Customs and Border Protection Law Enforcement Explorers. That’s kind of a mouthful, but it’s this program where you get to go out and I actually have a security clearance. I had to do a background check. And I’m with a lot of these really, really talented, really dedicated other youth who are interested in careers and customs and border protection.
0:20:33.2 Julia Hosage: But what I didn’t realize when I signed up for that is almost all of them have parents who are already in CBP. So I’m showing there, I’m showing up to, I was like a 45 minute drive and I kind of went up to my mom and I was like, mama you mind driving me out to like Sterling? And we show up to this like, lodge and they’re like deer heads everywhere. And my mom’s like, where have you taken me? Like, what is this? And there are these people in uniforms that come out.
0:21:01.1 Julia Hosage: And I’m like, I don’t really know what it is. But then they start talking about how, CBP and law enforcement is really just like family and it’s a community and that those are the values that are emphasized at our post. And that’s something that’s, I spend five hours there. I have to drive out to Sterling. It’s five hours every Sunday. But that’s what keeps me coming back, is just the people. And then back to language, most of them are native speak, heritage speakers of Spanish. So, and a lot of them are from also Puerto Rico. So that’s been a really interesting experience getting to hear, like, little differences between the Spanish that I learned in school, which is obviously very formal.
0:21:45.6 Julia Hosage: Like, I’m sure everyone who’s been through Spanish education is, conjugations, vocabulary, the vocabulary I learned from them, very, very different. So, I mean, it’s an amazing experience getting to learn language with them, but also be part of their family and their community and learn about all the values in relating to service and sacrifice for your country. It’s definitely been a very unique experience.
0:22:13.6 Norah Jones: That’s brilliant. Where do you, where will that take you? What is it that you do? What is it that that especially interests you as far as what they do and how your language and cultural skills will be tapped?
0:22:26.0 Julia Hosage: Yeah, I think that’s the million dollar question every person my age wants to answer right now. Like, what are you gonna do with your life? Where are you gonna go to college? All those things. But I think CBP has, and borders have just given me such an interesting insight to things like immigration, a lot of the processes that shape, not just what our country looks like, but who comprises it. And some of the activities we do. We spend a lot of time at Dulles Airport, because that’s where CBP is like, CBP is stationed at like, seaports, like different, like ports of entry.
0:23:07.1 Julia Hosage: But one of those is airports. And I’ve gotten to stay in passport booths in the international section and let people back into the country and say, hey, welcome to the United States, welcome home. And I’ve gone to see some crazy. Like, I’ve been in the side with all the diplomats, all the really important foreign service people. And I think in terms of my career, like, it’s been one of those moments where I kind of get to look at these people and be like, wow, maybe that’ll be me someday.
0:23:35.5 Julia Hosage: Like, maybe I can go be a diplomat or maybe I can go travel the world and learn about languages and help out in different communities. And it’s kind of seeing hopefully me in the future from where I’m at in that passport booth.
0:23:50.1 Norah Jones: That is a powerful image. I’m excited just listening to what you said right there. Speaking of future, you’re a senior at James Madison, and what are you potentially looking at in your immediate future and why?
0:24:09.0 Julia Hosage: So in terms of what I’ve applied for major-wise, most of the places, it’s kind of been a little bit difficult because it feels like every college calls it something different. But personally, I’m really interested in the intersection between both international relations or global studies and linguistics. I really think it’s interesting how language shapes our perceptions and how having someone who understands multiple languages can influence the way we write policy or laws or shape our. Like, shape the decisions of the leadership in our country. And like having that, being able to have those discussions with people who understand those multiple viewpoints. I kind of want to be one of those people. And I’m trying to figure out what I need to learn to get there.
0:24:56.9 Norah Jones: What an intersection. And what are some of the places that you especially find powerful to consider? You’re not yet accepted to various institutions. But in keeping with that, what are some of the aspects of those places where you have submitted your application that you would especially be excited about? What populations? What institutions and why?
0:25:27.7 Julia Hosage: Well, I think I’ve been interested in a lot of institutions that do primarily research with linguistics. So specific things that I’ve looked at are language acquisition in children and how different linguistic environments can influence that. So I talked a little bit about how my childhood was and being around a father who only spoke English and then a mother only spoke Portuguese. But, somehow just from watching a TV show, Spanish got introduced there. So I think getting to study those different environments and how they impact children can also shape, like, my interest in education and working as a teacher in schools and those different experiences that I’ve had.
0:26:10.8 Julia Hosage: But aside from that, I really just am trying to keep the perspective that anywhere I go, there are learning opportunities in the places where you least expect them. So I’m just super excited at the prospect of getting a lot more agency with my education. And obviously in high school there are certain requirements you need to fulfill, and it’s the same in college, but you get a lot more, like I said, agency and what classes you want to take. And now I can specialize a lot more and take classes about specific areas of the world or now get to go into language a lot more and explore a lot of the things that I’ve shown interest in in high school.
0:26:50.1 Norah Jones: You certainly have some powerful plans. I’m excited already. Just follow and see what you’ve got. Let me go and tap on what you just said about young children and learning young children. With your fascinating background and your clear in being… Still being intrigued by the whole experience, yourself, let’s take a look… Like, turn around and look at what happens when children do not have exposure to language. What have you in your conversations and your experiences, what would you have noticed about what happens when children are not exposed to language like you have been or like those that you often work with have been?
0:27:35.1 Julia Hosage: Well, I mean, I’ll quote every single teacher I heard at the Community Based Heritage Language Conference in saying that all those children who are especially children of a parent who speaks another language other than English, whenever they don’t learn that other language, it’s always when they’re older, it’s like, mom, why didn’t you teach me that language? Like, now I feel left out of this community. Or like it’s so cool to be bilingual. Like, why didn’t I have that experience when I was younger?
0:28:04.8 Julia Hosage: And it’s one of those things where I think parents sometimes can undervalue the, like the role that language has in shaping a child’s identity, especially in the United States, where I feel like there’s so many different cultures, so many different backgrounds to have the language to be able to communicate with people from my background in the United States. That’s, it like been very critical to shaping my own identity and being able to… Or I don’t know exactly what I was trying to say there, but I’ve definitely had experiences as someone who is half Brazilian. Like my mother is the Brazilian one and my father grew up in the United States.
0:28:49.4 Julia Hosage: I feel like a lot of children who are like biracial or have the same experience as me with having one parent who’s an immigrant, there’s sort of this weird feeling of like, am I Brazilian enough to be considered Brazilian? Or, what exactly is my identity? And I’m sure a lot of people have had that same experience. But I can tell you that language and being able to communicate with people from my background definitely has helped sort of quell that anxiety a bit.
0:29:21.0 Norah Jones: Help to lower that struggle some, how interesting. Now, research work around adolescence has demonstrated something to which you alluded. And I’m gonna expand on a little bit the sense of here I have a heritage and I am not going to express it too much because I don’t know what it means to be, say, in this case Brazilian while also being in the United States. And even I don’t want to bring out that ethnicity because I want to fit in, every teen wants to fit in. We all want to fit in. So how do you navigate that? How do you help others to navigate that? Because that’s a huge psychological aspect of why often languages are not just not continued but actively dropped sometimes by heritage language teens.
0:30:24.5 Julia Hosage: Yeah. I think just having. Especially the process of applying to college, having those moments where you can be really introspective and kind of think back to not necessarily what my culture is, but who am I as a person and how my culture shaped that. And I think a lot of what I’ve aspired to do, actually, this is kind of an incredible story. My mother’s father passed away when I was way younger. So my grandfather… But through my interest in exploring them, I’ve actually learned that his interest aligned exactly with mine.
0:31:02.1 Julia Hosage: So I’d go back to Brazil for the holidays, and I’d be like, oh, I’m learning Spanish. I’m learning French. Like, I wanna start a pen pal program. And it turns out my grandfather had all those same interests and did all those same things just in his own way, even, I would say, the most incredible experiences. I’m definitely a very avid reader, and for some reason, I was going through my, like, bimonthly book shopping spree, and I was like, oh, mama, can you buy this book? It’s called the Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa. And my mom goes, where’d you even find this book? Like, this was your grandfather’s favorite book, he used to quote this all the time.
0:31:41.8 Julia Hosage: And I think it’s definitely by exploring your interests and just being curious that you find out what your identity is and how maybe your family, your school, your friends, how those different aspects of your life shape that. So, yeah, it’s definitely a difficult question to answer, and I don’t know if I fully answered it myself yet, but that’s sort of what I’ve gathered from my 17 years on this earth.
0:32:08.4 Norah Jones: There’s a fearlessness there, a compassionate fearlessness in what you just said, Julia, that is just beautiful to hear and would be an encouragement to some young people that feel that they were losing their identity rather than gaining more by embracing that background. And then you’re also around peers in your school that are taking some languages for the first time. How do you find their attitudes and what you’re able to share with them in your experiences and with your background to encourage their language studies and to help them to overcome, say, blockages they may be feeling or discomforts they may be feeling?
0:32:58.0 Julia Hosage: Well, I’ve definitely become that person this year. So before this year, all the languages I had studied or been interested in were Romance languages. So I had a great foundation of already knowing Portuguese. So when I went to take on Spanish or French, like, it felt like learning more of the same. But this year I was like, no, why not try Mandarin? And the thing with Mandarin is it is just completely unlike anything I have done before. And to add to that, every single student in my class either speaks Mandarin as a heritage language or they already know Mandarin in some way.
0:33:36.2 Julia Hosage: So even though I’m in an introductory Mandarin class, like, I’m, I feel like a bit of an outsider, but I think it’s those moments where I kind of treat it as like a little challenge. Like, I love the stories, and I feel like I see a lot on social media these days just from reflecting my own interest. People who take on all these different languages and then they get to be that person that, they’re the person that would be least expected to speak that language. So, I mean, there’s one man I’m thinking of specifically, and he is from the United States, but spent a lot of time studying Chinese abroad.
0:34:17.9 Julia Hosage: And he’ll go to restaurants here and order in perfect Mandarin, and you’ll just see everyone’s faces, like, light up because it’s so unexpected. And I feel like that’s a lot of what the appeal of speaking another language, like, once you reach that point, obviously that takes a lot of time, and I’m still nowhere close to that with my own studies in Mandarin. I feel like that’s a great incentive in sticking with it, but also for a lot of the languages that are taught in school, like, I’m thinking more specifically Spanish. I feel like a big incentive is definitely realizing how much that’s influenced media and how many different ways you can… How many different things you can draw upon to learn language.
0:34:58.1 Julia Hosage: So a big thing I’ve started doing is I love listening to music in different languages or watching international films. And that kind of gets me in the mindset of I’ve, recently, I really love Jane Birkin films in French, and she sort of, like, her French is a little bit twinged with like an American accent. But I love, after I watch those movies, I can’t stop. Like, I wanna like, speak French and kind of emulate her mannerisms and kind of get in the groove of speaking French from hearing it in a movie.
0:35:28.5 Julia Hosage: And I think there are a lot of different resources to draw upon for students who might be losing their motivation with what is taught in school to kind of seek those language learning experiences elsewhere and be able to learn from these different sources.
0:35:42.8 Norah Jones: Just keep with it. Find those other sources. You tapped on something there. Some people will say, I’m a… I feel like a different person or I have a different. A little different personality with my different languages. Does that happen to you too?
0:35:56.5 Julia Hosage: Oh, I absolutely love this type of conversation because. Yes. And I, it’s been a really fun experience seeing my friends… Like I said, I don’t have a lot of experiences to speak, for example, Portuguese in school with people, because we just don’t have a very large Brazilian population in my school. But, like, I’ve just had friends be around me. When I encounter a Brazilian person in public or realize that someone’s Brazilian and you kind of break into that Portuguese, it’s like, I’ll see my friends standing there out of the corner of my eye in like shock, because, they’re like, oh, my goodness. Like, I’ve never seen you so animated. Like, what is this? Are all Brazilian people like this?
0:36:34.1 Julia Hosage: And I think that’s such a beautiful thing about Portuguese is, I just associate it with such fond memories of my family or inside jokes or little things with words. And obviously there is that in every language. But I definitely feel different personalities. And obviously your voice changes a little bit when you speak, so it’s like that kind of definitely helps with that feeling, but yeah.
0:36:58.4 Norah Jones: So do you have a favorite language to read in, or do you feel that all of your reading can be in any language and you’ll absorb it?
0:37:06.5 Julia Hosage: This is like… I’ve always been fascinated too, with Arabic poetry. This is kind of a weird tangent, but before I started, before I applied to take Mandarin, I was actually on the wait list to take Arabic. And I think such a beautiful thing about Arabic is that it’s heavily influenced by religion. And you can see that in the words and like the, I mean, how it’s applied in a lot of ways. And I was really interested in it. Another intersection between religion, which I think is so crucial to or so fun, is such a core thing about how people live their lives, and also language, which is how they express themselves. And I thought studying that intersection could be really interesting as well. So I really love reading. Obviously it’s translated ’cause I can’t understand any Arabic myself, even though I’ve tried to learn little bits of it myself.
0:38:02.0 Julia Hosage: Translated works of Arabic poetry have definitely been an interesting read for me.
0:38:09.0 Norah Jones: That sounds fascinating. And that’s another one of those non Roman Alphabet languages that for those of us that enjoy language learning and linguistics is catnip, my dear. Catnip.
0:38:21.0 Julia Hosage: Yes. I saw you were a teacher of Russian as well. Like, that must have been incredibly difficult to learn as well.
0:38:28.2 Norah Jones: It was totally fun to learn because I considered it to be a magic Alphabet when I was young and wanted to create secret notes to write just to myself. But it was intriguing for students over and over again. And I really enjoyed changing the way that people were able to look at how writing happens, too. Julia, you’ve talked about… You’ve used the word intersection a couple of times in this conversation, and one of them was the intersection of language and religion fascinates you because it is so much of a, both are part of an identity. Are there other intersections of language? And you’ve referred to some during this conversation, but are there other ones that I haven’t tapped on that you’re like, I am fascinated by the intersection of language and what else in people’s lives?
0:39:17.5 Julia Hosage: That’s a really interesting question because, I mean, my approach to learning and what I wanna study is I kind of just wanna learn a little bit of everything. And I feel like, once again, language relates to everything in some way. It’s how we express ourselves. So whether that be sociology or, I mean, like I said, religion, history, geography, there are so many different elements that comprise how culture is created and, how identities are created, and language is how we effectively communicate that. So I don’t know if I’m able to answer that with another specific one thing. It’s more just, I wanna learn about everything and use language to be able to communicate what I’ve learned.
0:40:03.4 Norah Jones: Thank you. That was beautifully said. Now here’s the next question. Right now, we have people that are taking a look at AI as an option that they sometimes feel will mean that people don’t have to learn languages. So you can just, take a digital translator, and it will do a great job for us. And off and running we go. And what is the point of the study of languages? I think that with the things that you have spoken about from humanity point of view, it’s not gonna be too hard to guess what other possible responses might be. But still, let’s focus in on that a little bit, because you’re emerging into an AI world and you… How do you see that tendency to feel that digital is going to take care of our needs that way?
0:40:52.7 Julia Hosage: Yeah, this is funny because I just had someone kind of tell me, like, why are you studying languages? That seems a little silly to me. Like, If the world’s gonna be taken over by AI and we’re just gonna have better and better translators, like, why bother? And I think it just goes back to understanding that joy of being able to speak that other language and having that different perspective. And maybe, you have words for something in your language, but you’ll never get to experience the way that meaning is kind of captured in a different one.
0:41:23.1 Julia Hosage: And, there are hundreds and hundreds of languages and hundreds of different ways of saying something. And I recently, I was reading, like, I was doing some of my own independent, like, linguistic research, and Edward Sapir was talking about hundreds of different ways to describe a rock. Like something that simple can just be explained and communicated in so many different ways. And sure, you can use a translator, but once again, you never get to experience that joy for yourself. And that’s changed my perspective and my worldview. And I hope other people aren’t… I hope other people don’t shy away from having that experience themselves even though AI can take care of it for them now.
0:42:03.1 Norah Jones: They might not ever get a chance to experience that joy for themselves. There’s an important statement right there. What do you think Brazilian Portuguese is, especially… What is especially fond in your heart? Family, certainly. But what else does Brazilian Portuguese in particular bring joy to you in that you bask in that as part of your heritage, understanding through that language?
0:42:34.5 Julia Hosage: I love that question as well, because, I mean, I think two years ago I visited, or maybe three years ago now, I visited Portugal, and it’s still Portuguese. And, but it really reminded me and expanded my view of, like, what it means to be specifically Brazilian and speak that Brazilian Portuguese, because we always make jokes, obviously you can understand most of what the people who speak Portugal Portuguese are saying, but they’ll have different terms, different ways of saying things.
0:43:06.1 Julia Hosage: They’re like, just a lot more literal. So that’s kind of reminded me of the very minute differences between languages and how much that can impact how communication actually happens. And then I’ve done… I’ve looked a lot into as well. Like, I forget if it’s Catalan specifically. That’s like a mix between Portuguese and Spanish. Just all these different amalgamations of language and how my Portuguese is specifically the way it is, but it’s branched off in so many different ways for different people. That also reminds me, too. After high school, I am extremely excited to be able to kind of take my first steps into, like, the real world. And I’ve decided to try and do that possibly by doing the El Camino.
0:43:55.5 Julia Hosage: And that’s this hike through… I mean, obviously, I’m sure a lot of people have heard of it, but it’s a hike Through Europe. And you start in… Oh, I, it depends on which route you do, but you start in Portugal and you go through France and then you end up in Spain. So for me, that’s gonna be the final test of language for me, and I’ll get to use my Brazilian Portuguese, but communicate with people from all over the world and my French and my Spanish and all the languages that I’ve been practicing. Obviously, people speak English everywhere now, so I’m sure that’ll come in handy. But it’ll be the final test with the languages that I’ve developed and carefully taken my time to study and practice them.
0:44:36.0 Norah Jones: And you’ll be right there in the cultures as well, taking your time and coming across people from all over the world that are also walking the El Camino now, too. Oh, wow. That’s awesome. Fantastic. I wish you dwell on that one, because that’s a wonderful, wonderful thing. I’ve got a question for you now. I would like you to imagine in front of you a peer, high school age, and you’re… I’m asking you to look at that peer and tell them why it is that taking a language and also understanding that people speak other languages and come from other places is something to be valued. And why help a peer that’s pushing back a little bit on all of this? They’ve got enough on their plate. They’re just fine. Everybody speaks English. What do you say to that peer?
0:45:45.0 Julia Hosage: Yeah, absolutely. I think I’ve met a lot of these peers as well in my school, because I think people view language learning as something that’s very daunting, and I think in some regards it really is. But I think that the rewards of that challenge are more than worth it when once again, you get to apply that language and see the different experiences in which you can help someone or be able to understand further. And I think language courses today do a great job of focusing in on that culture.
0:46:18.8 Julia Hosage: Like maybe in my, for example, in my French class right now, we’re not just learning about France, French and France, but we’re also learning about how it’s used in Vietnam and how colonization has impacted the French that is spoken there, or different islands or pidgin languages or places all around the world where that language has evolved and kind of taken its own form and influenced culture and the people. Because I think when it comes down to it, obviously language is constantly evolving. And I mean, you even see that in schools, like, there’s new slang every week and people have different ways of saying things.
0:46:55.4 Julia Hosage: But taking the time to learn that new language and having that foundation to understand the changes around us and how they’ve impacted certain areas or people. It’s just an invaluable experience. And taking that time has so many unexpected rewards.
0:47:10.9 Norah Jones: Julia Hosage, thank you so much for everything that you shared today. Do you feel like you’ve had an opportunity to express what’s in your heart, mind and experiences about language?
0:47:23.6 Julia Hosage: Absolutely. This has been amazing. And I hope that, anyone listening or anyone who has questions about, community based heritage language schools or language learning, what that looks like in the public school system or, growing up in multilingual households, I hope people are able to relate or maybe take something new out of this. So thank you so much for having me. This has been amazing.
0:47:49.4 Norah Jones: Thanks for listening to Julia’s stories about the power of language and languages in her life. Check out my website, fluency.consulting for her story and the stories of many others for whom language is a key component of their identity and their world. And share your stories with me. Go to fluency.consulting. And let’s have a conversation and tell stories one to the other.
0:48:17.4 Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us on this episode of Its About Language, with your host, Norah Lulich Jones. Remember, your voice matters. Together we can build stronger connections through words. Until next time, take care and keep the conversation going.
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