15 Min Language Story | Jeanmarie Rouhier-Willoughby

The Transformative Power of Language: A Journey with Jeanmarie Rouhier- Willoughby

Introduction: In a captivating conversation with Norah Jones, Jeanmarie Rouhier- Willoughby, a professor of Russian, folklore, and linguistics at the University of Kentucky, shares her inspiring journey into the world of languages. From her early days in Germany to her profound experiences in Western Siberia, Jean-Marie’s story is a testament to the power of language in forging connections and opening doors to new worlds.

The Journey Begins: Jeanmarie’s passion for languages was ignited at the age of six when her family moved to Germany. Immersed in the local culture, she began her linguistic journey with German, which later expanded to include Russian. Her advisor’s encouragement to study Russian led her to the Soviet Union, a pivotal experience that shaped her career and life.

Language as a Gateway: For Jeanmarie, language is more than a tool for communication; it’s a gateway to understanding cultures and building meaningful connections. Her work in Western Siberia, where English is not widely spoken, highlights the respect and access that come with speaking the local language. This respect is something she passionately imparts to her students, encouraging them to embrace the challenges and rewards of language learning.

Empowering Students: At the University of Kentucky, Jeanmarie teaches a core course for language majors, guiding students in German, Latin, Russian, and more. She emphasizes the importance of self-driven learning and the professional opportunities that language skills can unlock. Her students are encouraged to take risks, engage with diverse cultures, and build networks that transcend linguistic barriers.

Conclusion: Jeanmarie’s story is a powerful reminder of the transformative impact of language. It is not just about mastering grammar or vocabulary but about creating connections that enrich our lives and broaden our horizons. As she eloquently puts it, language is the defining factor that makes us human, enabling us to build networks and communities across the globe.

Call to Action: Subscribe now to explore more inspiring stories and insights from language enthusiasts and experts around the world.

Transcript

Norah Jones (00:05)
Welcome to My Language Story and Who Are You and What Do You Do?

Jeanmarie (00:11)
I’m Jean-Marie Rouillet-Willoughby. I am a professor of Russian and folklore and linguistics at the University of Kentucky.

Norah Jones (00:19)
Phenomenal. And you have some special activities as a professor of these languages and cultures that you’re going to share with us today. What prompted you to, in fact, start what you are doing?

Jeanmarie (00:34)
⁓ Well, what prompted me was moving to Germany when I was six years old and I began studying German then. ⁓ My dad believed he was military guy, but he said, you’re going to live in Germany, you don’t live with a bunch of Americans. So we lived in a German town, ⁓ rented a German house, ⁓ and he put me in the optional German class in the military school. ⁓

hired a private tutor for himself. He was not a very good German student, but I was fascinated, so I would do all the assignments in preparation for the meeting with the professor. He was a retired professor. So I started in German and kept doing German all the way through college and decided to major in German. ⁓ And I was doing a double major in German and English. And to do a major in a language at that university at that time, you had to have a second language.

And I went to my advisor and said, should I do Russian or French? And even though he was a professor of French and German, he said Russian. So I started taking Russian with perhaps the most dynamic human being on the face of the planet, who was very dedicated to the study of Russian and who two years into my study, walked in the door and said, here, and put an envelope on the desk. And it was an application to go to the Soviet Union.

Norah Jones (01:44)
You

Wow.

Jeanmarie (01:57)
And I said, I don’t have any money to go to the Soviet Union. And she said, well, you get accepted. We’ll find it. We’ll find that money. And I got back from the Soviet Union and added Russian as another major and went to grad school in Russian as a result of, again, her offering me a chance to teach while she was on leave one semester. And I always said, I don’t want to be a teacher. But two weeks in, I knew it was fate.

and that’s what I needed to do because there’s nothing more magical than giving a language to somebody.

Norah Jones (02:28)
beautifully said. So what is it that is happening because of language? What are you doing because of the language experience? And what is happening in your school with your students with that?

Jeanmarie (02:28)
So that’s what I do.

So for me personally, it has opened the door onto ⁓ the study of folklore in country, ⁓ interviewing people from all walks of life about their ritual practices, because I studied weddings, funerals, and birth, ⁓ and how they evolved from the Soviet period to the post-Soviet period.

⁓ And most recently, I’ve been studying the religious revival in the post-socialist era ⁓ in Western Siberia. And I had wanted to go to Siberia since I was a undergraduate. There was a dialogue about this town, this city in Siberia. And I said, I want to go there. And she said, my professor said, you can’t go there. It’s closed to foreigners. And so the minute I could go, I went.

And what knowing the language does, especially in a place like Western Siberia, where ⁓ not everybody speaks English, is it gives you access and connection in really significant ways. Even if you’re Russian or you’re German or you’re French or you’re Japanese, whatever your language is, it’s not great. The respect that you build because you’re trying.

is most important. And that’s what I try very much to tell my students. I am currently teaching the core course for majors of all languages. So I have students doing German, Latin, ancient Greek, ⁓ Russian, Chinese, Japanese.

Help, I’m not missing any. And the goal for the class is to get them to realize their ⁓ power in learning language, that it takes hours of work as an adult to do this. It takes hours of work as a child too, of course, but you don’t notice it when you’re a kid. And ⁓ really it’s in their hands. We can only provide them with so much in the classroom. The university…

of Kentucky is not going to allow us to do 20 hours a week in language. So those remaining 15 hours you need to progress. They come from you and your access to all of the resources that are out there about language. And if you’re willing to take the risk, because it’s a risk, and we all know this, it’s an ego blow to talk to someone who speaks the language natively, you will benefit greatly and they will appreciate the connection when you’re trying to do that.

And then ultimately it opens the door onto a myriad of professional opportunities. Sure, I became a college professor, but our alums are lawyers and doctors and business people and work for NGOs and the government. And sometimes they use language every day and sometimes they don’t use it at all. But the cultural ⁓ development that comes, the cross-cultural understanding,

is essential in a workplace, no matter this type of workplace. And I think that is the thing that most people forget, that, sure, we talk about verbs and we talk about family life and we talk about your favorite food, but really what we’re teaching them is how to make connections with other people in any language.

Norah Jones (06:02)
When you see a story that is especially effective, a young person that has gotten it, what does it look like?

Jeanmarie (06:11)
Yeah, you know, we have our alums come back every October. And what’s amazing to me is that this board is composed of people, again, in various fields who’ve done various languages. But what they tell me is that the experience of doing this

change their mindset in so many fundamental ways that they want to ⁓ give back. And of course universities these days always love it when alums give back, but it’s not just financial, it’s they want to talk to the current students and explain to them why this is important. And the most rewarding to me is when a student is brave enough

to take the chance and reach for every possible connection they can. ⁓ Whether that’s going abroad or doing an internship or working ⁓ in our ⁓ school systems because we have a thing that ⁓ allows students to get an internship and work with underperforming students, whether they’re international or domestic, and help them.

achieve their goals. ⁓ The sense of community that we provide and that they can tap into, I think, is the most important thing. This isn’t all about my journey. It’s about our connection to other people. And that really, I think, is the most powerful thing when they get that. It’s so easy to be ⁓

caught in, I have to do all these exercises for class and I have to memorize all these vocabulary words and I have to ⁓ perform my dialogue or whatever it is. But ultimately, what you’re doing it for is to establish that connection. And when you see that moment, I remember the moment clearly when it happened to me. ⁓ When you see that moment, you you’re transformed.

in really remarkable ways. ⁓ And so that, I think, is very nebulous. But I think it’s the most important thing. And the best moment in my life is when they come back from abroad. And they’re so excited. And they want to tell me all the things about their experience that were phenomenal and tell other students about it.

and encourage them to take the chance and do the work because you know it’s expensive and you got to get scholarships. But it is a profound moment in their lives and some of these are kids that have never been on planes and their first plane trip is to Central Asia or Paris or kids that have never left the state even and it’s remarkable how it can change you.

So that’s what I

Norah Jones (09:10)
Absolutely beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Do you have anything final that you’d like to make sure that people hear from you about?

what language can do, what its role is in human life.

Jeanmarie (09:25)
I think language, mean, language is everything to me. I am a naturally extroverted person, but even if I’m not, ⁓ it is the way that you forge connections. I talked to my students about the fact that you could look at language three ways. You can look at it as a grammatical system that’s housed in your brain.

And a lot of people have looked at it that way. You can look at it as a communicative system. I have information ⁓ I want to give you or you have information I need from you. And plenty of people have looked at it that way. But the other way of looking at it, the third way of looking at it is we actually don’t really communicate much of factual information on a daily basis. ⁓ What we’re doing is trying to build networks.

And so without the language, you can’t build the network and it’s a fundamental human desire to be in groups. Even if you’re quiet, even if you like to be on your own a lot, ⁓ connecting with other people, whether it’s through the internet and language, whether it’s in person and language, whether it’s your creative writing is

something that makes us human. think it’s the defining factor that makes us human.

Norah Jones (10:49)
Thank you so much. That was beautiful.

Become a Sponsor