Losing your mother tongue ⏲️ 6 Minute English

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from

BBC Learning English. I’m Sam.

And I’m Rob.

In this programme, we’ll be hearing

about an issue experienced by many

child refugees who are forced to leave

their home – the loss of their first, native

language, or mother tongue, as they start

a new life, learning to speak a

new language, in a new country.

Julie Sedivy and her family left their

home in what was then Czechoslovakia

and is now the Czech Republic during

the Cold War, when Julie was a small

child. After several years travelling

through Europe, they arrived in Canada

as political refugees with no English.

We’ll be hearing about Julie’s childhood

when learning English started to replace

her native language, Czech, and,

as usual, we’ll be learning some

new vocabulary as well.

But first, I have a question, Rob. Julie’s

family left their home as political

refugees, but every year millions of

people are also displaced because of

war, persecution, or the damaging effects

of climate change. So, according to the

United Nations, how many people around

the world are currently living as

displaced refugees? Is it:

a) 3 million? b) 53 million? or,

c) 103 million?

I’ll guess it’s 103 million.

I’ll reveal the answer later in the

programme, Rob. Like many child refugees,

Julie spoke only her mother tongue,

Czech, at home with her brothers, sisters

and parents who, in the beginning, spoke

no English at all. Here she describes to

Michael Rosen, presenter of BBC

Radio 4 programme, Word of Mouth,

going to an English-speaking

school for the first time.

...so, you went into school not, to

start off, with really understanding

what was going on, is that right?

That's right. I just kind of interpreted

things as best I could, and my memory

of that is that that was not particularly

difficult or traumatic. I think by then

I'd had the experience of being dunked

into various unfamiliar languages

numerous times, and I had faith that it

would sort itself out, and that everything

would be just fine; and it was of course...

At school, Julie was dunked into

unfamiliar situations, a bit like a biscuit

being dunked into a cup of tea. Often,

dunk means to dip something into

liquid, but here, the meaning is that

Julie was suddenly dropped into a new

situation for a while, then taken out, as

her family travelled through Europe.

By the time she arrived in Canada,

Julie had been exposed to several other

languages including Italian and French.

She had experienced many difficulties,

but never given up hope of finding a

new home. Julie had faith – in other

words, trust or confidence, that everything

would sort itself out, a phrase meaning

to stop being a problem automatically,

without having to do anything.

Over the following years, Julie faced

many challenges: going to school and

making friends; helping her parents as

they struggled in the English-speaking

world; and grieving for her native

language which she slowly forgot, and

with it, the chance to speak Czech with

her dad before he passed away. Julie

shares her thoughts on losing and

refinding her mother tongue in

her book, Memory Speaks.

Through it all, Julie kept alive her belief

that by speaking two, three or even more

languages, we don’t forget who we are,

but instead gain a sense of tolerance,

an idea which she talked about with

BBC Radio 4’s, Word of Mouth.

The idea that you can be both of Mexican

ancestry, for example, and speak

Spanish, and be a full-fledged American,

or in my case come from a country like

the Czech Republic, continue to speak

my language and to be a Canadian and

very proudly so and very invested in

Canada as a society. There's a number

of studies that suggest that the very

presence of people with blended ideas

in a society seem to lead to greater

acceptance between groups. It creates

the sense that this is not an either-or,

that we can coexist, perhaps precisely

because we have evidence that these

cultures can coexist

within a single person.

For Julie, there’s no contradiction in

being a Canadian refugee speaking

Czech, or a Spanish-speaking immigrant

who’s a full-fledged – or fully developed –

American. These are not either-or situations –

cases where there is only a choice

between two options, with no third

possibility. Instead, a peaceful coexistence

can develop, as shown in the

life of Julie Sedivy herself.

Right. it’s time to reveal the answer

to my question: how many people

around the world, like Julie, are

living as displaced refugees?

Well, I said it was 103 million. Was I right?

And that was the correct answer,

Rob, a number which, according to the UN,

is only going to grow. Now it’s time to

recap the vocabulary we’ve learned

from this programme about losing our

mother tongue – the native language you

were brought up speaking by your parents.

If something is dunked, it’s dipped into

a liquid, like a biscuit in a cup of tea, but

if someone is dunked into a situation,

they’re suddenly placed into a new and

unfamiliar setting before being

removed again after a short time.

If you have faith in something or

someone, you have trust or

confidence in them.

The phrasal verb to sort itself out,

means to stop being a problem

without having to do anything.

The adjective full-fledged

means completely developed.

And finally, an either-or is a situation

where only a choice between two options

is possible, with no third alternative.

And that brings us to the end of this

programme. Bye for now!

Bye bye!