Amara Rockar: The benefits of learning another language

Hark tizak, hark tizak!" I quickly recognize the Arabic command to move your ass' and squeeze into the counter as another waiter rushes past carrying a tray full of food. So far I've only been working at the diner a week but I've already gotten used to being surrounded by voices shouting languages I can not understand.

In the very middle of the American Mid-West where I grew up, I was rarely exposed to other cultures, much less their languages. While this past year at Penn certainly opened my eyes to many different cultures, I still seldom heard or spoke a foreign language outside of my French classes. At a conference in Montreal this winter, my futile attempts to converse in French were for the most part met with knowing smiles and responses in English. Now, as much as I was immersed in English before, I find myself immersed in other languages whenever I step through the diner doors.

Coming from places such as Morocco, Palestine, and the Central African Republic, my foreign co-workers argue, sing, joke and talk with each other in different dialects of Arabic and French. Some have been in this country for years and perfected their English in school prior to moving here. Others arrived only a matter of mere months ago knowing only the English for "yes" and "no." Almost all of them are undergraduates or MBA students at area universities and many have another job in addition to the diner. After graduation, a few want to return home but most want to stay and bring their families here. One commonality that they all share with their American counterparts is that none of them want to work in a diner forever.

But while they're here the money is good. Many of them have loyal customers who request to sit in their sections and order in either French or Arabic, sometimes both. During the later, slower hours of the night the waiters will sit down with them and have a cup of coffee and a cigarette. Whether they talk more of their experiences at home or here, I haven't been able to tell.

Often times one of the waiters will go straight from talking to me in English and immediately start talking to someone else in Arabic. Out of curiosity, I once asked one of them why he always talks to the other foreign employees in Arabic when they all know English. He replied, "When I talk to you in French it's work for you to understand what I'm saying, right? C'est le mˆme-chose. It's not like we're always talking about things we don't want you or the other workers or customers to understand, though sometimes we are telling jokes and making fun. But mostly it's just easier, more comfortable. T£ comprendes?"

One morning, as I'm getting ready to leave I notice that it's six a.m. and with the exception of one talkative couple, the diner is devoid of all customers. My shift has been over for almost an hour and when I finally hand my manager my time card he searches around the counter and asks me if I have a pen. I shake my head "no" and he turns and yells in Arabic toward the kitchen. Immediately another waitress, an American Drexel student, walks out and hands him her pen without hesitation. One of the Palestinian cooks, resting at the counter pokes up his head and asks in English, "She understood that?" To which my manager shrugs and replies, "Of course she understood that. She's been working here a long time."

Here in America, we exist in a sort of geographic and linguistic isolation. To live in our country one is expected to and must speak English. Of course, there are areas of the country where it is useful to know Spanish but nevertheless, English rules alone as our official language. And when we leave our country, we often find ourselves in places where English is just another entry in a long list of national languages. Because of this, around the world

American businessmen attend conferences, make deals and write contracts almost entirely in English. As a result of our experiences at home and abroad we are able to easily fool ourselves into thinking that English is the only language really worth knowing.

But when you learn a language, you inevitably become more aware, if not more accepting, of the cultures that use it. And when you as an American are able to converse with someone in his language rather than your own, you get a sort of automatic respect for it. Unfortunately we as a country have not recognized our dire need for these kinds of benefits.

Of course, it has been said many times before that while English may the dominant language in the global community, by no means is it the only one. And the argument has often been made that if we as a country close ourselves off to other languages and limit ourselves to English, we will inevitably miss out.

However, this is perhaps best understood not in the highest floors of a corporate office building, but rather in places like a West Philly diner.

Amara Rockar is a sophomore Political Science major from St. Louis, Mo.

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