00:00
Being bicultural is kind of this great little hidden secret
00:03
It's living in two worlds at the same time.
00:06
And as a writer, it's fascinating to me because I'm constantly
00:09
paying attention to language.
00:16
I don't remember ever having a first language because I um
00:20
it was like, what was your first language?
00:21
Like, I never remember ever not knowing two languages because
00:25
when, I mean, I'm sure I learned Spanish first because it seemed
00:28
But since I was in day care, when, when we came, when we emigrated
00:32
to the United to New York, um my brother was seven years old
00:36
still didn't know English.
00:37
He had spent three months in Spain.
00:39
My parents knew not one, not one word in English.
00:43
And then as I, they got right to work.
00:46
So I started going to g days day care.
00:48
Um As soon as I, you know, I was able to probably at two and I had
00:52
a little friend, Jay, uh African American kid, I'll never
00:56
And um he taught me English.
00:57
So I knew as I was learning Spanish, I was learning English
01:01
and my parents would eventually you by four or five years old
01:04
they were asking me how to translate things, how to, how do
01:08
How do you say that?
01:09
How do you say that?
01:10
Um And it's really, to me it's more than the language.
01:13
It's, it's, it's two ways of thinking about the world.
01:16
Um It's two ways of solving problems.
01:19
It's two ways of asking questions.
01:22
It's two ways of everything and it's, and, and being by culture
01:26
is kind of this great little hidden secret that you have, especially
01:29
where I live in Maine.
01:30
You know, it's always this other dimension.
01:32
It's always like sort of, you have a twin, you know, it's always
01:35
standing an invisible twin that you can like sort of become
01:38
that twin any single, any single moment.
01:41
Um It fascinates me as a poet because of how language, how,
01:46
how language affects how the, the connection between language
01:50
and culture and how the language reflects the culture and
01:53
how the culture reflects the language and how those two things
01:56
kind of happen together and, and create uh a mode of, of thinking
02:02
and a and a and a kind of a, a demeanor in, in a culture that's
02:07
actually dictated by the language or rather the language
02:09
is probably a reflection of those things that happen.
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