00:00
Jenny, you speak Spanish,
00:01
right? Yeah. Do you feel like it just kind of
00:03
hits different food, it hits different,
00:05
like, saying something in Spanish is so different than saying something
00:08
in English, English.
00:10
big time. More of everything.
00:12
There's just more feeling,
00:14
you know. What about your mom?
00:15
Like she speaks both the,
00:16
oh, yeah, she does me la but when it's in
00:20
Spanish, like she's a whole another person,
00:22
like it's crazy, like,
00:25
oh dude. So it's funny that you say that she's a
00:28
whole different person. There was a study conducted by Florida
00:31
Atlantic University that basically said that Latina moms kind of present
00:35
themselves with the different cultures depending on what language they speak.
00:39
So if they speak Spanish,
00:44
So, like, you know that she comes off called Mas
00:47
you know, the way that you said,
00:49
whereas if they speak in English it's kind of more just like
00:52
you know, like it's how they present themselves to.
00:55
Exactly. Exactly. I,
00:59
So, yeah, it just hits different and there's actually science
01:02
that kind of backs this up,
01:04
which is the craziest thing joining us to talk about.
01:07
This is Erica Hoff phd and psychology professor.
01:10
They're at Florida Atlantic University,
01:13
the same university that conducted the study.
01:15
So welcome, Professor Hoff,
01:17
welcome, welcome you.
01:21
Thank you for joining.
01:23
is this a bad thing?
01:25
Like does this impact Children negatively or in any way if you
01:29
know, their mom is constantly switching from not just one language
01:32
but like one personality to another.
01:34
Well, switching from one personality to another is,
01:38
is a bit strong a as a description.
01:42
But what what I found is they do switch from one
01:46
cultural practice to another cultural practice.
01:51
A particular cultural practice that I looked at is how mothers engage
01:57
their Children in conversation.
02:00
So European American middle class mothers do lots of asking the
02:06
Children questions and encouraging the Children to express themselves middle class European
02:14
American mothers tend to teach,
02:16
treat their Children as equals in conversation.
02:21
That's not a Latin American practice in Latin America.
02:25
Children are not equal to adults.
02:29
And this manifests itself in conversation with the adults,
02:34
doing more of the talking and the Children doing more of the
02:38
listening. So I don't know if you would call that a
02:40
personality difference. But people who are bilingual and certainly immigrants who
02:47
are bilingual by virtue of the experience of living in two different
02:50
countries are also bicultural and they do things in different ways depending
02:57
upon which culture is sort of activated or primed in their heads
03:02
This is one example of that.
03:04
And, and so it also serves as evidence that this happens
03:08
that, that bilingual bicultural people really do have different ways of
03:14
being and it doesn't have to be language.
03:17
There are other studies that find other things sort of trigger this
03:21
shift, but language clearly does trigger this shift.
03:24
So you act more Latino when you're speaking Spanish and more American
03:29
when you're speaking English.
03:32
So does this mean that anyone learning another language is also adopting
03:36
the culture, if you learn another language in such a way
03:40
that you also learn another culture?
03:43
And so that means a little bit more than just,
03:45
you know, memorizing verb conjugations.
03:48
But if you really start to know another cultural and participate
03:54
in other cultural practices,
03:56
you have a broader repertoire of behaviors for sure.
03:59
And presumably you have a better understanding of the range of human
04:05
behaviors. So relatable,
04:08
but I am an immigrant.
04:09
And this is so fascinating to me because like,
04:12
I, I resonate with it so much.
04:14
So, thank you so much for conducting the study.
04:17
Like in this whole process,
04:18
I've learned so much and I hope our audience does too.
04:22
Where can people find you?
04:25
Oh Well, I'm here in Florida at Florida Atlantic University
04:31
and they can email me.
04:35
Perfect. Sounds good.
04:36
Once again professor. Thank you so so much for joining us
04:39
My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
04:44
That is so interesting.
04:47
super interesting. But also explains why,
04:49
you know, I know people try to teach their kids Spanish
04:52
before they enter school,
04:53
like just Spanish and then that way when they enter school,
04:57
they're all they're taught is English,
04:58
you know, so it's like that way it sticks on and
05:02
yeah. But you have to make sure that,
05:03
like, I, I don't know,
05:05
also teach them the cultural practices.
05:08
Right. Like the professor said,
05:09
it's more than just the language.
05:10
It's like the actual culture that makes a difference.
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