Ever since my creative work went online due to the pandemic, I have been able able to liaise with my colleagues all over the world! I am in a band called STRIDE and over the course of the last year, we have been collaborating with our Mexican colleagues who are a band called Rock DI, on top of communicating with Mexico, one of our guitarists moved to Germany at the start of the pandemic and for a time, we were training a Belgian student so there were days when I spoke English, German, French and Spanish all in the space of two hours without getting mixed up which, believe me, is as tiring as it sounds!

on top of the linguistic “spaghetti junction” that was band practice, if you have read my introductory article you might remember me referencing the fact that a few weeks ago I had to seriously pick up the pace of my Italian lessons due to a choreographing opportunity. Well let’s go back to the beginning on this. I am a dancer and I have a fantastic dance mentor who is a fellow polyglot like myself and in our sessions we speak a so-called Engerliano (English, German and Italian without any actual pattern) and last year he was so kind as to support me to choreograph two warmup routines to German pop songs and I then tested them out on the dance group paragon M3 which we are both a part of. On top of his mentor work and m3, Alex also teaches at m3’s Italian equivalent in Milan, a group called SIIATE and as soon as he knew that I was learning proper Italian (not just Engerliano) he was quick to ask me to choreograph a warmup for SIIATE. Naturally, I was flattered by this request and also extremely excited as working in Milan has been on my dance bucket list for years so I accepted! Unfortunately I was just a few days into my Italian course on Rosetta Stone so it was a week before I could even write my introductory paragraph. However with a skilful combination of learn a bit, write a bit , I managed to accomplish the impossible and write a full double-exercised warmup in a language that was new to me in just three weeks! Even by my standards, I believe that this is an insane amount of talent and I still can’t believe I did it but it just goes to show that even when you think a task is impossible, there is always a way of getting the job done if you just think creatively!

When I was young I used to get singing lessons, I soon observed that the majority of singing technical terms were in Italian such as pronto (fast tempo) which intrigued me a bit. When I got a bit older I learned that it was because opera originated in Italy and the majority of classical singers actually learn Italian as part of their career training! As part of the Italian-Scottish community myself, I felt a sense of pride that my heritage had helped shape the musical world and although I have no real proof of this, I do believe that this is part of the reason why I have stayed in the industry.

in conclusion, my two true passions of languages and the arts often overlap. I don’t know if one has helped shape the other but what I do know that it is a beautiful combination that works so well. I believe that artists should think about learning a foreign language especially Italian or French because a lot of dance terms are derived from the French language and as I have said, music terms often originate from Italian.

thanks to

Alex the guitarist

Alex my mentor

Beth Taylor

Dorotè the Belgian student

Ninian Perry

Otokani àlvarez-garcia and the rest of Rock DI

paragon M3

SIIATE

if you are interested in checking out some of the organisations that I mentioned in this article please check out the links below

Paragon M3 https://www.paragon-music.org/m3

Rock DI https://www.efe.com/efe/america/cultura/rock-di-banda-mexicana-que-demuestra-discapacidad-no-significa-limites/20000009-4006950

SIIATE https://www.milanoltre.org/archivio/festival-2020/siiate-senza-esclusione-di-corpi-eng-version/

STRIDE https://www.paragon-music.org/stride

e e m mcgrath

One of the main reasons why I am so passionate about language came about during a second year French class when a classmate of mine felt compelled to shout out “why are we doing this? Everyone speaks English anyway” not only is this extremely ignorant and arrogant but it is also a false statement with 1.38 billion people speaking the language. Yes, this may seem like a large number, however it is only around 20% of the world’s population of 7.8 billion people and counting. This means that four fifths of the world do not speak English as a mother tongue and the arrogant person who said that narrow-minded statement that day closed a door to a whopping 6.42 billion people! So what are the benefits of taking the time to learn a new language?

Cognitive skills

learning a language has been scientifically proven to improve planning skills, memory and even delay dementia! This means that by speaking multiple languages, you are more likely to live a well–organised life well into your senior years. On top of this, studies show that school pupils who are studying a language often perform better in scientific subjects such as biology and chemistry when compared with students who are not studying a language.

employability

studies have shown that a bilingual person can earn from 5%–20% extra pay compared to their non-bilingual colleagues. Bilingualism is very useful in business as a person who knows multiple languages can be used to communicate with the company’s overseas partners or customers. Because of this advantage, in a hiring process, when faced with a candidate who is bilingual and a candidate who is not, an employer will almost always give the job to the bilingual person rather than the person who only speaks one language. This means that by learning a language, not only are you adding a valuable point to your CV but you are also increasing your financial stability.

social

I now know first hand that you never know when you are going to need a foreign language. This time two years ago I never even imagined that in just 6 months I was going to be working with a German speaker so I just focused on my French. Although my studies were somewhat rushed at first, I am truly grateful that I did learn German rather than rely on my employee to speak English all the time. As well as the unexpected things, learning a language is also essential for the average tourist. Most English speaking tourists just expect people to learn English! This is the equivalent to hosting a dinner party but expecting your guests to bring their own plates! Just as you would provide plates for your guests at a dinner party, so too should you at least try to learn a bit of a language before you visit the country, even if you only manage to get your head around how to say “hello, do you speak English?” Most people will be honoured that you are making an effort to speak their language.

in conclusion, we English speakers should have some empathy – by expecting everyone to learn English, we are forcing people into the precise embarrassing situation that we are subconsciously avoiding, being forced to communicate in a language that is unfamiliar to us. Presently, in Scotland, learning a language is only compulsory for children from P6-S2 while most other countries start teaching foreign languages at the start of primary school and keep it mandatory well into (if not until the end of) secondary school. I believe that if we put modern languages on the same list as English and maths (compulsory from p1-s4) then the next generation might not be so arrogant when it comes to languages

special thanks to jack for both putting the fire in my belly to learn languages and inspiring this article 😀

e e m mcgrath

I mentioned in my last article that I had smashed my exams in modern languages this year and the more astute readers are bound to be wondering how I managed to do the speaking element of the exam which was split into reading, writing, listening and speaking. While I believe that the other three parts were made very fair as I got alternative arrangements such as a separate venue, a scribe and extra time, I found my speaking assessments varied from language to language in terms of how it was set up

German

Just as if she was from the country itself, my German teacher was very efficient! She organised a meeting at a time when we were both free, I would then be invited to her quiet empty class and she would say the question, pause the recording while I typed my answer into my communication device and when I gave her the nod she would resume the recording while I clicked the “speak” button. On top of her efficiency, she also had a normality about her, one day for example I had just typed an answer about the size of war and peace and hit “clear” instead of “speak” and instead of question me about what I had just mistakenly done like my Spanish teacher did when I did the same in my Spanish exam, my German teacher just laughed’ and said that I was really clumsy and that was the end of the conversation- no yelling, no row. I used to get really anxious before any exam but her relaxed attitude always halved my anxiety.

French

just like my German teacher, my French teacher would organise a good time and place for us to meet but he sometimes told me to type in my answer before the meeting to save time. Again he would record himself asking the question and pause his voice recorder for me to type my answer and if he wasn’t away on errands, he would chat to me while I was typing because he had been teaching me since first year (oddly I had no problem simultaneously listening to him speaking English and typing in French)) which helped with my anxiety too. The good thing about him being my teacher for 6. years is the fact that when I was finished I didn’t even have to nod, I just had to look at him a certain way and he knew exactly what I wanted!

Spanish

to make up for my lack of anxiety in French and German. My Spanish teacher’s lack of communication and organisation was really stressful! For starters, she would literally ambush me as I was coming in the school door of a morning or even worse, going down the corridor on my way to my separate venue with a test for another language clearly in my hand (her chasing me wasn’t unheard of) and just spring a time of a meeting on me, usually later that day! When the time of the last minute appointment came I would arrive so full of anxiety that I was practically shaking (sometimes to a full classroom). Once again she would record herself asking the question and I would start typing while she asked me if I was done every five minutes! Once I had indeed finished, because I find eye contact difficult when I’m anxious, I would indicate to my PSA with something subtle such as a smile and she would tell the teacher that I was ready to go and I I would click speak and my answer would be recorded.

However there were some unfair rules that cost me a lot of tíme:

no presaving answers

limit use of predictive text

even though I type extremely quickly using my nose, I used to have to do my schoolwork and exams using a communication device which was operated by a headswitch which is a button attached to my headrest. Using a headswitch is slow enough when you are allowed to to use your predictive text and presave text so imagine how long it takes to type long answers from scratch while trying to ration your use of predictive text! It took so long that something that I would have nosetyped in 5 minutes with predictive text, took me 30 minutes headswitching with half my usual predictive text which meant that my speaking exams took about three weeks because I was only able to type one or two answers in one meeting. Because of this I am planning to nosetype my way through college!

In conclusion, although my speaking exams were never always fair, comfortable on presented to me with very much advance notice, I have managed to persevere. I know that I was lucky to have the number of good teachers outweigh the bad but I still managed to get a B on the watch of my worst teacher, an achievement which I had never thought or even dreamed was possible! I believe that if a non verbal communicator like myself can get through not one or two but three speaking exams, then anything is possible if it is only dreamed about hard enough 💜

e e m mcgrath

I have a disability called cerebral palsy which affects my ability to speak, however I have a real talent for foreign languages. I have been speaking French since the age of ten but in February 2020 my life changed when I hired a new personal assistant who had just come over from her homeland in Germany.

I have always thought it respectful to know some of a person’s mother tongue so I took the time to learn basic German and by the time she started I knew how to do basic greetings . My new employee was quite impressed by my efforts and within two weeks of her starting, she had taught me basic commands in German such as “put the brakes on” and by that time I had to choose my subjects for my final year of high school and despite many people’s skepticism due to my lack of experience, I chose nothing but languages- Higher French, National 5 English German and Spanish….

….and then lockdown happened the very next day …

At first I was thought to be “clinically vulnerable” so apart from my personal assistant visiting three times a week, I just stayed home and didn’t go out at all for the first three weeks which was unbelievably boring until my dad recommended Rosetta Stone for me to practice my German with. Gradually, with a combination of daily Rosetta Stone lessons and frequent conversations with my German personal assistant, my German skills steadily improved and by the time I returned to school in august I almost knew as much as my classmates, most of whom had been studying German since the age of 11! The first few months I was in the middle of the class but by Christmas I was correcting my teacher and by the spring I was reading German novels as if they were in in English and frequently scoring extremely high in tests so I decided to apply to the Goethe Institut.

unfortunately the Goethe Institut is shockingly ableist and informed me that because I use a communication device, I could not participate in their classes! Even although I was extremely infuriated by the blatant ableism of the institution that I had just fallen victim to, instead of emailing the Goethe Institut a long essay on disability rights and inclusion as was suggested by a number of people that I do, I decided that my time would be much better spent applying to study higher German at college so I went onto the Edinburgh College website and filled in the application form and within 24 hours I received a conditional offer saying that if I got a B in national 5 German I would be enrolled in the course in august.

after having left school with B’s in French and Spanish and a whopping A-band-1 in German, I had truly met my condition for college but now I had two long months to wait until my course started . I soon remembered that I still had my Rosetta Stone subscription and decided to learn a bit of Italian just because I come from an Italian family and felt that learning Italian was a sensible thing to do. A few days into my Italian lessons I just happened to mention to my dance mentor I was learning Italian and just like that he offered me the mega opportunity of choreographing a warmup for his other students in Milan. I was unbelievably excited about the opportunity and immediately decided to write as I learn, after just 3 short weeks I seriously surprised myself with my talent because I had just finished a piece of proper choreography in a language that I was unable to speak the previous month!

I have genuinely no idea why someone like me is so gifted in language but I am human proof that disability is not a barrier and no matter who you are you can do anything you want to do and this blog is going to reinforce that message

e e m mcgrath