Multilingualism is a part of my everyday life. During my classes, I only speak English, except for my Spanish class. During that one hour, I only speak in Spanish. When I talk to my parents in the evening, I switch to Albanian, and when talking to my roommate I try to incorporate some of the Hindi words that she has taught me. Although it might sound as very complicated, it actually is a pretty fun experience. It is fascinating to be able to use so many languages in only one day. My roommate and I started teaching each other our native languages and it is incredible how much you can understand by only learning a few words. Now every time I hear her speaking in Hindi, I recognize a word or two that she has taught me. When I talk to my parents, she will start saying all the words she knows in Albanian and try to communicate with them. Since she only knows a few Albanian words, she codemeshes English and Albanian. When we talk to each other, sometimes we codemesh Albanian, Hindi and English. This is an example of translingualism and shows what Canagarajah mentioned in her text that translingualism blends different languages that allow communication between people who speak different languages (6).
Works Cited
Canagarajah, A. S. (2013). Introduction. In Translingual practice: Global Englishes and cosmopolitan relations. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
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