Posted by
Paco Capella on Monday, September 03, 2007 2:53:47 AM
This is my answer to Josue from Annandale, VA on his article: “Why do students need to learn Spanish? “
Why Frenchmen learn Spanish, German and English? Why Europeans are fluent in more than two languages?
Why are we treated so rude when we go to other countries and do not even try to learn a few words of the host country spoken language?
Why that incident occurred in that Parochial Catholic Church School?
The most logical answer is to become better communicators that would definitively lead us to get in closer contact with people we often fear or prejudge.
A long time ago, Father Tadeusz Mich, PhD in Anthropology, a Polish from Poland, a Diocesan Catholic Priest of the Diocese of Arlington, VA and a professor of Anthropology at the Catholic University in Washington, DC told us a couple of jokes. Here is one of his célèbre jokes. He started asking us, how would you call a person that knows two languages? One answered, a “double language speaker”. Father Tadeusz told him, no my dear son, it is something simpler than that. Another said I know Father is called a bilingual. Exactly! Said Father Tadeusz. Then asked us another question, how would you call a person that knows three languages? I know, Father! The same one answered correctly. It is called a Trilingual. Very good! Said Father Tadeusz and how would you call a person that knows four languages? Another one present guessing the answer prompted to say, Father is called a quarter-lingual. OK! said Father Tadeusz, then how would you call a person that knows five languages? Another one that got the idea said, Father, is a penta-lingual. Father Tadeusz said that’s fine, it is etymologically correct, but there is a better word, can anyone guess? Everybody remained silent. After a few seconds, Father Tadeusz said, a person that knows five or more languages is a poly-phasia-tic (Políglota, in Spanish) or a multi-lingual (polyglot). Those were though questions, said Father Tadeusz; smiling he continue saying, how you would call a person that only knows one language. I know Father! (Was the same one that got it wrong the first time). It is called a uni-lingual. Father said, nope! A one-lingual, Father? (Same one continued guessing) Father said, nope! A single-lingual, Father? Father said, maybe, but it sounds weird. Well Father, how is it called? For the astonishment of everybody present, Father Tadeusz said, a person that knows only one language is called an American.
Father Tadeusz gave Mass in Fort Belvoir, VA and in Fort Mead, MD is Spanish, in Silver Spring, MD gave two masses one in Russian and one in Polish. He taught Anthropology undergraduate courses in English at the Cath. Univ. of Wash. DC. He learned over eight different Amazons Indigenous languages while doing his Master Degree research. He spent eight years between the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Brazil. He travelled throughout the piranha infected Amazon tributaries. Many times had no other recourse but to accept riding in a boat with narco-Traficants or guerillas just to be able to move from one place to another in his missionary peregrination spreading the Gospel while at the same time doing Anthropological Research. They would never hurt Padre Tadeo, everybody knew about him, it was an honor and a blessing to give a ride to El Padre. Some of those Indigenous tribes lived two or three days walking distance apart and there were absolutely no similitude between the languages and the knowledge of other tribes were either vague or not existent, meaning those tribes did not know each other nor had minimum contact. Father Tadeusz was a student of Pope John Paul II while he was getting prepared to become a priest, an Apostle of Jesus Christ. Father Tadeusz is a multi-lingual, wise and certainly a holy person; he is a human being that knows how to reach other’s hearts because he knows how to communicate in many languages specially the language of Love he irradiates without speaking because it is Divinely Inspired.
Josue, since you live relatively close to Father Tadeusz Mich, please send him my kindly regards and a copy of this article. I’ve been looking recently in the Internet for him and found the following:
Tadeusz Mich
tmich@worldvision.org
2020 I St. Suite 270
Washington DC 20002
Tadeusz Mich
Church Relations Director, World Vision
World Vision Washington D.C.
International Programs Partnership Office
International Recruiting & Media Relations
300 "I" Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
Tel.: (202)572-6300
In any event, I hope I answered your question.
Sincerely,
Paco Capella