For my international education week activity, I chose to attend the International Festival of Games. I wanted to go to an event where I could engage with many different cultures in a non-academic environment. I think that fun and play are core elements to a community, and I wanted to learn about how this fundamental aspect is present in various cultures.
In one of the first games I attempted, I needed to speak a few words in Chinese. I struggled with the pronunciation, which felt a bit frustrating. I know that I’ve never been exposed to learning the language before, but in my experience with learning Spanish I’ve always been told that I have a good grasp of the pronunciation of new words. It made me think a lot about language and how it can be that across all parts of the world humans developed their own unique, intricate systems of communication. I once heard that native English speakers normally rest their tongues on the roof of their mouth, whereas native Russian speakers will rest it flat on the bottom of their mouth. It is supposedly influenced by the ways the words of each language are formed, making a certain position more natural to hold and therefore also leading to a strong accent in the other language. I wondered if anything like this was in play with my attempts at these words, or if it was just my newness in hearing them for the first time.
Continuing on with learning more about languages through this activity, I also played an Italian bingo-like game that I was told is traditionally played on Christmas. Again, part of the gameplay involved Italian words. These were easier for me due to my past exposure to romance languages, and upon learning the definitions I saw a lot of similarity between these phrases and their Spanish counterparts. However, what struck me the most about the language used in this game was that there were Italian words or phrases assigned to each number on the board. The FLTA organizing the station told us that when playing in Italy, those words are often what is called out instead of the actual number. I asked her if they memorized every single one, and she pointed out to me specific ones that were more notable and had stuck in her mind after hearing them for so many years. Many of them were related to Christianity, such as a word for Christmas for 25 and the phrase Virgin Mary for 8. I thought about the context of Italy as a predominantly Catholic country, and it reminded me of the link between culture and expression through language that was discussed in the Piller reading. One of the key points of the article states that “different languages encode different world views,” and I noted that in this game, the viewpoint skewed strongly towards the Catholic history of Italy and thus assumed an obvious connection for its players between numbers and certain religious figures or holidays. Whereas for a player from outside of that cultural perspective, it might not be obvious why those terms are assigned the way they are.
One of the last games I played was with the Spanish FLTAs, and I was excited to meet the one who led my conversation sessions from my class last year. We played a word game, where we needed to think of words beginning with a certain letter in different categories. My friends and I decided to play in Spanish, but we soon found that it was difficult to stop thinking of words in English. Although I am mostly conversationally fluent in Spanish, I am almost always in English-speaking environments and so I don’t usually experience that sort of mixing-up of languages. It made me think more deeply about what it would be like to be living in a country that speaks a second language of mine, and needed to constantly push aside my native language’s instincts in order to find a certain word. This is also something I think about a lot when talking to my friends who are international students, because when I am struggling to grasp a concept in a class I think about how much harder it would be if the vocabulary of the subject was also unfamiliar. It is something I do worry about a lot when considering my plans to study abroad, specifically since I hope to be able to count some courses towards my biology major but am hesitant about the idea of needing to discuss molecules and DNA in another language, especially when I have never learned that terminology in Spanish before. I briefly considered looking into English programs in order to make the transition easier, but I don’t want to shy away from the experience to grow my language skills and experience a culture that I’ve studied thoroughly in classes before.
Many of the game stations gave out snacks as prizes, and I loved to see what flavors and types of foods were featured as those are also integral parts of a culture. There were some ingredients that aren’t as common in American snacks, like sweet red bean and mochi, but it was also nice to see that chocolate is popular globally. I find it fascinating to study not just our differences but also the similarities between cultures and countries. When something is in common across different places and cultures, it feels like it is something fundamentally human.
Playing games and sharing foods from all over the world made me feel much more connected with the individuals who brought them to this event. The academic study that we do within the classroom is so important to forming an understanding of the complicated workings of globalization, cultural conflict, and social issues, but it is also immensely important to experience personal connection between other individuals and learn from the things that they believe are important to share with you.
