I'm filling out forms for my citizenship process and listening to This American Life telling me that Iragi translators can't get American citizenship. Here I am, an under-performing foreign translator in a peaceful nation, getting citizenship in a land I've lived in for 10 years.
When I first moved here, I took an intensive German course. My mother took this fact as proof that immigrants in the US should learn English. Seriously.
Here are the flaws in that maternal logic:
I came here on a visa sponsored by my partner and was able to learn the language without actively earning income. I was a leech on a Swiss citizen and was able to benefit by being given the opportunity to devote myself to learning one of the 4 national languages in the country that I chose to move to for love of a kind and generous guy who loved me too.
Second, America has no official language.
I learned that to get citizenship, you don't actually have to speak Swiss German or Swiss French or Swiss Italian Romansch but an interviewer will speak to you in the Swiss language of the canton your getting citizenship in and you have to understand them enough to respond and be understood by them.
What I mean to say is that mom didn't understand privilege in these situations and I think that too few people do.
When I first moved here, I took an intensive German course. My mother took this fact as proof that immigrants in the US should learn English. Seriously.
Here are the flaws in that maternal logic:
I came here on a visa sponsored by my partner and was able to learn the language without actively earning income. I was a leech on a Swiss citizen and was able to benefit by being given the opportunity to devote myself to learning one of the 4 national languages in the country that I chose to move to for love of a kind and generous guy who loved me too.
Second, America has no official language.
I learned that to get citizenship, you don't actually have to speak Swiss German or Swiss French or Swiss Italian Romansch but an interviewer will speak to you in the Swiss language of the canton your getting citizenship in and you have to understand them enough to respond and be understood by them.
What I mean to say is that mom didn't understand privilege in these situations and I think that too few people do.
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen