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Four Languages. Forty Countries. One Global Calling. · The Whigham School Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: program starts it's a six residency program in six different parts of the world they'll visit all six continents and visit over forty countries as they're traveling we're going to be having them pick up language skills to a certain level I'll have you explain that a little bit in four different languages and the first the first full residency is going to be in France we'll be there 15 weeks and but that will also include traveling all over Western Europe on weekends and special trips and then they will be going after that down to South America in Chile where they will be traveling of course all around South America for 15 weeks and then we will send them over to China and then we'll be sending them into the Middle East in Cairo is where our home base will be.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then we have two more residencies after that one is Sub-Saharan Africa and the other one's back in North America.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: And those will be 15 weeks each as a general rule.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: But we're going to pick up four languages and I I wanted to open up the conversation with you to talk about the strategic importance of those four languages and what they are and why we've chosen those over others.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah it's always a little tricky picking languages right because there are almost 7,000 in the world so inherently by picking languages that are common that are dominant that are going to enable us to speak to a whole lot more people we're we're almost necessarily going to have to pick dominant even colonial probably even largely historically imposed languages which is mostly the case with French right in France Spanish in South America.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Mandarin is a little different from the European colonial languages in that respect and then Arabic Mazri Arabic.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: So first of all there's just a practical consideration right I mean these are some of the most spoken languages in the world and along you know along with English and so they cover the most ground geographically culturally so we enable our students to communicate with a whole lot more people.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: It would be amazing to teach our students four languages that would be even more varied you know like we could teach them TWI and Ladino and and Ainu in Japan and like this would be very interesting from a linguistic perspective and a cultural perspective.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you can make the case for doing that, but practically speaking it doesn't give them as much access and communication to other people and practically for us it's going to be harder to recruit students for that program.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is a key aspect of living in a post-colonial world.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean my studies and research have always focused on postcolonialism.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Even though that's talked about less nowadays we still live in what is fundamentally a post-colonial world.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean that in any sort of ideological sense because the word postcolonial can mean a lot of different things and we can argue with it.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: I just mean factually historically we now it does come with baggage though when we talk about colonial it comes with baggage, right?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: But that's the world we live that's that's the economic order that's the reality in some sense of being related to the era of colonialism and imperialism.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so English, you know, just like these other languages are very inflected by that heritage I don't think that's a reason not to study them.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: These are huge languages.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: In fact French which is the first language our students learned by some measurements it could become the most spoken language in the world in the next 50 to 75 years just because it's so widespread in Africa for for completely colonial reasons.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: But it's very widespread in Africa which has you know the fastest growing population.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: So if the population demographic trends continue, that's why French could become the most spoken language, but who knows, right?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well you know one thing that's really interesting about these four languages languages we're adding you know the base program is in English.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's the language that a person needs to know in order to be able to engage with the Wigham school.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully that can change over time but the way we're starting that's exactly how we're doing it.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then we add the four new languages so the total of five languages at the end of this these people will be able to have a conversation in.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: And one thing that's interesting that as we were building the languages and making choices because there's a lot of other great choices like Russian or Hindi or others that are very well spoken these four plus English allows you to speak to almost one out of every two people in the world in a language they understand.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: It may not be their primary there are a lot of people who speak French secondarily you know they have a they have their own language and they speak French as well or they have their own language and they speak Spanish as well.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's the reason why these these are such good languages to learn is because with these five in your toolbox there's a lot of people that you can talk to directly without having to run through an interpreter and that's a really a big part of it.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: I like the point that you were making about you know there's some really interesting languages out there if we were teaching linguistics as the master's program or philology or whatever else we wanted to do, that's a whole different end game.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: Our end game is to have these people do substantial good in the world and communicating with cultures is one of the most important skills that they can have.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's that's the exciting part of why these these courses I mean these languages were chosen for the program.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And since all these languages English as well since these span so many different cultures you can't separate language and culture.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: The way we approach is going to be to have students really deeply understand the variety of cultures understand that you know French language there's not just a French culture or a French civilization even within metropolitan France.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Second to last residency is going to be in Africa.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes we did yeah sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: So in that residency that one we're not going to teach them a new language right they'll have done French, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, but then they will end up in Africa several different countries and we have a great lead faculty member who teaches in both Ghana and Tanzania and he he kind of spans all of Central Africa and his expertise and especially Kiswahili language and literature.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: So there in that in that residency students are going to be able to apply at least the English French and Spanish that they've already learned.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe some Arabic as well we'll have to see obviously there's not as much there there's some Arabic not much Chinese really in in the countries we'll be in in in Africa towards the end of the program.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so students will just see how vast what we consider to be one language can be in its cultural expression and variations.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know we see that in English every day.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Speak of you know British English versus Australian English versus Southern English versus Midwestern English.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: You see there's a lot of colorations and idioms and things that are unique to all of these different English speakers yet sometimes they c we can't even understand each other because of how uniquely we use the language students as well to see Spanish in a lot of different flavors French in a lot of different flavors even some Mandarin and some flavors and they'll see how that that is affected.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Their knowledge of that will make them much more valuable to the world and even Arabic there are 37 38 dialects of Arabic and we've chosen not all mutually intelligible that's right they have trouble talking to each other but we have chosen Masrick for a reason Masrick is what's spoken mostly in in uh in Egypt is because most of their television and radio programming comes out of Egypt for the Arabic communities.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of people know um a Masriq dialect much more than they would know a Levantine or some some other dialect of Arabic.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: So these have been strategically chosen to be the most useful in engaging with with people.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's going to be very helpful for the students.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Can I can I can I geek out on you a little bit and and talk a little bit about linguistics because this is fascinating to me how also how if we include English how all five of these languages how how different their reality is so with English English is mutually intelligible.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter whether you're from Australia or the US or Canada or Singapore or Nigeria or UK there are significant differences right pronunciation definitely intonation obviously vocabulary but they're mutually intelligible.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: French and Spanish are are very similar in that regard.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know I have had people tell me with French, I've even had French people tell me like oh it's hard to understand a Quebec accent.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's just that's either lack of experience or just pure snobbery as like saying oh I can't understand I can't understand you know a Texas accent.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yes you can it's very different.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's very beautiful it's just different.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's true with French in France and the Caribbean and in Quebec and Africa and it's it's many varieties.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Spanish same thing.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Again very different if you go from Argentina to jump to Mexico you jump to to Spain.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Very different but mutually intelligible.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a native speaker of French or Spanish but I've never had an issue understanding any speaker from anywhere of French and Spanish.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Mandarin uh of course everybody speaks Mandarin that's mutually intelligible.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: But in in China it's fascinating they're really we talk about dialects but there are there are really a bunch of different regional languages not just dialects you can call them dialects but everybody in China basically has their first language their mother tongue and then a majority of them also speak Mandarin but these languages are not mutually intelligible.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I've had Chinese friends probably you have who will be walking down the sidewalk here in the US and then they hear their language and they're like you're from the place in China I'm from it's it's a little bit like if you heard an accent in English, you're like, oh you're from you're from the South like I am or something.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not just the accent, right?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean it's a different language.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then with Arabic it's fasting you you mentioned Mazri Arabic, that's the most widely or the most commonly spoken so that's what we're going to focus on.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a little bit like the languages in China because the the dialects of Arabic are not mutually intelligible.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: For the most part there is some mutual intelligibility.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: But you have modern standard Arabic which you can learn and that's what people will switch to but it's not like anybody's mother tongue either.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's just sort of this common denominator that enables Arabic speakers to understand each other.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: So isn't that fascinating that these it's not the same dynamic with each of these languages.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to see that with the cultures as well.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's what's going to make the Wigham School graduate valuable is they'll know the distinctions and the nuances of language that'll be very helpful whether you're trying to do some kind of NGO work in the world or working with a large multinational corporation or whether you are trying to be a a good journalist or whatever your knowledge of these things are is going to be very specific and helpful and it'll make you much more valuable in the work that you do.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: And that's really why we have chosen this path over others.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: Some people told me why even worrying about languages I know we've had a whole big conversation on this already but languages is such a critical way to unlock culture.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of culture can be misunderstood if the language is not known.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: And we want these our students to have that intelligence and that insight to be able to see through it all and be able to see the threads of culture that would be overlooked or kind of painted over if you didn't know the nuances of language.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what really excites us about this program.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I think any corporation who wants to hire somebody who is an expat or any kind of a global footprint in their career should be very excited that we're we're creating these kinds of future leaders because it will be very very helpful to them to managing multinational markets.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what really thrills us.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: So definitely good yeah languages big thing.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Big thing a lot of people I I'll add this to another important point here.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: We've picked these languages because they are important a lot of different ways.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: But our students are not limited to these languages.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: By by getting to intermediate proficiency in four languages they can then go on and learn any other language more easily they're prepped for that.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: In fact we expect that most of them probably will some some will probably study certain of these languages much more in depth to an advanced level of proficiency.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Many will go on and do another language maybe a a much entirely different smaller language.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the that's the beauty of it because not only are they learning languages, they're learning how to learn languages through this process.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: And that neural neural wiring is going to serve them well in the future.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: And the world's demanding it we we need to have flexible intercultural wisdom that will help us be able to mitigate the differences between people and create stronger frameworks for peace and prosperity across the globe.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that's really what's helpful in this program.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Jeremy I'm so excited competence you coined a term there in a cultural wisdom that's good.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah I think that's what we all are really hoping for, not hoping for but planning for and I think um the the student who goes to the Wiggum school will find that to be a skill that they'll they will cherish the rest of their lives.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so thanks for talking to me about this.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions about how we do language learning and all this please reach out to us.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: You can come to the Wigumschool.org website drop us a line there and say hey I got a question about languages I would love to talk with you and also if you're interested or if you know a a student who is at a graduate level now or about to approach a graduate level and you really want them to live a a life that is unique, powerful, extraordinary you couldn't put them on a better path.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: All of you aunts and uncles and grandparents and family members look into your own and into your own families and say I want her or I want him to really thrive.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: We would love to help you out with that.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: We would love to give them an extraordinary life by training them properly in uh in cultural competence and we are so excited about that.