1
00:00:05,620 --> 00:00:08,690
MICHEL DEGRAFF: I think I was
very lucky this time around

2
00:00:08,690 --> 00:00:13,550
in this course to have students
from so diverse backgrounds.

3
00:00:13,550 --> 00:00:17,090
But also students who,
I think most of them,

4
00:00:17,090 --> 00:00:21,890
were first-generation
Americans and with ancestry,

5
00:00:21,890 --> 00:00:25,236
either parents or grandparents,
from actually quite

6
00:00:25,236 --> 00:00:26,360
diverse parts of the world.

7
00:00:26,360 --> 00:00:29,970
From Mauritius, from
India, from Latin America.

8
00:00:29,970 --> 00:00:32,360
And also in terms of
ethnicity and religion,

9
00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:34,760
it was also quite a diverse set.

10
00:00:34,760 --> 00:00:38,310
There were students whose
parents were Jewish.

11
00:00:38,310 --> 00:00:40,010
There was an
African-American student.

12
00:00:40,010 --> 00:00:42,170
There were some from India.

13
00:00:42,170 --> 00:00:44,630
And they were
basically struggling

14
00:00:44,630 --> 00:00:47,880
with these notions of who they
are in terms of their identity.

15
00:00:47,880 --> 00:00:50,570
And can you be
Mauritian, but yet not

16
00:00:50,570 --> 00:00:52,900
speak the Mauritian language?

17
00:00:52,900 --> 00:00:56,270
Can you be Indian and
not speak Bhojpuri?

18
00:00:56,270 --> 00:01:01,160
Can you be Latino, but
not be fluent in Spanish?

19
00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:03,500
Can you be African-American,
but yet not

20
00:01:03,500 --> 00:01:07,700
be fully fluent in
so-called Black English?

21
00:01:07,700 --> 00:01:10,465
So those were questions that
they themselves brought in

22
00:01:10,465 --> 00:01:12,590
that I think enriched the
course, because it became

23
00:01:12,590 --> 00:01:14,390
very personal in many ways.

24
00:01:14,390 --> 00:01:17,360
And I feel that
through this semester,

25
00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:21,057
they themselves matured
in the kinds of answers

26
00:01:21,057 --> 00:01:22,890
they were bringing to
these questions, which

27
00:01:22,890 --> 00:01:24,610
were deeply personal.

28
00:01:24,610 --> 00:01:27,796
And in fact, once I
discovered that they

29
00:01:27,796 --> 00:01:30,170
had such diverse backgrounds,
and that the questions were

30
00:01:30,170 --> 00:01:33,880
so personal in terms of who they
were as individuals, in terms

31
00:01:33,880 --> 00:01:37,400
of identity, language,
religion, ethnicity,

32
00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:40,850
then what I asked them to do
as the very first exercise was

33
00:01:40,850 --> 00:01:44,090
to write what I call the
linguistic biography.

34
00:01:44,090 --> 00:01:47,990
And actually, I am grateful
that I get this hint from a dear

35
00:01:47,990 --> 00:01:51,860
friend and colleague Professor
Anne Charity Hudley who

36
00:01:51,860 --> 00:01:53,960
teaches at UC Santa Barbara.

37
00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:56,300
And Anne Charity
actually shared with me

38
00:01:56,300 --> 00:01:57,570
her own linguistic biography.

39
00:01:57,570 --> 00:01:59,570
And when I read that,
I realized how powerful

40
00:01:59,570 --> 00:02:03,530
it was to read about
her own growing up,

41
00:02:03,530 --> 00:02:06,827
in terms of language,
ethnicity, race.

42
00:02:06,827 --> 00:02:08,410
So I thought that I
would ask students

43
00:02:08,410 --> 00:02:09,520
to do something similar.

44
00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:11,270
And that helped me
throughout the semester

45
00:02:11,270 --> 00:02:13,450
to frame what kinds
of questions we

46
00:02:13,450 --> 00:02:15,950
would answer throughout
the course, which

47
00:02:15,950 --> 00:02:19,400
were very connected to
the essence of the issue

48
00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:21,700
of language and identity.