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brogan7's review
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
A beautiful collection of essays about the experiences of language...how ancestral tongues and mother tongues and other tongues are lost and found, what it means to immigrate and lose a language, how often languages are lost without the intention to, how much harder it is to regain a language than to lose it... This book could also have been called "languages and the human heart." It's heart and it's politics and it's everything. Loved it.
dayareadsbooks's review
5.0
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this collection of essays. First of all, I’m trying to add more Canadian literature into my monthly reads and this book for sure did not disappoint. Every essay was so personal and moving for different reasons.
Language and its connection to our hearts and our lives is something that has fascinated me for many years. Learning about language and psychology and the beautiful way they are unequivocally intertwined is one of my passions, I can never get enough. I loved this collection because it was unique to every writer yet they invited us to peek into their own minds, languages and experiences. What an honour!
Growing up as a first-generation Canadian, bilingual and with immigrant parents from very different cultures, I was able to connect with some of these essays while simultaneously learning and appreciating other cultures that have been through similar experiences.
This book highlights the way that many have felt when adopting the English language, bound by learning a language that has its roots in a terrible past. It highlights the feelings of mourning and praising of mother tongues, understanding the relationships acquired and lost with the ebb and flow of language.
I highly recommend reading this if you have any interest in books about language and its impact on our lives. Add this to your TBR immediately, you definitely won’t regret it, I sure didn’t. Also, shout out to the book warehouse for having a copy on the shelf that immediately caught my eye.
Language and its connection to our hearts and our lives is something that has fascinated me for many years. Learning about language and psychology and the beautiful way they are unequivocally intertwined is one of my passions, I can never get enough. I loved this collection because it was unique to every writer yet they invited us to peek into their own minds, languages and experiences. What an honour!
Growing up as a first-generation Canadian, bilingual and with immigrant parents from very different cultures, I was able to connect with some of these essays while simultaneously learning and appreciating other cultures that have been through similar experiences.
This book highlights the way that many have felt when adopting the English language, bound by learning a language that has its roots in a terrible past. It highlights the feelings of mourning and praising of mother tongues, understanding the relationships acquired and lost with the ebb and flow of language.
I highly recommend reading this if you have any interest in books about language and its impact on our lives. Add this to your TBR immediately, you definitely won’t regret it, I sure didn’t. Also, shout out to the book warehouse for having a copy on the shelf that immediately caught my eye.
tinamayreads's review
5.0
TONGUES: On Longing and Belonging Through Language edited by Eufemia Fantetti, Leonarda Carranza, and Ayelet Tsabari is a remarkable anthology! I really loved all the essays in this collection! This book features 26 contributors who share their experiences and connections to language and I found myself relating to something in every single essay.
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I loved how deeply personal these essays are in sharing stories about learning a second language as an immigrant, gendered and ableist language, retaining or losing a mother tongue and how language or lack thereof shapes your identity. Reading this book made me reflect on my own relationship with language and I especially connected to the essay What Are You? A Field Study by Rowan McCandless. Her essay opens with a typical exchange where someone asks her “what are you?” when what they’re really asking is “where are your people from?”. Rowan’s father is Black and her mother is white. My mother is Chinese and my father is white. I’ve been asked that same question “what are you?” so many times and reading Rowan’s essay completely validated me.
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I think everyone who reads this book would find some connection to these essays. Language is diverse and I loved learning more about it through this book. I can’t recommend this book enough!!
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Thank you to Book*hug Press for my gifted review copy!
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Thank you to the editors and contributors for this book! I loved it!
.
I loved how deeply personal these essays are in sharing stories about learning a second language as an immigrant, gendered and ableist language, retaining or losing a mother tongue and how language or lack thereof shapes your identity. Reading this book made me reflect on my own relationship with language and I especially connected to the essay What Are You? A Field Study by Rowan McCandless. Her essay opens with a typical exchange where someone asks her “what are you?” when what they’re really asking is “where are your people from?”. Rowan’s father is Black and her mother is white. My mother is Chinese and my father is white. I’ve been asked that same question “what are you?” so many times and reading Rowan’s essay completely validated me.
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I think everyone who reads this book would find some connection to these essays. Language is diverse and I loved learning more about it through this book. I can’t recommend this book enough!!
.
Thank you to Book*hug Press for my gifted review copy!
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Thank you to the editors and contributors for this book! I loved it!
bookalong's review
5.0
*CANADIAN*
An absolutely facinating collection!
This anthology swept me up within the first pages and from there I was deeply moved by each of these 26 personal essays. The writers examine their connections with language in all forms. From learning a new language and new connections through speach to the ways colonialism has impacted language to privilege's role, and losing and regaining their mother tongues and more! This was edited so well. The flow of these essays was was perfect I absolutely loved this book, it gave me so much to think about and be in awe of. This should be required reading!
This is one of thoes books that no matter what I say it wont do it justice, highly recommend reading it for yourself.
Thank you to @bookhug_press for sending me this book opinions are my own.
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
An absolutely facinating collection!
This anthology swept me up within the first pages and from there I was deeply moved by each of these 26 personal essays. The writers examine their connections with language in all forms. From learning a new language and new connections through speach to the ways colonialism has impacted language to privilege's role, and losing and regaining their mother tongues and more! This was edited so well. The flow of these essays was was perfect I absolutely loved this book, it gave me so much to think about and be in awe of. This should be required reading!
This is one of thoes books that no matter what I say it wont do it justice, highly recommend reading it for yourself.
Thank you to @bookhug_press for sending me this book opinions are my own.
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
nini23's review
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
A smorgasbord variety of 26 personal stories about their ambivalent conflicting yearning relationships towards their 'mother tongue,' root language, heart language, cultural heritage dialect written in English. Sometimes they were lost via migration to Canada and their parents actively steered them away for the process of assimilation (such a loaded word), others via violent colonization as often in the case of First Nations/Indigenous. I like that not only major languages were featured (Korean, French, Dutch, Arabic, Vietnamese etc) but also dialects deemed inferior or provincial to their urban linguistic cousins.
The range of stories is wide but the brevity of them made it difficult to explore the rich contradictory textures and trauma in depth. I have read the full length works of two of the authors (Silence of Daughters by Rebecca Fisseha and Older Sister, Not Necessarily Related by Jenny Heijun Wills) so their two entries felt like a continuation of their storytelling. With Ms Fisseha's piece, she discusses the dilemma and controversy of whether to italicize when writing non-English words/terms/phrases and argues that this practice creates distance and others.
Nevertheless, the stories are all deeply personal relating to connection and belonging. I think some of them could have been further honed and edited to have more impact given the length constraint but appreciate the writers for sharing. Canada is indeed a multicultural country and hopefully recognition that diversity is strength is given ever more credence.
The range of stories is wide but the brevity of them made it difficult to explore the rich contradictory textures and trauma in depth. I have read the full length works of two of the authors (Silence of Daughters by Rebecca Fisseha and Older Sister, Not Necessarily Related by Jenny Heijun Wills) so their two entries felt like a continuation of their storytelling. With Ms Fisseha's piece, she discusses the dilemma and controversy of whether to italicize when writing non-English words/terms/phrases and argues that this practice creates distance and others.
Nevertheless, the stories are all deeply personal relating to connection and belonging. I think some of them could have been further honed and edited to have more impact given the length constraint but appreciate the writers for sharing. Canada is indeed a multicultural country and hopefully recognition that diversity is strength is given ever more credence.
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