35 - A Reflection on Generational Diaspora and Resulting Linguistic Acclimatization

Summary

I come from a family that has experienced three generations of migration across the subcontinent, North America and Europe, with relocation and displacement, in some cases marked by necessity and in others by choice. Some of my earliest memories emerge from my upbringing in a trilingual environment in Shiraz, Iran. My individual multilingualism grew as a direct consequence of having parents who spoke to me mixing Urdu and English. My grandmother only spoke to me in Urdu, I attended a strictly Farsi school and I also spoke to my neighbours in this language. In effect, I began to unconsciously practise translanguaging at a very young age, using my personal repertoire of language skills to develop a hybrid form of communication and establish myself as a default communicator between community and family members. This resulted in a deep understanding, both linguistically and culturally, of the community around me as I continually transitioned back and forth between community and family languages. I learned very quickly how to engage plurilingualism in my daily activities, easily switching between languages, depending on with whom I was conversing at the time.