WAFLT Teacher of the Year

Cooperation

Growing up in Strasbourg, a European capital in France on the German border, it was not unusual to hear different languages spoken around me. On the radio, English-language songs were so ubiquitous that in 1994, in an effort to support the French music industry, a law was adopted to ensure that at least 40% of the music aired would be in French. In 1985, when most artists programmed by radio stations still sang in English, one song stood out to my 6-year-old self: “Je te donne” by Jean-Jacques Goldman, featuring Michael Jones. The former sang in French and the latter in English. This bilingual partnership intrigued me. I soon joined an after-school English club and never stopped learning languages since. Why did this specific song catch my attention? It showed me that multilingual and multicultural endeavors have the potential to create unparalleled beauty and harmony through cooperation. During my adolescence, I witnessed the birth of the European Union. As a young adult, I saw many more countries join, adding to the linguistic and cultural diversity. When we learn languages and develop cultural competence, we work better together to look beyond our differences and reach greater, common goals.

Perseverance

Collaborating with people who do not share our linguistic and cultural background is challenging. It can be frustrating. But negotiating meaning, clarifying misunderstandings, and choosing the optimal routes toward a common goal are skills worth practicing. They contribute to enriched life experiences. Those exact competencies are developed in world language classes, creating unique and powerful opportunities to become our best selves. Successful language learners acquire knowledge and skills that unlock exponential gains. They learn language structures and cultural competence while making connections to other disciplines. This process does not come easy: patience, commitment, and perseverance are required to progress as growth in those areas takes time and persistence. In a society that increasingly favors instant rewards, demonstrating perseverance sets you apart.

Humility

When we persevere, we keep trying despite obstacles and lack of immediate success. Facing repeated challenges and failures is humbling. Humility is another benefit of acquiring language skills and cultural competence. Learning a language puts people in vulnerable positions as they yield some control over the way they project their identity: they cannot fully master all linguistic and cultural codes and are therefore bound to make mistakes or say something that is not interpreted as intended. Cooperation, perseverance, and humility are attributes of success in language learning and cultural competence specifically. More generally, those values are also necessary to live peacefully in a connected world. By learning languages and turning ourselves toward other cultures, we learn that others help us bring out our best selves, that patience leads to solid results, and that mistakes help us grow. Put together, the principles of cooperation, perseverance, and humility remind us that worldviews and practices different from our own have value. That is a priceless life lesson learned through the study of languages.