Variety of languages reflects diverse Blair student body

Diverse Language Flags

Photo: The flags on Blair Boulevard illustrate Blair's international nature.

The flags on Blair Boulevard illustrate Blair's international nature. Photo courtesy of Bruno Resetarits.

Editor's note: Interview with Layes was conducted in Spanish. 

When most students walk through the doors of the cafeteria at the break of dawn and enter the chaotic, clattering halls of Blair, the last thing they worry about is what other people are saying. Most of the time they just want to walk with their headphones in and their heads down, minding their own business. At least that’s what most people do. 

But if students took off their headphones and lifted their gaze for just a moment, they would hear a whole new world. At this time of day, when most people are just hanging in the hallways waiting for class to begin, they’d notice all kinds of things. Gossip. Romance. The occasional deep philosophical discussion. However, they also might hear the sound of students struggling to appreciate and honor two cultures, trying to preserve their native language while living in an English speaking country. 

Language and diversity at Blair 

With more than 3,000 students, Blair is home to even more diversity than most people realize. With a large Latino population, students are bound to hear a couple of conversations in Spanish. Not only that, they’ll also hear conversations in French, Chinese, and even an indigenous Mayan language. Carlos Landau, an ESOL teacher and sponsor of the Mayan Language Club at Blair, appreciates this diversity. “I think it's the most diverse school in [Montgomery County Public Schools] (MCPS), which makes it such a great school to work at,” he says. “I think that [diversity] really brings a lot of interesting perspectives: international perspectives, and students that are coming from all parts of the world that are sharing [their] experiences.” 

Landau also notes that many of these diverse tongues come from immigrants who are seeking to preserve their home culture. “And of course, students who are second or third generation from parents or grandparents that came here as immigrants still want to maintain that heritage,” he says. “And that heritage can be used to enrich the classroom.” 

Here are a few of these diverse languages, some of which are spoken by only a handful of students. Let’s start with an indigenous language from Guatemala: Mam.

Mam: Guatemala

Junior Jonathan Layes, a member of the Mayan Language Club and a native speaker of Mam, estimates that at least 30 other students speak the language at Blair. Layes has come to appreciate the language more as he encounters interested outsiders at Blair. “It’s a beautiful language,” he says. “I think people should know that if you want to learn more about it, you should look into it.” Layes says that he learned the language from his parents and uses it almost exclusively at home. 

At school, he says it was often difficult for him to adapt to writing Spanish. “It was hard for me to remember where to put the tildes and commas at first,” he says. “And it would be the same for anyone trying to learn Mam.”

But eventually, Layes got the hang of it and is now trying to learn English as a third language. Layes says he’s determined to continue speaking Mam for the rest of his life. “I think I’ll definitely keep speaking it,” he says. “It’s the only language I speak at home and I want to maintain it.” 

Layes’ native phrase: Ti’ ta’y? (pronounced: tee-TAA-yee) Translation: How are you? 

Ewe: Togo

Sophomore Kodjo Gati also wants to maintain his native language into adulthood. He speaks a language called Ewe that is native to the southern part of the West African country Togo. Learning from his parents, Gati knows Ewe only as an oral tradition. “I don't even know how to read the language,” he said. “I only know how to speak.”

Unlike Layes, however, he took French lessons in school in his native country, so the transition to Blair wasn’t as difficult. “When I first came here, I just found my French teacher, Davina Leyder,” he says. “I didn’t know English, so anytime I needed help with anything, I would go to her.” 

Gati learned the language from his parents, but unlike Layes he doesn’t use it much in daily life. Since it’s a more obscure language, Gati hasn’t been able to find anyone (except his sister) who speaks the language, giving him fewer opportunities to use it at Blair. “Right now I’m kind of losing [the language],” he says. “Because I speak English so much I don’t use it often. The only time I do is when I call my relatives back home.”   

“If you're not born in that language, it's kind of difficult to learn it,” he says. 

Gati’s native phrase: Alekee (pronounced: Aleh-kay) Translation: Hello

Tamil: India 

Similar to Gati, senior Shriya Krishnan also learned a native language at home. “When I was a kid, my grandma used to speak to me in Tamil and so that’s how I learned,” she says. Tamil is a language originating in southern India and is the oldest language that is still in use today. 

Despite this longevity, Krishnan says that Tamil is somewhat neglected within MCPS. “It's not one of the more popular Indian languages,” she says. “It doesn't even show up as a language on the drop-down menus for a lot of surveys and stuff.” 

Krishnan wants to continue to speak her language, but she says for many, the choice to maintain their mother tongue can be a difficult one. “I definitely think language is a huge connection to your culture,” she says. “But it depends on whether you want to stay connected to that part of your life, which at times can be difficult.” 

Krishnan’s native phrase: Nanri (pronounced: Nan-dree) Translation: Thank you

Challenges and next steps

As the sponsor of the Mayan Language Club, Landau deals personally with this challenge of losing native languages that a lot of people are facing. Through his club, he attempts to give students a space to continue participating in their culture.

“Discrimination against Mayan communities in Guatemala often necessitated that their families hide their Mayan heritage, including their language,” he says. “So, the practice of hiding their Mayan identities continues as they begin their new lives here, and taking pride in their indigenous languages is antithetical to what they experienced in the past. Part of the mission of the Mayan Club is to support these students in the preservation of their indigenous languages.” 

While Landau works specifically with Mayan-based languages such as Mam, he notes that there are dozens of languages at Blair that still need school and community support. “In addition to the language, there are many services that the school provides as well but the community could still have more,” he says. “This is a very important scenario that I think is something we need to think about more.”

With the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs predicting that as many as 95 percent of all languages could be “extinct or seriously endangered” by 2100, Landau believes that the time is now to help preserve lost languages. “There is the danger that if students have lived years and years in this country, they will find less and less need to speak the language of where they come from and less connected to their family members,” he says. “So it's a question of appreciating both English and native languages, both cultures at the same time. It's important for students to find that connection so they can again preserve their old culture while learning and assimilating to American culture.” 

So, the next time you are walking down Blair Boulevard, take a moment to listen, because you just might hear languages usually spoken on the other side of the world.