Translating Lives Living with Two Languages and Cultures

by Besemeres, Mary; Wierzbicka, Anna

• ISBN13: 9780702236037
• ISBN10: 0702236039
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-01-01
• Publisher: University of Queensland Press

Summary

Recounting the personal experiences of 12 bilingual Australians, this immensely moving collection of stories shows how immersion in two overlapping cultures affects one's perspectives on the world and relationships with other people. Including contributions from Kim Scott and Eva Sallis, these storieschildhood recollections, migrant experiences, journeys of self-discovery, and accounts of feeling culturally torn or undefineddemonstrate the intrinsic links between language, culture, and identity.

Author Biography

Mary Besemeres is a research fellow at Curtin University of Technology in western Australia. She is the author of Translating One’s Self: Language and Selfhood in Cross-Cultural Autobiography. Anna Wierzbicka is a professor of linguistics at the Australian National University. She is the author of Emotions Across Languages and Cultures, English: Meaning and Culture, and Understanding Cultures Through Their Key Words.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	p. vii
Introduction	p. xiii
Strangers at home	p. 1
From bilingual to linguist	p. 12
Three worlds: Inheritance and experience	p. 26
Playgrounds and battlegrounds: A child's experience of migration	p. 45
Returning to my mother tongue: Veronica's journey continues	p. 56
East meets West, or does it really?	p. 70
Growing up between two languages/two worlds: Learning to live without belonging to a terra	p. 83
Two languages, two cultures, one (?) self: Between Polish and English	p. 96
My experience of living in a different culture: The life of a Korean migrant in Australia	p. 114
Between zal and emotional blackmail: Ways of being in Polish and English	p. 128
The journey of self-discovery in another language	p. 139
Foster mother tongue	p. 150
Endnotes	p. 160
References	p. 167
Index	p. 174
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