I have joined many Facebook groups over the years. Not surprisingly, many of them are dedicated to foreign language study, and most are designated "public". But that just means the posts are visible to the public, not that the public had anything to do with their creation. Instead, I have found the majority of them to be shills for language courses, meme factories, and forums for broadcasting little more than a member's latest Duolingo streak. Meaningful dialog? None.
Rather than await their inevitable erasure, I have decided to memorialize posts I submitted for approval days or weeks ago, but which are - without explanation - withering in "pending approval" purgatory. I will begin with a post I submitted to the Duolingo (All Languages) - Learn | Teach | Discuss group several days ago, and which is still listed as pending. Vajresh N. is the gatekeeper of the group and evidently not a fan of substantive foreign-language discourse, notwithstading the stated mission of the group - viz., free discussion, etc. about all things Duolingo.
Enough moping. You be the judge.
Juneteenth.
He died shortly after his birthday became a holiday, but my then-97-year-old father-in-law would have appreciated Juneteenth symbolically – not just because it excused his family and friends from work on his birthday.
By coincidence, my late mother-in-law’s birthday was July 4th, so she enjoyed that privilege from birth. Back in 2021, when President Biden proclaimed Juneteenth a national holiday, my father-in-law’s dementia was severe. But in 2019, following my daughter’s semester abroad in Japan, he was still capable of eating, shaving, bathing, dressing, using the toilet, smiling graciously while mumbling incoherently about everything, and requiring personal reintroductions several times a day. My daughter’s Japanese was rudimentary – three semesters in college, six weeks with a family in Hakudate, and a brief but intense immersion in Duolingo. What she discovered upon returning through Honolulu was mind-boggling: her grandfather bolted upright upon overhearing her describe Hokkaido, and began conversing with her in coherent, rapid-fire Japanese. My daughter could scarcely catch up.
Authorities on dementia (specifically Alzheimer’s) say childhood memories are often the last to go. Here was anecdotal evidence. My father-in-law was born on a plantation in Maui, the eldest of nine siblings, to a mother who widowed twice in short succession before my father-in-law was a teenager. Fate anointed him the “man” of the shack, and he and his mother conferred in Japanese whenever they did not want his siblings (all girls!) to eavesdrop, which, as my daughter learned from her conversations, happened daily.
Later, my father-in-law joined the army, served briefly in combat, but completed his military service after Japan’s surrender supervising barrack construction in Japan and Okinawa, his ancestral home. He was appointed supervisor because he was a skilled carpenter before the war (on contract with Pearl Harbor) and spoke Japanese well – necessary when communicating overseas with vendors and civilian employees.
For the two weeks my daughter could spare before returning to college in Boston, my wife (the family historian) filled in so much that was previously a mystery. Subjects that my father-in-law was reticent to discuss before dementia (e.g., the war, the internment camps, military life, even conversations with his mother) came bubbling out once he discovered someone to converse with in Japanese – a language his mother taught him so they could discuss family matters without the younger children eavesdropping.
I apologize if this story seems hopelessly off-topic, but my point was simple. Never discount the importance of learning another language. You may not need it for work, to study overseas, or to enthrall someone alluring at a bar, but the moment may arise when it opens a window into another’s soul, or into your own family’s history.
Thank you, Duolingo, for giving my daughter enough motivation in Japanese to risk three courses at college, spend six weeks in Hakodate, then learn more about her grandfather than her mother uncovered in 65 years. I wish everyone success in your Duolingo studies, and hope they unlock unexpected windows for you, as well. Happy belated Juneteenth! #Duolingo