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ISSN #2331-6845 

 

Multilingual self: Inspired by a  

recent trip to Peru 

 

By Dr. Jayoung Choi 

Department of Inclusive Education 

Kennesaw State University 

jchoi44@kennesaw.edu    

 

Funded by GATESOL, I had the privilege of presenting at the 2016 Peru TESOL 
conference in Arequipa. In this poem, I write about my inspiration of becoming fluent in 
Spanish by drawing on my interactions with and observations of locals and backpackers, 
non-native speakers of Spanish, in Cusco, Machu Picchu, Lima, and Ollataytambo 
beyond Arequipa during my extended 10-day stay in Peru. I describe how exhilarating it 
was to try out my limited Spanish and to watch crosslinguistic influences at work. In this 
poem, I write in all four languages of which I have varying proficiencies: Korean, English, 
Farsi, and Spanish in hopes to encourage teachers to allow multilingual students to draw 
on all linguistic repertories when learning in school (please see Ofelia García and her 
colleagues’ work on translanguaging).  
 
Keywords: Spanish; multilingualism; Korean; Persian; English; Peru; crosslinguistic 
influences; identity 
 

 

Funded by GATESOL, I had the privilege of presenting at the 2016 Peru TESOL 

conference in Arequipa. In this poem, I write about my inspiration of becoming fluent in 

Spanish by drawing on my interactions with and observations of locals and 

backpackers, non-native speakers of Spanish, in Cusco, Machu Picchu, Lima, and 

Ollataytambo beyond Arequipa during my extended 10-day stay in Peru.  

mailto:jchoi44@kennesaw.edu


 

 

2                                      GATESOL in Action, Fall 2018 

 

The image in Figure 1 below shows a free two-hour walking tour in Peru I joined 

through which I interacted with backpackers from around the world: 

 

Figure 1. Memories from Peru. This is a screenshot of information about a free walking 

tour in Cusco. I found free walking tours in Peru very informative. It is also fun walking 

around the city with backpackers.   

  

I describe how exhilarating it was to try out my limited Spanish and to watch 

crosslinguistic influences at work. In this poem, I write in all four languages of which I 

have varying proficiencies: Korean, English, Farsi, and Spanish in hopes to encourage 

teachers to allow multilingual students to draw on all linguistic repertoires when learning 

in school. Figures 2, 3, and 4 below illustrate how three languages, Korean, Farsi, and 

English, are integrated in our daily lives in my household: 



 

 

3                                      GATESOL in Action, Fall 2018 

 

 

Figure 2. Korean books. My two-year-old daughter, who is growing up as a trilingual, is 

pretend reading a title of a children’s book in Korean. 

 

 

Figure 3. Farsi children’s book. I came across a children’s book in Farsi in a Farsi 

language class that my five-year-old son recently started attending on Sundays.   



 

 

4                                      GATESOL in Action, Fall 2018 

 

 

Figure 4. English language. My son, who is developing trilingual abilities, wrote English 

alphabet on the white board when he came to my office. 

 

This practice is called translanguaging, which is defined as “the deployment of a 

speaker’s full linguistic repertoire without regard for watchful adherence to the socially 

and politically defined boundaries of named (and usually national and the state) 

language”(Otheguy, García, & Reid, 2015, p. 283).  

 
Multilingual self:  Inspired by a recent trip to Peru 

 
Forming a different identity 
Speaking a foreign tongue in a new place 
Being othered 
It is exhilarating!  
Yo soy coreana pero vivo y trabajo en Atlanta Georgia USA1 
Me llamo Jayoung2 
Excitedly, having a short conversation with locals in Cusco, Machu Picchu, Lima, 
Ollataytambo, and Arequipa 
 
Unexpectedly, my third language, Farsi, was crawling out when using Spanish 

What is happening here? 이란어가 여기저기서 왜 불쑥불쑥 튀어나오지?!3 

In place of por que, 4 چون کهpopped out 
 pushed out sí5 بله
I took a step back and amusedly watched crosslinguistic influences at work  

BUT, My Spanish did not go much far… 



 

 

5                                      GATESOL in Action, Fall 2018 

 

Why did I wait all these years not learning Spanish? 
Oh boy, I grew envious of  
A young college student from the U.S. who could converse in Spanish fluently 
with a beautiful English accent  
A Polish backpacker who naturally picked up enough Spanish by travelling  
I can be like them, non-native speakers of Spanish 

If they can do it, I can do it. 저 정도는 나도 조금만 시간 투자하면 할 수 있지, 

그럼!6 

 
Hopeful and inspired  
I return to my two young kids and my full-time job in an English-speaking country 
Like my teachers who wish to learn the languages of their students but who don’t 
have the time 
I also struggle to carve out a time to keep the momentum and passion  
But I cannot put it off again! 
I have promised myself to go back with much-improved Spanish soon 
And start to figure myself in Spanish too 

 
Notes 

1. In Spanish, “I am Korean but I live and work in Atlanta, GA, U.S.A.” 

2. In Spanish, “My name is Jayoung.” 

3. In Korean, “Why is my Farsi popping out here and there?” 

4. In Spanish and Farsi, “because” 

5. In Farsi and Spanish, “yes.” 

6. In Korean, “I can speak Spanish that much if I invest more time in learning, for sure” 

 
Concluding Thoughts 

I have chosen to write about my experience in Peru particularly in the genre of 

poetry. When I had a strong urge to express my bursting desire of becoming a proficient 

Spanish speaker, I could not think of a more suitable medium than poetry. Poetry 

served well for me as I desired to get my thoughts on paper and start dialoguing with 

others quickly. This genre, unlike a long prose or an academic paper, permits fewer 

words to carry my inspirations and reflections in a more impactful manner. This genre 



 

 

6                                      GATESOL in Action, Fall 2018 

 

can especially be powerful for multilingual writers as it conspicuously highlights the use 

of multiple languages in it. Multilingual writers who could be teacher educators, 

teachers, and K-12 students can employ translanguaging through which they 

purposefully and strategically choose words and sentences in one language over 

another to express more layered meaning. Please see Ofelia García and her 

colleagues’ work on translanguaging as well as translanguaging guides and resources 

on the Web, https://www.cuny-nysieb.org.  

Conclusion 

ESOL teachers are the bridge for EL students in most content area classrooms, 

and knowing what mainstream teachers think and believe is an important part of 

advocating for ELs.  It is now more than ever imperative that ESOL teachers ground 

themselves in the facts about the issues that most affect their students: immigration and 

documentation; oms.  Professional development providers as well can keep these 

misconceptions and realities at the forefront of their work with teachers.  Taking school-

based steps to increase awareness of the realities of ELs’ experiences, situations, and 

language acquisition processes and how to navigate this with mainstream teachers is a 

way to start the advocacy journey. 

  

https://www.cuny-nysieb.org/


 

 

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References 

García, O., Johnson, S. I., & Seltzer, K. (2016). The translanguaging classroom: 

Leveraging student bilingualism for learning. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon 

Publishing. 

García, O. & Kleyn, T. (Eds.). (2016). Translanguaging with multilingual students: 

Learning from classroom moments. New York, NY: Routledge. 

García, O., & Wei, L. (2015). Translanguaging, bilingualism and bilingual education. In 

W. E. Wright, S. Boun, & O. Garcia (Eds). The handbook of bilingual and 

multilingual education (pp. 223-240). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. 

Otheguy, R., García, O., & Reid, W. (2015). Clarifying translanguaging and 

deconstructing named languages: A perspective from linguistics. Applied 

Linguistics Review, 6(3), 281-307. doi:10.1515/applirev-2015-0014 


