The diagram on page 9 of Aitchison’s "Linguistics" shows that linguistics can be approached from a range of different disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, philosophy, literature, artificial intelligence, languages, and psychology. While my main fields of study--art, geography, and religion--are not included in this diagram, they will significantly inform the way I approach language learning.
Throughout my college experience, I have found that a holistic approach to learning makes the experience more fulfilling. As an art major, I have been able to take classes I am interested in that connect to one another and provide conceptual frameworks for my art projects. For example, during the spring of my sophomore year, I took a geography course, pilgrimage studies class, and Humanities Fellows Seminar on human migration and then created a series of map prints about the movement of people. This semester, I have been humbly surprised by how well my classes are supporting each other. A common theme has been thinking about the role of colonialism on Indigenous cultures, which are themes that have touched Indonesia in unique ways. Cultivating a deep relation with Indonesian culture through the process of language learning becomes a way of celebrating perspectives beyond the western worldview.
I see many parallels between art and language learning. For me, both of these are methods of communication. Last semester, I took an art theory class where we discussed semiotics. This study of signs and signifiers relates well to semantics, the study of meaning. In my artmaking, I have been thinking about my visual vocabulary and how painting shapes the way I relate to the world, just as language shapes our worldviews. Art theory helps me to approach language learning as another creative act.
Learning Indonesian also connects with my study of geography, the study of where. Indonesian is an ideal language for illustrating the geographic concept of scale because there are regional dialects, the national language of Bahasa Indonesia, and opportunities to learn international languages like English. Geography helps us to ask questions of how location shapes the way certain groups communicate, and tools such as GIS to learn more about the place. The physical geography of Indonesia as an archipelago influence the way language spreads.
My language studies are also informed by my interest in religion. In particular, the way we interpret sacred texts has many insights for me as a language learner. There are many ways of interpreting scripture because there are so many variables: we have to consider when it was written and the historical context, the bias of who was writing it, the audience, and the interpreter's bias, not to mention the fact that the original language does not usually have words that directly translate. In other words, trying to preserve meaning between languages is complex! When learning Indonesia, I must be culturally aware of acknowledging my own biases that may make it difficult for me to fully engage with the language and culture, simply because my worldview is different. I will incorporate the disciplines of art, geography, and religion into my studies of the Indonesian language. Not only will these approaches help me understand the language structures, but by making the language learning part of the disciplines I am already invested in, I will see Indonesian as an integral part of who I am as a person.
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