Language Essay Contest Winners Series: Exploring Why Rebecca Shahrooz Learns Languages

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Last fall, undergraduate students were invited to submit short essays on the theme: Why Do I Learn Languages? This contest provided students with the chance to share their personal experiences with multilingualism and language learning. An interdisciplinary faculty committee reviewed the submissions, and the winning essays are featured below, accompanied by reflections on each student's relationship to the essay writing process and language.

We sat down with one of the winners of the essay contest, Rebecca Shahrooz, to explore the process behind her writing. Shahrooz, a third-year double major in Biology and Spanish, crafted an essay titled “Finding a Voice Through Language,” which examines the interdisciplinary nature of language.

A Bilingual Essay Journey

“I learned about the essay contest from my old biology professor, which was a very interesting crossover. I'm sure she was very passionate about that topic and so she wanted all the ‘Bio people’ in her class to know what was going on. I'm not taking any Spanish classes this semester, unfortunately, so I decided I should keep the knife polished. I originally wrote the essay in English, and then I translated it to Spanish, which was a nice exercise.”

As a double major in Spanish and Biology, Shahrooz navigates the intersection of the humanities and scientific fields. “I realized how much I liked learning about poetry and literature, which I think a lot of science kids don't like at all. I just thought about how those classes changed how I view creativity.” This connection is made possible through the power of language. “Writing under the guise of learning Spanish is what helped me realize that, oh, being creative is quite nice and very important to being a well-rounded, kinder person.”

The Humanity in Language Learning

In reflecting on her essay, Shahrooz shared her thoughts on language acquisition as a distinctive learning experience. “While I was drafting, my main idea was that there's something systematic about forming sentences correctly and learning new vocabulary, but ultimately what you express is very real, it's very human, and it's very authentic. It's not just about the process of putting words together”.

Shahrooz’s writing explores how language itself serves as a form of individuality. “I was worried that I might have translated some of the turns of phrase incorrectly because they felt so nuanced. But that’s what’s cool about it.” Through these unique translations, she produced not one, but two beautiful pieces of writing.

Her essay is pasted below. ¡Felicidades, Rebecca!

Finding a Voice Through Language

Rebecca Shahrooz

For the longest time, I believed I was someone who couldn’t write for writing’s sake. I could never keep a diary because I’d pore over the words. Thinking-of-you texts filled me with nerves no matter how much I adored the recipient. Would I say the right thing, and do it beautifully? 

When I started learning another language, I began to see that writing anything at all is better than being afraid of our own pens. I could make grammatical mistakes and vocabulary slip-ups, and people would listen to my ideas nonetheless. And what I wrote never had to be utilitarian — when we get comfortable with language, we have a vessel to voice anything from a shopping list to a love of plums to our rawest selves. 

This is just to say 

to be is to express. 

While my ideas still don’t flow like water, now I see that anything can be a muse for mental poetry. I’m struck by motif, metaphor, and meter that sings in places. With this nascent appreciation for the creative, I wonder how I ever lived without it. 

Encontrando una Voz A Través Del Idioma 

Durante tantos años, creí que era alguien que no podía escribir por escribir. Nunca logré tener un diario porque me obsesionaba con el léxico. Hasta los mensajes de texto más sencillos me llenaban de nervios, sin importar el cariño que sentía por el destinatario. ¿Diría lo correcto? ¿Lo haría bien? 

Cuando empecé a aprender otro idioma, poco a poco me di cuenta de que escribir cualquier cosa es mejor que temer a la voz creativa. Podía cometer un sinfín de errores de gramática y vocabulario, y la gente me escuchaba de todos modos. Es más, lo que escribía nunca tuvo que ser exclusivamente pragmático. Cuando nos acostumbramos al lenguaje, poseemos un vehículo para expresar cualquier idea que queramos — ya sea una lista de compras, el amor por las ciruelas o nuestro carácter más sincero. 

Esto es solo para decir 

que ser es expresarse. 

Aunque mis ideas todavía no fluyen como el agua, ahora veo que cualquier cosa puede servir de musa para la poesía mental. Me impresionan los motivos, la metáfora y la poesía cuya métrica casi canta. Con este aprecio naciente por lo creativo, me pregunto cómo pude vivir sin ello.