Dani Cowell is what everyone knows me as but my full name is Daniela Elizabeth Cowell Morales. I’m 20 in May.
I have dual nationality, I’m both Mexican and British, but I’ve lived all my life in Great Britain.
3. What is your Ethnicity and the Languages you speak
I consider myself mixed, as a White-Latina and I speak English and Spanish fluently. I’ve been learning some French and I also know a few words from my grandmother's native language, Zapoteco.
4. What does your Mother Tongue mean to you
To me, Spanish is an integral part of my identity. It connects me to my family and to my roots. It’s the only language I’ve ever spoken to my mum and grandmother in and its the way I communicate with them. I wouldn’t know how else to let them know how I’m feeling because it’s the only way we’ve ever spoken. It’s also part of who I’ve always been. In England I’m known as the Mexican who speaks Spanish, in Mexico I’m known as the British girl who speaks English. It is also a part of my heritage, I’m linked to my ancestors and to our belief systems through Spanish.
5. What would it mean to you if you were to lose being able to speak your mother tongue
I can’t imagine ever not being able to speak Spanish, its part of who I’ve been for the entirety of my life. My first words were in Spanish, my relationship with the entirety of my mother’s side of my family is in Spanish. And I feel like it even affects how I’m seen in England. I’ve always been known as the Mexican, the one who speaks two languages. Losing Spanish would be like losing a part of my identity. And, unfortunately, I already have some experience in knowing what it’s like to lose your identity through losing your language. Zapoteco is a dying language, spoken by few in a native town in Mexico that people are making no effort to learn anymore. I only know a few words of it and obviously it feels like I’ve lost a part of my family’s history as one day people might not speak it entirely. It’s part of my grandmother’s identity and when she dies its a part of her that I’ll lose.
6. What have been the benefits and challenges of speaking your mother tongue
I think some of the biggest challenges are growing up as a bilingual child. Initially, I didn’t want to speak two languages, I wanted to be like all the other kids at school. Especially because in the early years of your education, in my experience, it puts you far behind as you suddenly have to learn double the vocabulary that everyone else is fitting in your head. I noticed it a lot with my little brother, who’s nine years younger than me, he couldn’t speak as much as all of the other kids because he couldn’t remember all the words in English that he needed to communicate. I’ve also found that the more time I spend away from my mum, who is the person I speak the most Spanish to, my vocabulary starts to slip and I forget the occasional word. But in general, I’ve found that there are a lot more advantages. Obviously, my employability skyrocketed, and I got A’s throughout my exams in Spanish without having to revise because it’s something I’ve been learning all my life. It’s also an advantage when it comes to meeting other Hispanics, it’s something that immediately links you and you feel like you’re in your own little bubble with a language that no one but you knows, kind of like a secret. I’ve also found that as I’m learning French I find it easier than some people who only know one language as I can associate a new word or grammatical rule with either English or Spanish, whichever is more convenient. It’s also fab to have words in Spanish that don’t exist in English, like the difference between “te quiero” and “te amo”
7. Do you remember how you were taught your mother tongue and what was that experience like
I partly do and partly don’t. As a young child I spent a lot more time with my mum (who is the Spanish speaker of my parents) as opposed to with my dad, so I picked up Spanish sooner than I did English. But when it came to going to nursery and primary school, like I’ve said, I didn’t want to be different to all the other kids and I only wanted to speak in English. But my mum forced me to know the language, she would tell me “Yo no entiendo Ingles, solo hablo Español,” which translates as “I don’t speak English, I only speak Spanish” and then would proceed to ignore me until I spoke to her in Spanish. So that kind of forced me to develop my language. She also found programmes like Dora the Explorer or films like Spy Kids, where I could see kids that were like me, that spoke both Spanish and English. It was only until my GCSE’s that I realised I didn’t know how to read or write in Spanish, only speak. I had the vocabulary but no idea how to spell it out, so I bought myself Harry Potter in Spanish and essentially taught myself, always circling words that I didn’t know or that I hadn’t known how to spell, and went from there.
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