This often makes me wonder how different my language profile would be today if there was never pressure for immigrants to abandon their home language when immigrating to Canada. Perhaps, I would have learned German if my great-grandpa chose to teach his children it. Due to the assumptions and pressures in Canada, this language in his family was lost.
When I first thought about if I have experienced any language loss, my assumption was no because I have grown up only speaking English. However, if I look further at what had occurred with my great-grandpa, I also experienced language loss. What happened to my great-grandpa led to some intergenerational effects. Since he was pressured to abandon German, he abided to fit in. My great-grandpa was taught that speaking German in Canada was frowned upon and he did not want his children to experience isolation. Additionally, the schools in Canada only taught English. This possibly made immigrants feel that English is the only accepted language in Canada. Since my grandma never learned German, she was unable to pass this knowledge down to my mother. Lastly, my mother never learned German which makes it difficult for me to learn German throughout the family.
In addition to my great-grandpa’s experience immigrating to Canada, my dad’s side also faced linguistic challenges. My grandma and grandpa fostered children a few years after my dad was born. While fostering, my uncle, who is Indigenous, came to them as a baby. His parents were unable to care for him since the day he was born which placed him in the foster care system. After fostering for a short amount of time, my grandparents adopted him. To this day, my uncle is grateful to have been adopted but it also leaves me wondering about how different his language today would have been if the scenario was different. If my uncle’s parents were able to care for him, he might have learned the Indigenous language back on his reserve. Therefore, my uncle experienced language loss from a young age, but I do not see this as his fault because his parents were unable to care for him. Growing up, my grandparents always tried to honour the Indigenous and gave him the choice to learn more about his culture and language.