Kirsten Torgersrud's Views On Language Differences

My mother, Kirsten Torgersrud, a Norwegian immigrant and permanent resident of Canada, has lived in this country for the past 30 years. She grew up in a neighborhood just south of Oslo speaking Norwegian as her primary language. She learned English in school, but in the 8th grade she chose to take French instead, and then in 11th grade she changed again to German. As a result of these switches, she never developed a secondary language in which she could hold an extended conversation. So, when after graduation, she took a scholarship to play basketball at the University of Sheboygan Wisconsin, she left her home at 19 for a continent she had never seen, with rudimentary skills in a language that she had not actively used in 5 years. Despite this, she has not lived outside of North America since 1979 and now speaks fluent English and French. The path here was definitely not easy and she has had plenty of linguistic and cultural misunderstandings along the way. However, she shows that language differences are not the insurmountable challenge that they seem and that it can be overcome by focusing on other aspects of shared culture and humanity. She credits her ease of transition on her love for sports, Norwegian nationality, and educational infrastructure.

Kirsten’s love for sports and …show more content…
Although she still has an accent, she speaks flawless English and would trounce most native English speakers in a game of scrabble. When raising her three children, she spoke both English and Norwegian to them, always stressing the importance of a second language. Sharing a common language allows people to connect and share ideas, but it is not the only way to do so. Kirsten draws from her own experiences when she says that “sharing culture and experience is just as important as sharing language”. In a world where rapidly improving technology allows us to translate spoken words in real time, this has never been