Una Palabra Sola: Episode 1, la identidad
I had been indecisive about starting a podcast for months. “The Internet doesn’t need ANOTHER white woman’s opinion”, I thought. “There are so many people more qualified, whose stories need to be shared.” But it turns out… no one’s quite doing it like this. We learn Spanish one word at a time, and the first one was one that had been percolating in my head for a long while: la identidad, or identity.
La identidad: (n) Your sense of self; how you choose the see the world and your place in it.
Female gender; la identidad
Related words: identificado, identificada (adj); robo de identidad (identity theft), crisis de identidad (identity crisis); tarjeta de identidad (ID card); documentos de identidad (ID documents)
Related verbs: identificarse (to identify oneself; i.e., me identifico); ser (to be; i.e., soy)
From the Old Latin identĭtas
Identity is how we see our world and our place in it. It’s a good place to start: language is a huge piece of your identity.
3:53: Your feelings around language matter more than the actual language you learn.
12:31: Identity is brought on by self-selection and what we hear, see, and watch around us.
14:23: There are many cultures out there. You need to decide how you see this world, and which culture you’d like to explore.
15:45: It’s intangible, like when you see a really good guitar player and they play with soul.
23:43: You’ll grow and change con cada crecimiento, with each opportunity for growth.
For reflection:
Me identifico como _________________.
Te identifico como _________________.
Soy ______________________________.
Eres _____________________________.
Es _______________________________.
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TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
0:09
Hola and bienvenidos, Hello and welcome to Una Palabra Sola, where we get to learn Spanish one word at a time. I'm your host, Megan Miller, founder and teacher at Aprovechar Language Solutions. Empezamos and let's dive in. Hola, bienvenidos welcome buenas tardes, buenos dias, buenas noches what, whatever it is, if it is afternoon, night, day, where you are Hello and welcome to Una Palabra Sola. So today, I decided to just go ahead and start at the heart of it and go over one of the palabras that is just querida a mi corazon. It is it is dear to my heart. And that is la identidad, because identity is really the crux of who we are. And where we are. And I don't know if if this happens to you. It has definitely happened to me, where you use the S word with yourself with others. And I'm not talking about shit, because I mean, shit happens. But I'm talking about should where you should or you feel like you're not enough. Like for example, if I don't have ranch on a salad, I don't feel Midwestern enough. If I did not practice Spanish, and then I go into like a networking meeting, and all of a sudden everyone's speaking Spanish and I'm like, deer in the headlights. I don't feel Spanish enough. And actually, for those that can't see me, I am a gringa a total saltine of a human I get very salty, honestly. But I am white, I come from a bland culture. And my identity, honestly, throughout the entire journey of Aprovechar, which has been like a 10 year journey from like, conception to just actually doing the damn thing. All 10 years, I held myself back because I was scared. And I was very just kind of like self conscious. My identity, I just I was not I was not. In my identity, I was not confident in my identity. I wasn't confident in the path that I was on. And so that lack of self confidence, really did a lot more harm than good. And I know that, you know, we're not even two minutes in and it's me, me, me, me, me. But this applies to you, too. Where are you holding yourself back? And not only that, how does your identity or self consciousness or your perception of yourself? How does that hold you back in your life? Because la identidad? Yes, it can be a person or it can be a thing. But it's all about what characterizes us. It is how we are as people, it's how we are in nature, it is our sense of self. It's not only how we see the world, but how we see ourselves in it what is our place, and that pinche world. So not only is la identidad una palabra pesada, it's heavy fucking word. However, what it is, it is a very good place to start because language is a huge, huge piece of that. And I'm not talking about the language that you practice, or the languages you want to learn or the languages that you forgotten. I'm talking about your feelings around those languages. Because how we identify is not only from from within, right, our own sense of self, but it is everything society tells us and for me being a white woman in this world a lot of times I am told by society like this isn't a good idea. Maybe you shouldn't do that. Do you want to be a Karen like we are so self conscious? Because for the last few centuries, white people have been just given this carte blanche pun intended to to do as we see fit. And slowly but surely por fin, finally we are kind of becoming a minority. And so now the rules are unwritten are like oh shit, where do we go? What do we do? I don't know. I've never been a minority. How do you do it? And it has just born 100% more self awareness.
4:57
And I'm all for that by the way. I want to want to make that perfectly clara, perfectly clear that I am all for that, because our time is up, honestly, we have so much more work to do to listen to others and not fucking talk over everybody else. Which is ironic because I mean, I'm doing a podcast, but that's what we're doing here. That is what we're doing here. Because this whole podcast I didn't I didn't want to do it. And then I did. And then I was like, should I shouldn't I should I shouldn't I, Ross and Racheled for like a year and a half. However, this podcast comes from one core belief that I have and I hope that you share this too. I mean, if you're learning a language, you're gonna be here for this, which is we deserve to understand others and be understood. And since we are moving into a more of a minority, this means learning Spanish, you pinche gringos learn Spanish, but we're going to do it fun. In a fun way. We are just gonna do it one word at a time. And each of these words, I know that this is more of a rant than a than an episode. But each of these words, they come with a whole jungle gym of fun, because I'm going to tell you la palabra, identidad. I'm going to tell you what it is, un sustantivo. It's a noun, just so you know that a noun for those non-grammar folks out there, a person, place or thing. Every noun in Spanish has a gender that is la. It is a feminine noun, la identidad. Say it with me, "la identidad". So and then, of course, there's also the definition which I already went over. It's our sense of self, how we see our world, how we see ourselves in it, what our role is what we deem to be our character. It's our thoughts, values, beliefs, the stories we tell ourselves, it is basically how we are formed is our identity. It also comes from the old Latin, identitas. If you do speak Latin. First of all, you should be dead. Second of all, please don't correct me actually, yes, do correct me because I want to speak everything correctly. But identitas, old Latin etymology for you. I mean, Spanish is a child from Latin. So you're gonna hear a lot of that fun fact. That is why all nouns have genders. Because "la identidad", Latin had genders, Spanish has genders. And I'm also going to tell you kind of what's related and how it's used. So when we think of such una palabra pesada, and I know that I went super into the cranium here, real heady, real fast, but that's just how we're gonna roll here. If you don't like it, that's okay. If you do, please tell me, I need validation. That is part of my identity. I'm working on it. The reason why I wanted to start with this is because language is such a key part of it. And because it is both internal and external, right, we define ourselves, but then we're also defined by others. Every time that we have ever taken a test and exam have registered to vote, please vote people. Every time that we have done that, we have self selected, right? We we self identify, we self select, I'm white, I'm latina, I'm Black, I am a female versus male. I am a person, honestly, or I identify as... for all those transgender folks out there. We also do it by race. And by economic class, we do it how our society tells us, am I upper class, here, am I middle class, and I'm just trying to do the best that I can. Or am I lower class, and society tells me that I am going to be in that survive not thrive mentality for a while. So this word is like an onion, because it is such a heavy word. Because it's part culture. And what we're told is, is our culture, how we self identify, but it's also part comfort,
9:35
what feels good to you. And the perfect example of this because we're just meeting I'm not always this punchy. But I've always had my identity around my environment, my physical environment. So growing up, I was a farm girl. So I worked on farms, grew up in front of a cornfield. We didn't own the cornfield, we were lower middle class, but I grew up next to it. So I'm, I'm all aware about rotating crops and things. My high school was surrounded on three sides by fields. Um, that that was the rurarlity of it, it was very rural, which was horrible word in English anyways. So then I went to New York, and I completely for those of you who say, New York, and you immediately think New York City- false, there's a whole state behind it. So I went to New York State, the upper part of the state, if you will, in university, and I was defined by my environment there, I was defined by my friends, I, I assimilated I say, soda and not pop, I say, sneakers and not tennis shoes, I assimilated because of the fear of peer pressure, I get very anxious, so I suddenly very quickly, like three days, and I'm good. I'm gonna want to fit in. Then I identified, you know, in the corporate world, same thing, physical environment, but also that societal environment, am I making it? Am I good enough? Am I saying what society says is success? Kind of I was making up or five figures and I was a consultant, a problem solver, a you know, get shit done kind of girl. But I wasn't happy. So is that a good useful part of my identity? I think I think it is. Because that is a lot of self reflection on where and how you feel little bits and pieces of your identity come out. And when you're in an environment and you're in a job, or you're in a place where you constantly feel like you have to put on a mask, and you're constantly exhausted because of that mask. You got some work to do. You got some work to do. So, like I started this, I don't look like a Spanish speaker. So I feel like I shouldn't identify as one, which is completely false. But that's what society tells me. So identity being your sense of self, and how you see the world. And the beautiful thing is that I think we're becoming more selective, and more mindful of the words that we use and the worlds that we choose to see. Because so often we do self select and put ourselves in this group. I mean, you only have to look at politics to see this, but it is everywhere. Are you religious? Are you not? Are you, you know, heady, a brainiac, a nerd, a geek, or are you not? And we we self selected and then we judge each other? But like if somebody comes to judge us, it's no thank you. And so there's this kind of duality. So la identidad es un buen empiezo, yo creo, I think that it's a good place to start. Because this whole journey of learning a language has to start with you. It has to start with who you are inside. And what you want to have in your mind. Because you can learn whatever you want to learn. Seriously, the internet is powerful. You can learn whatever you want to learn, but if you don't know where you stand in the world, you won't know where where your limits are, and you won't know where you lack. Because the wonderful thing about learning Spanish or any kind of language, is you get to learn the culture behind it isn't that fucking awesome, you get to learn the culture. And what is culture? It's just a clusterfuck of identities. Boricuan culture is different than our Argentinian
14:23
Argentinian culture, which is different than Costa Rican culture, which is different than Tejana culture, which is different than Canadian culture, which is different than Spanish, in Spain y la Ibiza culture which is different than any other fucking culture out there. And that is fucking brilliant, and you should be proud. So when you think of your identity and how you see this world and where you see your place in it take a moment and try to figure out where and what you want to focus on where and what you lack. Because yeah language, I can sit here and teach you grammar. La identidad. Todos los sustantivos tienen géneros, all nouns have genders, let's learn all 1000 of them one word at a time. No, that's boring. It's boring. The language is part of the culture, the culture is part of the language, how we make sense of our thoughts and our feelings in the world and how we express ourselves. Yes, language is useful, it's a tool. But in order to really embody it, you have to get that soul. It's like when you see a really good guitar player. And you can play the same notes as they do it, maybe you can play it at the same tempo that they do. But unless you have the soul that they do, unless you put the feeling into the notes, you are not gonna sound like them. And that's okay, because we're all different, even though we're all the same. We're all humans. Hopefully, we have 10 dedos and 10 dedos de pie, 10 fingers and toes each. Yeah. However, you need to have that soul behind it. And that is your sense of self. And that's why this is so powerful. The fun fact about identity though is that it's not it's not really used. Like we have "robo de identidad" that right somebody stole my identity. If anyone has a driver's license or passport, that is "una tarjeta de identidad", right, an identity card basically that can be like for student or whatever "tarjeta" is just a card. I think at all point in times, we have "una crisis de identidad", an identity crisis, who the fuck am I? Why am I here? what good am I doing? And I already went on that rant. So think on that. And then we also have "documentos de identidad", like papers basically, or just kind of any sort of identity documents, ID documents. Even though in English, we try to be super efficient with ID we don't have that in Spanish, it's la identidad. That is That is why Spanish is spoken so fast. We don't have acronyms for everything. La identidad. For any kind of related adjectives. So going super into grammar here, your noun is your person, place or thing your adjective describes your noun: identificado or identificada. Alright, so for example, I could have una flor identificada I could have a flower identified as something so that is not just your own personal identity but what other things are. So what they identify as and then of course, your related verb identificarse that is to identify yourself, "me identifico como", I identify as. That is a reflexive verb so you do get "me identifico", "te identificas" that sort of thing. Because you're basically identifying yourself, por ejemplo, me identifico como pelirroja. I identify as a ginger, or a redhead, for those that don't watch South Park. So, you do have those types of identity but going back way way back to the beginning. This is your characteristic. So a lot of times you will hear ser used instead of identificarse because quite honestly soy pelirroja, I am redhead that is how I identify that is part of my characteristic and your ser verb, that is your to be
19:20
to be an permanent kind of characteristic. I am who I am kind of thing. Versus estar which is your other Spanish verb to be which is more of your mental state of being, less of your characteristic but it's more temporary. It's how we how we like to teach it. I'll do a whole ser and estar thing later down the line. But going back to identidad, this is where you would hear a lot of soy como, like "I am" versus eres, "you are" versus es, "he she or it is" versus somos, "we are" versus son, which is "they are". So why use one verb when you can use the other, there are 500 ways to get to where you want to go in Spanish and in language, and that's a blessing and a curse. So with that, la palabra, identidad, as un sustantivo, it is a noun: person, place or thing. It is como caracterizamos, how we characterize ourselves, it's our sense of self, it's how we see the world and our place in it. It is our thoughts, values, beliefs, the stories that we tell ourselves, the places, and the ways that we take up space, in the world. And I will tell you, when you learn another language, and you get really good at it, and you get really into it, ooh, we, first of all, it's like a mental orgasm, like, it's fucking magical. Second of all, your identity is going to change. And it's going to be in flux a little bit. And that is A-OK. Because our thoughts, values, beliefs, our feelings, our feelings about ourselves, our feelings about the world that we live in, that all makes up this identity that we have. So of course, when you change one variable in the formula como lenguaje or like language, your identity is going to change a little bit. A lot of times in the English speaking world, we think characteristics or character. Done, hecho, it is in the oven, it is baked. However, the beautiful thing is that even in Spanish using ser which is used for characteristics that can change, so expect the change because if you are going through the world in this fixed ass mindset, I am who I am, and I can't change it, meh meh meh, these are my boundaries, you aren't going to grow and you aren't going to enjoy it. What is life here for if not to enjoy it once in a while people. So enjoy the flux enjoy the change, it's gonna be scary, it's gonna suck, it's not going to be an orgasm, it's going to be like getting hit in the balls, I would assume. I don't know, I don't have balls I don't characterize as having balls. However, expect it, because that is that one variable. So when that changes, you're gonna feel like you're a whole different person. I feel like I'm a different person in Spanish than English. And that's partly the vocabulary and it's partly the modality and it's partly the environment, but it's also just partly because my brain works a little different in Spanish, because it has to. So don't be scared of a different language, of a different identity. Almost, it's almost like another layer of identity. I'm not talking about the one movie where it's like 27 personalities here. It's it feels like a different layer of yourself like a different side of yourself. And lean into that a little bit. Enjoy it. Because that's what life is here for. So, I will leave you with this: identity, la identidad,
23:43
being your sense of self. The stories that come from other people and from yourself. Provide that sense of self. This is the past that begets the present and informs the future and it is changeable expect it to change. con cada crecimiento, with every single piece of growth out there every single evolution, every single single sense of growth. Expect it to change, lean into that, because you're gonna be fucking flummoxed and excited about what you find on the other side. Until next time, un abrazo fuerte gracias otra vez and thank you so much for coming along with me on this ride to Una Palabra Sola. Be sure to check out the show notes for additional worksheets and materials. If you have a word that you would like me to review, please feel free to let me know at Aprovechar Language Solutions .com. Hasta la próxima vez, until next time.