Charlotte Bergholz

Growing up as a mixed child is a strange experience. I am a child of two cultures, and while it has certain benefits, such as being raised trilingual, it can be strange. I was never able to fully immerse myself in either of my parents’ cultures, so I am pieces of each. I have struggled with my identity in the past, but I realized that I am the sum of the two, and with this, I am able to look at the world from a different perspective than someone who came from one culture. Because of my exposure to Spanish and German, I was always fascinated how I connected the languages, and with that, I became interested in linguistics.

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I grew up in a very multicultural setting, and that influenced me from a young age. Having a German father, a Dominican mother, and being raised in Egypt for a brief period of my childhood, exposed me to many different cultures and languages. Because of that, I have always loved learning about different cultures, its languages, and its histories. When I was 8 we moved to a small town in America, but my parents did their best to help us improve our language skills and express our culture.

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Even though it was a small town, my mother allowed us to keep appreciating culture by letting us participate in belly dancing, flamenco, art, and musical performance. In high school, I pursued musical performance and received high scores in the German opera arias I sang. But still, my small town did not allow me to be surrounded by different cultures, or people from the same cultures as me. Luckily, that changed when I went to university.

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Growing up, there was no German cultural representation. So when I arrived to my university, I was excited to find some. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any, so I took it upon myself to create a student organization to represent German language and culture. Thus, I became the founder and President of The German Club at my university. Through my experience in creating and leading the club, I have learned many things. It has given me a greater understanding in how significant learning a language can be and how it can open many doors and opportunities.

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Through my studies and this leadership experience, I realized that understanding language is important for my self identity. Language influences our everyday life and how we represent our culture. That’s why I believe that the first step to understanding ourselves is to understand the language we use and why we use it.