Krieviešu Valodu

Nathaniel Worthman 

Professor. Dadak

Writing 101

28.3.19

Project 3

-       “Labrīt мояСашинка!Kā tev?”

-       “Man iet super labi, ну я не очень хорошо спала un tagad es tikai gribu gūlet.”

-       “Man žēl мойкотик! Dzeriet tēju, ja jūsu galva sāp!

-       “Хорошо, буду! Have a great day today!”

-       “Paldies! Es būs, un tevi arī! Čau”

-       “Paldies, Čau!”

While many people are may be familiar with the “Spanglish language,” Many people are not familiar with Krieviešu Valodu (Krievu and Latviešu). In their defense however, I will add that many people aren’t familiar with the Latvian language nor the nation of Latvia as a whole. I however was lucky enough to live in the Republic of Latvia for six weeks thanks to a critical language exchange programme sponsored completely by the United States Department of State through a programme called NSLI-Y (National Security Language Initiative for Youth.) While I was in Latvia the goal of the program was to learn Russian but while there I fell completely in love with the nation of Latvia and thus was determined to learn Latvian as well as Russian. For most of the Americans on the programme this was a stupid idea people would say “Why do you want to learn Latvian no one outside of Latvia even knows what this country is.” Needless to say, I didn’t get along with any of the Americans on the trip but that’s a story for another time. Luckily however, I was accepted as a family member almost immediately by my host family who taught me what it’s like to be Latvian as well as helped me learn what the Latvian language. In fact, my host mom made it a point to have “Latvijas vakariņas” (Latvian dinner) every Friday as a family where we would all have dinner and the conversation would only be in Latvian unless I had to ask a question that I didn’t know in Latvian where my family would then answer in Russian in orderto explain Latvian or they would teach me to say the phrase and then respond. Because of this I was super successful at picking up the language. 

Now, I know you’re probably curious as to where I used Krieviešu Valodu. Well, because I had this strong sense of the Russian and Latvian language thanks to my family I was able to use each language proficiently but separately. It wasn’t until I started becoming closer and closer with the Latvian kids who were my age that the languages started to mix. With my family there were very distinct lines with the languages but with my friends it was a linguistic free for all. For a while I was in this friend group of three boys and three girls where two couples of an American boy and two Latvian girls were formed. These weren’t necessarily a romantic relationship, but this friendship transcended into something much more. Because of this I would go on double dates with my friend Daniel with our friends Darja and Karmena. This is where the languages started mixing. The girls were both fluent in Russian and Latvian while Daniel was a heritage speaker of the Russian language and I was at his level but also interested in learning the Latvian Language. Because of this when we went to restaurants we would order in Russian, talk to each other in Russian and occasionally throw in some Latvian words until the end of each date was just us speaking both languages interchangeably. For me this was the most exciting this ever. Not only did I make some of the most meaningful relationships in with the people in Latvia but I also learned that being creative and expressive in tow languages is so much better than just one!