Narratives of Celebration Fall 2020

Ihsan Ibrahim
​The Value of Being Duo-Languaged
Growing up in America, where the primary language spoken is English, while being
Somali, meant that I had developed a sense of both the English language, and Somali language at
a very young age. For the most part, the two languages came naturally to me as my father is
fluent in both languages, and my mother is fluent in Somali. Since my mother had only spoken
somali, I was used to speaking Somali at home and English primarily while I was at school.
Being bilingual, meaning that I have the ability to speak more than one language, I would
say is a privilege. There are many reasons as to why I say this, including having the opportunity
to explore two different language cultures, helping translate from Somali to English at any time
if necessary, and being able to call out my siblings in public without 95% of the people around
me not knowing what I’m saying. Being bilingual also helps open new opportunities including
those in the career field. While there are so many great things that come with being bilingual,
there are a few inequalities I have faced because of my knowledge of two languages.
I remember being placed into the ELL (English Language Learners) program while in
elementary school, more specifically around second grade. I wasn’t tested into the program at all,
as my parents told me, it was a decision that the school made on their own to require students
who spoke more than one language to join the ELL program. There were a few students who
looked like me in the program, and those who spoke any second language at all were in the
program as well. We were pulled out of class for about 40-50 minutes in small groups to meet
with our ELL teacher about a few times a week. It felt kind of weird not being the same
environment that I was familiar with, as there were some new faces, and we were in a whole new
learning space.
I didn’t really grasp the concept of the “ELL” program and why we were placed into the
ELL program until about a few months in, when I would return to class after the program, and
see that I missed out on a lot of
the class activities, which I
started to feel bad about as other
kids would be raving about what
they have done while the few of
us that were in the program
were gone. I, in all honesty felt
like I was missing out on so
much by being gone for that
long during the school day, and
in a way I felt envious of the
students who got to stay and