If you know anything about the tiny island of Curaçao, it's likely something to do with a turquoise-coloured liqueur or with scuba diving, beaches or colonial Dutch architecture. All of those are quintessentially Curaçaoan, but what you might not know is the exceptional language skills of the Curaçao people. Local Curaçaoans have the unique ability to anticipate what language you speak and then converse with you in that language without skipping a beat. If you speak Dutch, Spanish or English, you just need to say one or two words, and you'll be responded to fluently in your own language. Those are not the only languages spoken on the island. Papiamento, which was upgraded from a dialect to a language in somewhat recent years, is the most widely spoken language on the island and is really the language of the people. Some people also speak Portuguese. Coming from a linguistic background and almost two decades of academic ESL instruction in Canada, I am continually blown away when I hear and see the ease with which people from this island can slip into one language from another.
On the island, as soon as people learn that I am an English language professional, they often respond with, "I'm sorry, my English isn't so good." No, no, no, people — when you have the majority of the grammar correct, can access vocabulary in milliseconds and top that off with current idioms and intonation, trust me, your English is fantastic! And that's just English. The same skill is deftly applied to Dutch and Spanish coming straight out of Papiamento. It is truly something to behold.
My husband's former assistant was one of the first local language geniuses to blow me away with this talent. She would answer the phone in English and quickly discern what language the person on the other end was comfortable communicating in. She'd instantly switch into that language, let's say Dutch, answer whatever question needed answering and then communicate in Spanish with another customer who would be standing in front of her. Her coworker would ask her a question in Papiamento which she'd slide back into and respond in.
I am constantly trying to impress upon my local island friends and acquaintances that this is not something the rest of the world can do quite so well. I have had people say, "You're from Canada. Don't they speak two languages there?" Well, yes, but rarely in the same province let alone the same sentence! This is a thoroughly impressive skill that local Curaçaoan people so nonchalantly demonstrate day in and day out. Whenever I ask how a local kid's English is so good, I'm usually told, "YouTube." Now I don't want to discredit the schools that do a great job with their language classes, but it is uncanny how many times I have heard the same answer — "YouTube."
So linguists and language curriculum developers take note. Come to Curaçao and study how people learn languages because they're doing something right. Yes, it's a polyglot society, and all the languages are constantly in use, so there's that element of repetition and practice. It's more than that, though. There is something magical happening here that the rest of the world could potentially tap into for language instruction. You'll just have to come see for yourself.
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