The Multilingual Gift |
AI can extend language ability without replacing authorship or meaning.
Multilingual minds operate across distinct neural “state spaces.”
Each language shapes thought, emotion, and expression differently.
Multilingualism is uneven by design—and that unevenness is its strength.
In 2001, Angela Friederici invited me to spend a month at the Max Planck Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience in Leipzig. I arrived speaking no German. That month taught me what it felt like to be a foreigner in another country.
A year later, I went back with my family. My children learned through immersion. On the outside, it seemed effortless to me. I learned differently. Slowly. With effort. Humbled by watching my 6-year-old daughter speak fluently in a year. I was happy to be able to order a taxi, buy bread at the local bakery, and order coffee.
Twenty-three years later, with considerable effort and several return visits, my German remains functional but limited. Or so I thought.
Last year, colleagues were preparing a Festschrift honoring Angela's retirement. They asked if I would contribute a short reflection. My first instinct was to write it in English. A German academic of her caliber writes almost all of her professional work in English. But I wanted to write it in German. For her retirement, I felt it would be more personal. I was also grateful. Angela had opened a door to Germany for me, one that led to research collaborations and to recovering a lost language and heritage, which I have written about elsewhere. Writing to her in German would be a way of honoring my great-grandfather, who emigrated to Mexico more than a century ago.
I couldn't write it at the register appropriate for honoring such an important neuroscientist in my field. So I used AI.
Here are the first two sentences of what I actually dictated:
Liebe Angela, vor 25 Jahre habe ich eine Einladung von dich bekommen. Ich habe nach Deutschland anreisen und........