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Tongues: On Longing and Belonging through Language
In this collection of deeply personal essays, twenty-six writers explore their connection with language, accents, and vocabularies, and contend with the ways these can be used as both bridge and weapon. Some explore the way power and privilege affect language learning, especially the shame and exclusion often felt by non-native English speakers in a white, settler, colonial nation. Some confront the pain of losing a mother tongue or an ancestral language along with the loss of community and highlight the empowerment that comes with reclamation. Others celebrate the joys of learning a new language and the power of connection. All underscore how language can offer both transformation and collective healing.
On Longing and Belonging through Language is a vital anthology that opens a compelling dialogue about language diversity and probes the importance of language in our identity and the ways in which it shapes us.
With contributions Kamal Al-Solaylee, Jenny Heijun Wills, Karen McBride, Melissa Bull, Leonarda Carranza, Adam Pottle, Kai Cheng Thom, Sigal Samuel, Rebecca Fisseha, Hege Anita Jakobsen Lepri, Logan Broeckaert, Taslim Jaffer, Ashley Hynd, Jagtar Kaur Atwal, Téa Mutonji, Rowan McCandless, Sahar Golshan, Camila Justino, Amanda Leduc, Ayelet Tsabari, Carrianne Leung, Janet Hong, Danny Ramadan, Sadiqa de Meijer, Jónína Kirton, and Eufemia Fantetti.
On Longing and Belonging through Language is a vital anthology that opens a compelling dialogue about language diversity and probes the importance of language in our identity and the ways in which it shapes us.
With contributions Kamal Al-Solaylee, Jenny Heijun Wills, Karen McBride, Melissa Bull, Leonarda Carranza, Adam Pottle, Kai Cheng Thom, Sigal Samuel, Rebecca Fisseha, Hege Anita Jakobsen Lepri, Logan Broeckaert, Taslim Jaffer, Ashley Hynd, Jagtar Kaur Atwal, Téa Mutonji, Rowan McCandless, Sahar Golshan, Camila Justino, Amanda Leduc, Ayelet Tsabari, Carrianne Leung, Janet Hong, Danny Ramadan, Sadiqa de Meijer, Jónína Kirton, and Eufemia Fantetti.
242 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 26, 2021
14 people are currently reading
234 people want to read
About the author
Ayelet Tsabari
21 books345 followersAyelet Tsabari is the author of The Art of Leaving, finalist for the Writer’s Trust Hilary Weston Prize, winner of the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for memoir, and an Apple Books and Kirkus Review Best Book of 2019. Her first book, The Best Place on Earth, won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and has been published internationally. She’s the co-editor of the anthology Tongues: On Longing and Belonging Through Language and has taught creative writing at Guelph MFA in Creative Writing and The University of King’s College MFA. Her novel, Songs for the Brokenhearted is forthcoming with Random House and HarperCollins Canada in September 2024.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 17, 2021
TONGUES: On Longing and Belonging Through Language edited by Eufemia Fantetti, Leonarda Carranza, and Ayelet Tsabari is a remarkable anthology! I really loved all the essays in this collection! This book features 26 contributors who share their experiences and connections to language and I found myself relating to something in every single essay.
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I loved how deeply personal these essays are in sharing stories about learning a second language as an immigrant, gendered and ableist language, retaining or losing a mother tongue and how language or lack thereof shapes your identity. Reading this book made me reflect on my own relationship with language and I especially connected to the essay What Are You? A Field Study by Rowan McCandless. Her essay opens with a typical exchange where someone asks her “what are you?” when what they’re really asking is “where are your people from?”. Rowan’s father is Black and her mother is white. My mother is Chinese and my father is white. I’ve been asked that same question “what are you?” so many times and reading Rowan’s essay completely validated me.
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I think everyone who reads this book would find some connection to these essays. Language is diverse and I loved learning more about it through this book. I can’t recommend this book enough!!
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Thank you to Book*hug Press for my gifted review copy!
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Thank you to the editors and contributors for this book! I loved it!
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I loved how deeply personal these essays are in sharing stories about learning a second language as an immigrant, gendered and ableist language, retaining or losing a mother tongue and how language or lack thereof shapes your identity. Reading this book made me reflect on my own relationship with language and I especially connected to the essay What Are You? A Field Study by Rowan McCandless. Her essay opens with a typical exchange where someone asks her “what are you?” when what they’re really asking is “where are your people from?”. Rowan’s father is Black and her mother is white. My mother is Chinese and my father is white. I’ve been asked that same question “what are you?” so many times and reading Rowan’s essay completely validated me.
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I think everyone who reads this book would find some connection to these essays. Language is diverse and I loved learning more about it through this book. I can’t recommend this book enough!!
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Thank you to Book*hug Press for my gifted review copy!
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Thank you to the editors and contributors for this book! I loved it!
December 24, 2021
This book should be required reading for everyone. So crucial.
April 16, 2022
This book is amazing and poignant and my heart overflows reading these stories. Please do yourself the favour and read it however you can.
December 28, 2023
A beautiful collection of Canadian essays - a must read for any multi-lingual folks or lovers of language!!
February 12, 2023
I cannot recommend this enough
March 10, 2022
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this collection of essays. First of all, I’m trying to add more Canadian literature into my monthly reads and this book for sure did not disappoint. Every essay was so personal and moving for different reasons.
Language and its connection to our hearts and our lives is something that has fascinated me for many years. Learning about language and psychology and the beautiful way they are unequivocally intertwined is one of my passions, I can never get enough. I loved this collection because it was unique to every writer yet they invited us to peek into their own minds, languages and experiences. What an honour!
Growing up as a first-generation Canadian, bilingual and with immigrant parents from very different cultures, I was able to connect with some of these essays while simultaneously learning and appreciating other cultures that have been through similar experiences.
This book highlights the way that many have felt when adopting the English language, bound by learning a language that has its roots in a terrible past. It highlights the feelings of mourning and praising of mother tongues, understanding the relationships acquired and lost with the ebb and flow of language.
I highly recommend reading this if you have any interest in books about language and its impact on our lives. Add this to your TBR immediately, you definitely won’t regret it, I sure didn’t. Also, shout out to the book warehouse for having a copy on the shelf that immediately caught my eye.
Language and its connection to our hearts and our lives is something that has fascinated me for many years. Learning about language and psychology and the beautiful way they are unequivocally intertwined is one of my passions, I can never get enough. I loved this collection because it was unique to every writer yet they invited us to peek into their own minds, languages and experiences. What an honour!
Growing up as a first-generation Canadian, bilingual and with immigrant parents from very different cultures, I was able to connect with some of these essays while simultaneously learning and appreciating other cultures that have been through similar experiences.
This book highlights the way that many have felt when adopting the English language, bound by learning a language that has its roots in a terrible past. It highlights the feelings of mourning and praising of mother tongues, understanding the relationships acquired and lost with the ebb and flow of language.
I highly recommend reading this if you have any interest in books about language and its impact on our lives. Add this to your TBR immediately, you definitely won’t regret it, I sure didn’t. Also, shout out to the book warehouse for having a copy on the shelf that immediately caught my eye.
December 27, 2021
*CANADIAN*
An absolutely facinating collection!
This anthology swept me up within the first pages and from there I was deeply moved by each of these 26 personal essays. The writers examine their connections with language in all forms. From learning a new language and new connections through speach to the ways colonialism has impacted language to privilege's role, and losing and regaining their mother tongues and more! This was edited so well. The flow of these essays was was perfect I absolutely loved this book, it gave me so much to think about and be in awe of. This should be required reading!
This is one of thoes books that no matter what I say it wont do it justice, highly recommend reading it for yourself.
Thank you to @bookhug_press for sending me this book opinions are my own.
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
An absolutely facinating collection!
This anthology swept me up within the first pages and from there I was deeply moved by each of these 26 personal essays. The writers examine their connections with language in all forms. From learning a new language and new connections through speach to the ways colonialism has impacted language to privilege's role, and losing and regaining their mother tongues and more! This was edited so well. The flow of these essays was was perfect I absolutely loved this book, it gave me so much to think about and be in awe of. This should be required reading!
This is one of thoes books that no matter what I say it wont do it justice, highly recommend reading it for yourself.
Thank you to @bookhug_press for sending me this book opinions are my own.
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
February 8, 2022
I started reading this book folding the corners of the pages that I wanted to go back to and now it’s more of an accordion than it is a book. What a mesmerizing and eye-opening collection of stories. I read Ayelet Tsabari’s “The Art of Leaving” at the start of the pandemic and it has lingered in my mind for a long time, so when I came across this at my local bookstore and read what it was about I immediately knew that I would love it - enter biased review. I am fascinated by the intersection of language and identity and this book gave me more perspectives (wildly different ones!) about the complexity at hand than I could ever imagine on my own. Each story sews a stitch into the giant embroidery that joins language and identity. For anyone who yearns for their mother tongue or for an adopted one, anyone who loves words and stories, this book is for you.
February 24, 2024
4.5
really really loved some of the essays, and thought the overall message of the book was super touching. thought it got a little repetitive close to the end, and found myself caring less about more and more of the essays as i continued reading. still fantastic!
really really loved some of the essays, and thought the overall message of the book was super touching. thought it got a little repetitive close to the end, and found myself caring less about more and more of the essays as i continued reading. still fantastic!
June 23, 2022
A must-read for anyone who learns, speaks, or loves languages. So many eye-opening perspectives and much food for thought. Amazing collection of tales.
March 8, 2023
Wonderful journey through language experiences of different writers. Definitely recommend.
June 12, 2023
This book took feelings that I have and didn't realize I have and put it beautifully into words. It hits very close to home and is bittersweet to see similar experiences across so many different cultures. Highly recommend
February 5, 2025
Great book. Highly recommend.
January 2, 2023
I learned about this collection of personal essays because one of the contributors, Amanda Leduc, wrote a book that I read and loved last year: Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space. I was interested to learn more from her about the language of ableism. Bonus - I got to explore the relationship between language and identity with 25 other Canadian writers as well!
The majority of these essays are about immigrant families - either the author (&/or their parents) immigrated to Canada, and are reckoning with the loss of their "mother tongue." Some feel shame in this, some work to re-claim the language, some choose to accept that it's a language of their past, not their present or future. Many talk about the connection to their communities, and how language, or the lack thereof, can strengthen or break those bonds. Each essay explores "the importance of language in our identity, and the ways in which it shapes us."
I'll admit that after a while the stories started to feel a bit repetitive, but all of them had some nugget of beautiful wisdom, and there were a few essays that really stood out for me...
Adam Pottle's Newborn grapples with the author's experiences as a Deaf playwright, having grown up in a hearing world (including at home and in school), and the overwhelming joy of seeing his play performed by other Deaf artists.
In Amanda Leduc's essay It's Just a Figure of Speech, language is scrutinized for the ways it can create barriers for people with certain bodies:
Nothing is ever just something that people say - the words we use all have power, and ableist language is powerful precisely because it hides its harm beneath a veneer of innocuous mundanity, behind the smokescreen of it's just a figure of speech... Common phrases in the English language privilege the able-bodied life without even thinking about it: you stand up for what's right, you take steps towards progress, you walk a mile in someone else's shoes. What does language like this say to the person who can't stand up, who can't walk, who can't take steps? It says, however unconsciously, they they - and their bodies - don't belong in the conversation.
Kai Cheng Thom explores the language of trauma in Language is the Fluid of our Collective Bodies - how the pain itself can be passed down from generation to generation, and how our stories need to be shared to keep relationships alive:
The story of what happened writes itself into our DNA, even if we cannot read it. I believe that language is... like plasma, like blood, like spinal fluid, it carries nutrients and information from one unit to the next. Without the lubricating, life-giving qualities of language shared over time, the tissues of our relationships becomes tough and unresponsive. Our wounds fail to heal, we scarify and ossify. Something gets lost in the space between.
Thom also talks about their difficulty in speaking their "mother tongue" with native speakers - "they begin to see the textures of my limitations, and this frustrates me because they do not know how intelligent I am in English." I particularly related to this passage because I now have a job that requires me to communicate in a language I am not fluent in - American Sign Language. I can get by. I can understand the majority of what is said to me, and I can say what I need to say, most of the time. But I always feel like I'm holding back, like I'm not quite me. I'm more reserved, less forceful. But I'm working on it! After all, to learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world. (Chinese proverb)
Read full reviews at www.NewYorkTate.com
The majority of these essays are about immigrant families - either the author (&/or their parents) immigrated to Canada, and are reckoning with the loss of their "mother tongue." Some feel shame in this, some work to re-claim the language, some choose to accept that it's a language of their past, not their present or future. Many talk about the connection to their communities, and how language, or the lack thereof, can strengthen or break those bonds. Each essay explores "the importance of language in our identity, and the ways in which it shapes us."
I'll admit that after a while the stories started to feel a bit repetitive, but all of them had some nugget of beautiful wisdom, and there were a few essays that really stood out for me...
Adam Pottle's Newborn grapples with the author's experiences as a Deaf playwright, having grown up in a hearing world (including at home and in school), and the overwhelming joy of seeing his play performed by other Deaf artists.
In Amanda Leduc's essay It's Just a Figure of Speech, language is scrutinized for the ways it can create barriers for people with certain bodies:
Nothing is ever just something that people say - the words we use all have power, and ableist language is powerful precisely because it hides its harm beneath a veneer of innocuous mundanity, behind the smokescreen of it's just a figure of speech... Common phrases in the English language privilege the able-bodied life without even thinking about it: you stand up for what's right, you take steps towards progress, you walk a mile in someone else's shoes. What does language like this say to the person who can't stand up, who can't walk, who can't take steps? It says, however unconsciously, they they - and their bodies - don't belong in the conversation.
Kai Cheng Thom explores the language of trauma in Language is the Fluid of our Collective Bodies - how the pain itself can be passed down from generation to generation, and how our stories need to be shared to keep relationships alive:
The story of what happened writes itself into our DNA, even if we cannot read it. I believe that language is... like plasma, like blood, like spinal fluid, it carries nutrients and information from one unit to the next. Without the lubricating, life-giving qualities of language shared over time, the tissues of our relationships becomes tough and unresponsive. Our wounds fail to heal, we scarify and ossify. Something gets lost in the space between.
Thom also talks about their difficulty in speaking their "mother tongue" with native speakers - "they begin to see the textures of my limitations, and this frustrates me because they do not know how intelligent I am in English." I particularly related to this passage because I now have a job that requires me to communicate in a language I am not fluent in - American Sign Language. I can get by. I can understand the majority of what is said to me, and I can say what I need to say, most of the time. But I always feel like I'm holding back, like I'm not quite me. I'm more reserved, less forceful. But I'm working on it! After all, to learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world. (Chinese proverb)
Read full reviews at www.NewYorkTate.com
September 11, 2024
A smorgasbord variety of 26 personal stories about their ambivalent conflicting yearning relationships towards their 'mother tongue,' root language, heart language, cultural heritage dialect written in English. Sometimes they were lost via migration to Canada and their parents actively steered them away for the process of assimilation (such a loaded word), others via violent colonization as often in the case of First Nations/Indigenous. I like that not only major languages were featured (Korean, French, Dutch, Arabic, Vietnamese etc) but also dialects deemed inferior or provincial to their urban linguistic cousins.
The range of stories is wide but the brevity of them made it difficult to explore the rich contradictory textures and trauma in depth. I have read the full length works of two of the authors (Silence of Daughters by Rebecca Fisseha and Older Sister, Not Necessarily Related by Jenny Heijun Wills) so their two entries felt like a continuation of their storytelling. With Ms Fisseha's piece, she discusses the dilemma and controversy of whether to italicize when writing non-English words/terms/phrases and argues that this practice creates distance and others.
Nevertheless, the stories are all deeply personal relating to connection and belonging. I think some of them could have been further honed and edited to have more impact given the length constraint but appreciate the writers for sharing. Canada is indeed a multicultural country and hopefully recognition that diversity is strength is given ever more credence. 3.5 ⭐️
The range of stories is wide but the brevity of them made it difficult to explore the rich contradictory textures and trauma in depth. I have read the full length works of two of the authors (Silence of Daughters by Rebecca Fisseha and Older Sister, Not Necessarily Related by Jenny Heijun Wills) so their two entries felt like a continuation of their storytelling. With Ms Fisseha's piece, she discusses the dilemma and controversy of whether to italicize when writing non-English words/terms/phrases and argues that this practice creates distance and others.
Nevertheless, the stories are all deeply personal relating to connection and belonging. I think some of them could have been further honed and edited to have more impact given the length constraint but appreciate the writers for sharing. Canada is indeed a multicultural country and hopefully recognition that diversity is strength is given ever more credence. 3.5 ⭐️
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews