Margaret Czarnik, a junior at NYU Shanghai majoring in Social Science, is a lifelong language learner. She speaks four: her native Polish, English, French, and, since her first year of college, Mandarin. Her talent for language played a significant role in her decision to attend NYU Shanghai. The opportunity to be among students with diverse linguistic abilities from all over the world felt exciting, especially after growing up in Poland, where the majority of her peers shared a similar cultural background.
As a child Margaret sometimes struggled to find the right words, despite speaking multiple languages. “I saw languages as more a repertoire of what I could choose from, rather than as separate systems,” she describes. “But I rarely met someone who spoke the same languages as me, so I had to choose one system at a time. Often, I would mess up words.”
It wasn’t until Margaret’s first semester at NYU Shanghai that she began to understand the meaning of this struggle. She enrolled in the course Language and Power, taught by Professor Marcel Daniels. In this course, students travel to learning centers across Shanghai to teach English to migrant youth. Through experiential learning, they explored social, cultural, and political factors influencing language usage. At the same time, they used their own cultural and linguistic lenses to contextualize their experience.
How Service Learning Sparked a Love of Applied Linguistics
From the start, Language and Power ignited Margaret’s passion for applied linguistics. “I didn’t know there were studies about how to teach languages to children. Or about how the brain of a person who speaks multiple languages works differently from the brain of a person who speaks only one. Or how the languages you speak influence the way you see the world,” Margaret says. “As a child, it would have been so cool to have an adult who knew these things and could guide me better.”
Service learning plays a significant role in Language and Power. Professor Daniels encourages students to explore the relationship between service and learning through class discussion and engage in service-learning experiences thoughtfully, ethically, and in mutually beneficial ways. “The migrant youth population of Shanghai has untraditional and uncertain pathways to education. These children are often left in need,” Professor Daniels shares. “Students find the experience of teaching young, energetic, and deserving learners a fulfilling privilege.”
“At first the kids seemed intimidated and shy, but as time went on, they became more and more confident,” Margaret says. “For example, when I first entered the class, they were able to say the alphabet from A to Z. But when I pointed out a specific letter, like M, from the middle of the alphabet, it stumped them. Teaching them the individual letters of the alphabet was a process. It was so rewarding when they learned to identify each letter individually.”
The Undergraduate Research Symposium
For her final project in the course, Margaret conducted research on native Chinese communicators speaking English in China—in other words, people who live in China and speak Chinese as their native language, but communicate in English every day within environments like NYU Shanghai. Margaret was interested in how daily English use influenced these individuals. She explored why some Chinese natives choose to use a new ‘English’ name in English-speaking environments while others do not, and why some of her Chinese-speaking peers communicate with friends on social media in English rather than in their native language.
“It was the first actual research I’ve done,” says Margaret. “I interviewed people and wrote a paper on what I learned. I was so excited about it.” When she saw a poster advertising the Undergraduate Research Symposium at NYU Shanghai, she jumped at the opportunity to share her work with others. “I was so proud of my research, and I wanted to challenge myself and present it,” Margaret says. Despite knowing that first-year students don’t often participate in the symposium, she went for it anyway, successfully presenting her research to the NYU Shanghai community.
A Future of Speaking Up
Language and Power pushed Margaret out of her comfort zone, where she cultivated a tight-knit community among her peers and opened her eyes to the field of applied linguistics. After finishing her degree at NYU Shanghai, she plans to attend law school. Reflecting upon her experience in the course, she knows it will benefit her future studies.
“Language and Power was my most extraordinary educational experience,” says Margaret. “It gave me knowledge that was incredibly useful for me as a language user. Firstly, it helped me understand my brain’s process for learning, especially as a speaker of multiple languages. Secondly, it taught me not to feel ashamed of not being a native English speaker or having an accent. And now, I am not afraid to speak up for myself and seek out opportunities like the Undergraduate Research Symposium.”