Who needs Google Translate?

Mr. Egan on his multilingual expertise

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Karis Thomas

Coppell High School Spanish and French teacher Michael Egan has a passion for learning and teaching languages. Egan currently speaks six languages which include English, Spanish, French, German, Russian and American Sign Language but is continuing to learn more languages including Mandarin, Korean and Arabic. Photo by Karis Thomas.

Akif Abidi, Staff Writer

 

Coppell High School French and Spanish teacher Michael Egan is known for his fluency in six different languages and is learning more by the day. Egan shares with The Sidekick about his passion for languages and teaching, and also discusses his dreams in the future.

What inspired you to learn all these different languages?

Learning many of the languages I know now was not by choice. I learned Russian as my native language being born in Russia. Since I was an orphan, the orphanage in Russia I grew up in had a strong German influence, and therefore I learned German at the same time. When I was adopted at the age of 7, I had to learn English, there was no choice. I also learned sign language because my grandmother was deaf. While learning Spanish, I had an opportunity to study abroad in Spain as I lived there for a while. I moved around to Costa Rica and Argentina as well. As of this moment, I have a degree in Spanish and French. So you can say what inspired me to learn six languages is perhaps is seeing the difference it makes by being able to speak over one language and the people it touches and being to hear from them as well.

What languages can you speak as of this moment?

As of this moment, I can communicate in Spanish, French, Russian, German and sign language fluently. I am currently learning Korean, Mandarin and Arabic.

What would you say is the most challenging part of learning a new language?

Well, that varies with every person, but for me, believe or not, it is very hard to understand native speakers. For the longest time, I had to train my ear to adapt to the dialect and accents. Reading and writing for me is not a big problem mostly because I have a very photographic memory. I try to listen to the authentic sources of a language, so if you are listening to the news or a song or watching a movie, that takes a long time to practice and get to that level of proficiency you can understand everything.  I am very meticulous with every language I speak, especially with the correct accent. But once you get to that point, the learning becomes much easier.

From the several languages you have learned, what would you say is the most difficult language?

To be honest, it sounds funny, but Russian is extremely difficult to non-Russian speakers. To me, it’s as clear as water but for others, it can be very difficult. I used to teach Russian at UNT, and just across the board, Russian is a very difficult language to new learners. It’s probably ranked the third or fourth hardest language in the world. But for me personally, I’ll admit that I am finding Korean very difficult at the moment. Just as far as the phonetics, they can be difficult to get the correct sounds down. But I’m trying to create a foundation of the basis for the true sounds in Korean.

Few people can learn and know seven different languages. Why did you decide to become a teacher over all the diverse professions you could have taken with your multi-linguistic skills?

Well, it takes time, I used to be a translator so I am familiar with that field, but it takes time because my goal one day is to be a translator in the UN, that’s like the top for me. But you know, it takes time, teaching is a fulfilling and rewarding career, and at the same time very exhausting. But I get to plug in my French and Spanish into my everyday life to practice building them up, which is my main passions right now. Right now, I want to build up my resume, have more experience and exposure. I want to strip away the idea of a professor-student relationship; I like to think that we are all human beings and that we should learn cohesively and fluently together. That means we will make mistake and get frustrated. These are human elements we all face when we learn.

Tell me more about your dream job of being a United Nations translator.

For me, it’s the pinnacle of knowledge when it comes to foreign language acquisition. It’s the big leagues for translators, like the NBA if you will. As far as being able to help in a more global sense, being able to bring several countries together and to discuss policies and practices that will be implemented later on, knowing I had somewhat of a guiding hand in that decision or knowing I had facilitated a conversation between two people who normally could not communicate with each other at all.

The thing is, in 2017, we are becoming so global, there is no longer an American, Russian or German bubble anymore. Look at the school alone, we have such a diversity of students and I love it. In this time, knowing just one language isn’t enough, you will be quickly left behind as we will come together globally. Geographically we are still isolated, but with today’s technology and transportation, if you only know one language, you will pretty much be outdated

Did learning all these different languages give you an improved perspective on your understanding of a culture?

You better believe it.  There is a power to be able to communicate with someone in their native language. While learning Spanish, I wanted to say it all, and I was fearless. I would go to Chipotle and McDonald’s and try to speak my best Spanish, you better believe it I got more food with it. I could see the veil that divides us get lifted. Once you get to know someone’s language then you get to know the person so much better and gives you a much better insight into that person’s personality. It bridges the gap once you use their language and make them feel at ease.