Jennifer Chin

About Chin:

Jennifer Chin ’25, a forensic psychology major from Queens, New York, grew up with lots of different languages swirling around in her household. Identifying as “half Chinese and half African American” because her father has Chinese and Portuguese ancestors, and her mother is a Black woman from Côte d'Ivoire, Chin’s likely to hear a mix of Cantonese, Portuguese, French, English, and Spanish on a typical day. She often wondered if there was a link between how easily a person learned a language and their relationship with the culture and speakers.

To explore this question, Chin wrote an essay on the emotions involved in learning a language. Reflecting on her deep love of Spanish, Chin observes, “I was mainly raised by a woman from Honduras who I call my grandmother. She speaks Spanish with some broken English.” Spanish, Chin says, “Fills me with feelings of home. Those familiar rolled r’s remind me of my grandmother. It makes me think of cooking that’s been stewing for hours and my grandmother kissing me on my forehead.”

Less interested in learning French and Mandarin, Chin notes, “I grew up in a predominantly Chinese neighborhood. If you weren’t born in China, and you don’t speak Mandarin, you’re treated differently. It made me feel excluded.” Similarly, an uncomfortable visit to Côte d'Ivoire with her mother made French less desirable to learn. “I struggled fruitlessly to speak to my maternal grandmother, a woman I didn’t know and didn’t have a bond with.”

The above is an excerpt from the spotlight on Chin published by John Jay College. Read it here.