Thank you for visiting! This site was created in the spring of 2021, and thus much of the content has not been updated since then. Please navigate to the “contact” tab if you have any updates you would like me to include!
About Me
Hello! My name is Claire Darmstadter, and I am so glad you stopped by!
I am a student at UW-Madison studying Elementary Education - ESL, LACIS (Latin American, Carribean, and Iberian Studies), Chicane/Latine Studies, and Educational Policy, all to pursue a career in Spanish/English bilingual education.
Though I have lived in Wisconsin all my life (save for infancy in Minnesota and a short college stint at the University of Michigan last year), I admittingly did not know much about the linguistic diversity of the state beyond Spanish before embarking on this journey. I do not claim to be the expert on any of these topics, but I hope you’ll find at least some aspects thought-provoking, new, or interesting. I know I sure did!
I ask almost all of my interviewees why being multilingual is a superpower, but I never answer the question myself! Here are a few times I’ve felt the superpower!
When you realize there is something that you only can completely express in a particular language
When you can speak in one language, a friend can speak in another, and you can both understand one another and carry on a full conversation
When you hear/look at a language you don’t speak and realize that all those squiggles/tones can cause tears of joy, tears of sadness, and tears of laughter — it is a secret code that may mean nothing to me, but contains the entire lives of others!
When you finally reach a level of proficiency where you can appreciate humor and tell jokes!
When you see the smile on someone’s face (well, in their eyes as of recent!) when they realize you speak one of their languages
When you look at as dull of an item as a chair and realize there are thousands of different terms to describe that one object
Because Sesame Street said so: (English Version) (Versión en español)
Acknowledgements
The initial creation of the site was funded by a HEX-U grant. Continued updates have been made possible by Allen Centennial Gardens. I am incredibly grateful for their support of my work and language education in Wisconsin!
Thank you to Professor Diego Román for serving as the advisor for this project
Diego is an Assistant Professor of Bilingual/Bicultural Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has worked as an educator, researcher, and educator of to-be educators for years, and was instrumental in connecting me with resources and potential interviewees across the state.
I think it is safe to say we are both glad the days of my essay-long emails are behind us, but he always has provided such thoughtful answers to each query, tension, and niche question that I would send his way.
Be sure to check out his faculty page as well as listen to the interview we recorded together, linked below! And, congratulations to Diego on his recently-accepted project proposal: Teaching Local Socio-Scientific Issues to Latinx English Learners!
Translations and Content Review
Thank you to the following individuals (many of which also are interviewees!) for helping me transcribe transcripts, translate interview summaries, and verify the accuracy of language history pages!
Mirva Johnson -- Finnish Translations
Tanya Skiljevic-- Serbian Translation
Maya Reinfeldt -- Russian Translations
Haoyu Du - Chinese Translations
Greta Wiederhold -- German Translations
Kiera Rosenberg -- Japanese Translations
Ron Corn Jr -- Menominee Translations
Joel Barraka -- Swahili Translations
Yunseo Cho -- French and Korean Translations
Pahua Thao -- Hmong Translations and Content Review
Mamadou Jawo -- Fula Translation
Serbian Translation
You are welcome to use any information on this site for scholarly or other purposes, but please be aware that it may not completely reflect current information or opinions.