WEBVTT

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Many of my clients
are struggling

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with what I call the
dilemma of bilingualism.

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On one level, the
dilemma of bilingualism

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is all about attitude.

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The attitude, for example,
that if you go to school,

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and you learn two
languages in school,

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you're considered a genius.

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But if you grow up in
a household speaking

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two languages, you're
considered an idiot.

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So that's the dilemma of
bilingualism, on one level.

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On another level,
there are all kinds

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of challenges and
adventures that

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arise out of being in
a bilingual household

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or bilingual community.

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One such challenge, for the
children in these families,

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is a situation where they have
to translate for the parents.

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And this happens everywhere.

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This is a poem about
one such adventure.

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It's called "Borofels."

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For Sonia Nieto.

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"In Brooklyn, the mice
were crazy with courage--

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bony, gray pickpockets
snatching crumbs

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from plates at the table.

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The roaches panicked in
spirals on the floor,

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or weaved down walls for the
sanctuary of cracked paint.

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No heat, so the oven
door drooped open

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like an immigrant surprise.

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Sonia's mother was
mute in English,

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mouth chapped and coughing,
without words to yell for heat.

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But the neighbors
spoke of Borofels.

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Tell Borofels, and
mice shrivel in traps,

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roaches kick in poisoned
heaps, steam pipes

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bang so loud that
windows open in winter.

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Sonya and her mother
sailed a subway train,

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rocking like a ship
desperate for light,

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then roads in an untranslated
territory of Brooklyn.

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So Sonia translated.

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Where is Borofels?

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No one knew.

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The girl pinballed by
strangers in a hurry,

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hooded against frost as
puffed quick clouds of denial.

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Sonia saw the uniform, then.

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Blue coated trooper of the US
mail, and pleaded for Borofels.

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His face, drowsing
in bewilderment,

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awoke with a gust of what
he suddenly understood,

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and he pointed down the street.

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You want the Board of Health.

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They could yell now, like
banned poets back from exile."

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