I’ve read a lot of Serena Williams interviews over the past, say, five years. Serena isn’t what I would call a great interview, but that’s because she rarely lets down her guard and truly gossips. She usually maintains some air of grace, especially in the past few years as she’s closed in Steffi Graff’s Grand Slam record (which Serena now matches). But this Serena profile and interview in Fader is something else! It’s a really great piece because, I think, Serena gave them a lot of her time, over several days of the US Open (where she lost her semifinal match, for the second year in a row at the major). My favorite line about Serena? “She’s written her name all over the Wall of Champions at those hallowed white spaces and she refuses to act like a guest there.” Word. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
Whether the story of her success is universal: “I think that my story is universal. I don’t think it’s limited to my country, I don’t think it’s limited to my color, I don’t think it’s limited to my sex. I think it’s universal because I was not born with anything more special than anyone else. I wasn’t born with an extra arm. I wasn’t born super tall. I’m here — a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication, a lot of commitment. And I’ve had a lot of people that didn’t believe in me, so I had to develop a lot of self-belief. At the end of the day, I think it’s a story that everyone in all walks of life can relate to.
Dreams of Africa: “Being African-American, I’ve always dreamt of going back to Africa. That was just my main goal for as long as I can remember. I gotta get back to Africa. I want to see my roots, where I’m from. I want to see the struggle. I want to see the slave castles. I need to see that journey. I just wouldn’t have felt full if I had never experienced that…And I think it changed me. It changed me to realize how strong I was and to realize that I, through my ancestors, am capable of doing anything. I’m really capable. They endured the toughest, and only the strongest survived. I realized that I was built from this incredible bloodline that many different types of people aren’t built from. The whole journey, and just visiting other places throughout the world as well, has been really educational for me and uplifting.”
Why she decided to learn French: “It’s so funny because I was at the Olympic Village the other day, and I was talking to this African athlete. A lot of Africans speak French, and I noticed that his English wasn’t great, so I started speaking French to him. He stopped and was like, “You speak French?” and I was like, “Yeah.” And he said, “But you’re American…” And I’m like, “Yeah.” And he’s like, “But no Americans speak other languages.” And I was like, “Yeah, that’s true!” Venus is really fluent, much more so than me. One of the reasons I learned French was I wanted to win the French Open, and I wanted to speak French when I won. The second was because, most African countries, the main language outside of their local language is French or English. So I figured: I know English, maybe I can learn French.”
She can’t carry everyone else’s expectations on her shoulders: “At some point you have to play for yourself, you have to compete for yourself. You can’t carry the weight of the world on your shoulders, and I think that’s really important for people to realize that, yeah, it might be in the back of my head or it might be in my mind once it’s over.”
Whether she feels pressure to “behave” a certain way: “I do have a temper tantrum sometimes that I’ve definitely made an effort to calm down, only because I do want to be a role model and I don’t want to send the wrong message. But I also think it shows my passion. It helps me. If I don’t have that intensity or that anger, I’m not doing as well as I need to do to win. Sometimes I almost need to get angry to win, which is really, really weird but it works for me.
How she feels about a possible Hillary Clinton presidency: “How I feel about that is it would be different if a woman was president. But I don’t get involved in politics because of my religion.”
There’s a lot more – so much more! – about how she feels about the history of Africa, the history of African-Americans, how she isn’t always conscious of how groundbreaking she is as an African-American woman and more. I like what she said about learning French and wanting to be able to speak French when she won the French Open (which happened!). And yes, Americans tend to not speak other languages very well. We’re doing better though… a lot of us are picking up Spanish as we go along! Americans are en fuego!
It’s funny, after Serena lost her semifinal match against Karolina Pliskova last month, I think a lot of people were like, “I wonder how much longer Serena is going to stick around.” Isn’t that weird? Yes, she’s 35 years old now, but…she made it to the finals in three out of four majors this year. She won Wimbledon and made it to the semifinals at the US Open. She only just lost her #1 ranking last month. She’s very much preparing to dominate in the 2017 season. But people still freak the f—k out whenever she isn’t completely flawless. I honestly think she’s going for one more major title and then maybe she’ll consider retiring. But who even knows?
Photos courtesy of Fader.
I LOVE when she displays her muscles like this. Those arms are a masterpiece.
Also, I’m Afro-Latina, and when I travel in Europe people are constantly speaking French to me! I only speak Spanish and English, so I’ve been learning French too 🙂
Damn, they really are. Moved a couple months ago, and I think it’s time to go find my weights…
Aren’t they? I’m going to clip that first pic out and bring it to my trainer!
That’s true I can speak a bit of Spanish but I understand more than I can speak but my goal to get better. It’s hard for adults unless you have one of those brains or a good ear as they say.
Love Serena! Also, I wish here in the United States we gave more of an importance to speaking different languages. I am bilingual, as I was born in Mexico and Spanish is my first language, and sometimes I feel it’s looked down upon if one speaks another language other than English. As if I am in the grocery store and I am speaking in Spanish to my mom or to my Caucasian husband who also speak Spanish, we get dirty looks.
That’s terrible…but I agree there’s a segment of Americans with the mentality of “speak English, you’re in America.” It’s one of the reasons, I think, that my parents stopped speaking their first language at home with me when I was little. I was glad at the time because I really wanted to assimilate. I was the only first-generation American kid in my grade school and I was always highly self conscious about that for some reason. But of course now I wish they had kept it up and pushed me to retain their language.
In the US I think we pay a lot of lip service to learning languages, as many schools offer them and many high schools require a couple years of foreign language to graduate. Yet in my experience even someone who has taken 5+ years of foreign language in school doesn’t retain it once they are out of school.
I’m a first generation American as well, and my parents didn’t pass down their native languages to me and my siblings . I think it’s because they came from different tribes so they just ended up speaking English to us at home. I so wish they would have taught us at least a little bit. I’d love to have that connection to my culture.
Goldie, I’m lucky that my parents did pass along many of the cultural traditions, which my kids now know, too. The language was the only piece that fell away. We actually all went to visit their native country this summer and I found that there was virtually no language barrier, almost everyone we met and encountered spoke English. My understanding is that is a huge change from even 20 years ago.
When I was in elementary school it was mandatory (grades 3-8), and you had to take 2 yrs. in HS. I took French for 5 years and got to the point that I was dreaming in French! That made me cocky enough to switch to Spanish in HS. I took it for 3 yrs., then took BOTH in my senior year. I was talking French in my Spanish class and Spanish in my French class lol.
It really seems foolish that languages are not taught in elementary schools when brains are the most flexible. I did take 3 years of Latin in high school, but I have never run into an occasion where that was useful in communication….
I guess my family is the exception. I speak English, Spanish, and Russian fluently, and enough French to get by. My mom speaks German/English, My dad- Russian/English, and my siblings are all bilingual. We only learned English at home, so this was something we actively did. I know lots of people who are omniglots, so I don’t think that’s fair to say about Americans. Although all my grandparents were immigrants so my parents grew up speaking those native languages. So maybe we were more motivated to learn and travel than some.
I wouldn’t say that at all. The US is a country of immigrant descendants (or Native Americans, of course). There are a few hundred million Americans so statistically you’re always going to have a population of idiots, and perhaps they’re just more vocal, but I’ve never heard real people say it was a bad thing to know a second language.
Her coach/boyfriend is Greek/French, he taught her French. I have heard her speak french,I speak it fluently having lived in Canada when I was a kid and still speak it, She speaks well. Its important to know more than 1 language, it opens so many doors to us.
PS. Love the cover
I was at a grocery store here in Houston,Monday, and some idiot(customer) asked a Hispanic lady if she could speak “American”? I said WTH is speaking “American”,”Do you mean English?”
That drives me nuts.
I’m Black but it also drives me nuts when people here assume EVERY Hispanic person is of Mexican ancestry.When Trump and others talk about undocumented immigrants they never mention the ones from Central America,South America,etc.
As an European I do not get this at all. Our education requires that we pick at least one or two foreign languages and learning English is a must
There’s a strong attitude against teaching and learning other languages in the US. School districts tend to only fund it in the later years of school and those that require it, usually only mandate two years of language study. In many district, computer languages count as “language study.”
I grew up in a Spanish speaking neighborhood, started studying French at age 12, (my bachelors degree is in French) and spent half a year living in Germany and attending school there as a teen. I studied all three languages through college. Class size was often tiny. People would tell me I was foolish and would never use any of it. When I travel, Europeans ask me if I’m Canadian because people from the US only speak English.
Yeah, at my kids’ high school you don’t need to take foreign languages at all to graduate, you can take fine arts instead. But most kids still take foreign language because most colleges require 2-4 years for admission. Still, as I said above, those years don’t really result in mastery or fluency for most students. I took French for a couple semesters in college after taking I for four years in high school but I eventually stopped for the same reason you mention — people said it was a waste of time. Boo.
lightpurple, Your claim that there is a strong attitude against teaching/learning foreign languages in the US is ridiculous. It’s based on your own personal experience.
Here are some facts.
In the US, 25% of adults self-report that they speak a foreign language.
The US has no federal foreign language mandate for grades K-12. It is up to the states or individual school districts whether or not they require or offer a foreign language.
Fifteen states require foreign language for all students on a college track program and a subset of those 15 states require it of all students.
The other 35 states do not have a statewide mandate, they leave it up to each school district. Those details were not available in the report I found.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/13/learning-a-foreign-language-a-must-in-europe-not-so-in-america/
http://ecs.force.com/mbdata/mbprofall?Rep=HS01
@MinnFinn – The study you’ve cited actually backs up LightPurple’s post, to the point. LightPurple argued there was a strong attitude against it in schools. The research you’ve linked said, of those 25% of Americans that know a foreign language, a whopping 89% of them learned from use in their childhood home. LightPurple also argued that foreign language study was mostly encouraged during the later years of school. Said report also claimed this:
“Many states allow individual school districts to set language requirements for high school graduation, and primary schools have very low rates of even offering foreign-language course work.”
Furthermore, your statement that 15 states requirement foreign language for all students on a “college track” again indicates language requirements beginning in HS.
In Montreal, we grew up speaking french and English. Many of my friends were Greek, Italian so they spoke 3 languages and at our school, we were given the. Choice of German, Chinese and Russian as a option for languages. Montreal is very multi ethnic, you feel like your in Europe. If you have the chance to visit,go for it. I miss it now 🙁
Europeans also live, like, two hours away from countries where other languages are spoken. You are just surrounded by it. ‘Many Americans never leave America, or only do so a handful of times. We do have a large portion of Spanish speakers in our country, so that is obviously the language many English speakers learn first. Most Americans do learn second languages in school — I had a second language from 8th grade through college. But since I only travelled to Italy once, I have lost a lot of it.
I disagree with the excuse that the countries of Europe are closer together and therefore learning languages is more convenient. I’m from Ireland, an English speaking country, where knowledge of other languages is poor. The majority of us can’t even speak our own Irish language. The UK also has extremely poor foreign language skills.
Now, both countries are separated from the European mainland byt flights are rarely more than 3 hours and our urban centres are diverse and multilingual. The US even more so! The reality is English speaking countries are lazy, arrogant and priveleged. We know we can go to any major city in the world and get by using just English.
We should all learn more than 1 language though. It would be a shame if English took over completely.
@Jaqen Love your comment!
I was about to agree with Millennial until I read Jaqen’s comment. Interesting….
So maybe it’s just English-speakers in general who are hesitant to learn to learn a new language?
Europe is a big continent with a lot of different languages and cultures. In the same way we can’t make one sweeping generalization to encompass the US, it doesn’t make sense to do so about the US. That said, in mainland Europe there is definitely an emphasis on second and third languages being taught in school, and proximity not only makes it a logical choice, but also makes it a LOT easier to do so. Languages are meant to be used.
Agree. If you live on a border state in the U.S., it’s good to know Spanish and it’s actually a requirement for my job (I’m an RN in a Latino family clinic) but for the vast majority of Americans, learning another language would be motivated by personal interest, not necessity. This is not the case in many other countries, esp. in Europe for obvious reasons.
BTW, almost of all my patients speak no English (even after decades of living here) and are not motivated to do so because Spanish is so commonly spoken here. I have no problem with this in the least. They are likely in a place in life where this is far from their primary concern.
A lot of this simply comes down to priorities and necessity.
But you assume that everyone in Europe has the money to travel abroad. Just because something is close still doesn’t mean it’s not expensive.
Where I live, france is just 2 hours away, true. But is that relevant for children in school? Nope. We learn languages without ever seeing the countries that they are spoken in. You begin to learn english in 4th grade I think, or 5th. I have never been to britain so far. You learn french or some other language two years later. Doesnt matter if you have ever been to france. Chances are you haven’t. Also I started learning spanish just for fun at age 35 and went to spain for the first time years later. So I’m sorry to say it but your argument is invalid. At least for the german school system.
I agree that it’s probably more an English speaking issue than an American issue (though in my experience, Brits are slightly more likely to speak a second language than Americans) – but I’m not sure it’s simple laziness. I lived in Sweden for over five years, and though my Swedish is passable it’s not great – partly because Swedes are so great at English. It would be frustrating for a Swedish friend to stumble through a conversation with me commenting on the weather and stuff in Swedish, when we could so easily switch to English and discuss any subject under the sun.
As many of them pointed out, they have to learn English in order to participate in the world (many of the companies I worked for in Stockholm had English as their working language even if it was primarily Swedes employed there as they were international-facing), whereas English speakers can work with and travel to many (most?) other countries with our own language.
I put my son in French immersion school right from the start. He is over 30 now and loves that he is bi-lingual. It looks good on his resume too and likely helped him get hired at his current job where he works with the public.
Most of children in Scandinavia and Baltic are bilingual also in many eastern countries also I think.
Yes – I worked in a daycare in Stockholm and one of the reasons I was employed was to talk to 1-3 year olds in English… many of whom picked English up while I was still struggling with Swedish!
Yep..English and Spanish were a must in the french educational system, not to mention all of the extra options we had.
Being from the Caribbean, I think it was much easier to learn more languages outside of school, you’re surrounded by so many it would be difficult to only speak one. The same thing happens when you live in a primarily Hispanic neighborhood.
And I’ve actually seen the French homework they give seniors in America and it’s not surprising that many leave high school still not grasping a second language. They were doing conjugation for verbs like “aller” (to go)!
I just find that learning another language isn’t as rigorous in the US educational system as it is in other countries, most will leave a class knowing how to count to 30 in Spanish and the basic greetings but won’t be able to hold a full conversation.
But here’s the thing: there aren’t that many immersion opportunities for language work here in the US. Yes, it’s clearly the best way to learn a language, and what is taught in US high schools is proper grammar and structure, with the hopes that the students will continue conversational practice on their own.
For English-speaking countries it tends to be a question of money. People feel like there’s no need to spend money on foreign language education when most of the world speaks English. The fact that knowing multiple languages has cognitive and other less tangible benefits is largely dismissed. I am bilingual, but it was not easy to learn my second language (French) in the American school system. I had to get a masters degree and spend years working as a French teacher and translator before I really felt properly bilingual. People have ALWAYS scoffed at me and claimed I was wasting my time learning something so impractical, but French is the greatest achievement of my life and has brought a lot of enjoyment. I will never tire of French people’s astonishment that I speak their language.
I went to school in the US, and our foreign language classes started pretty early (I was about seven or eight when I started learning Spanish and French). Not early by international standards, of course.
I was required to take at least one foreign language per semester throughout middle and high school, too. We had to pick between French and Spanish at a certain point, because the goal was to be bilingual by graduation… I wasn’t, but I kept taking Spanish in college. Still not bilingual, though, ugh.
And I grew up in rural Florida. Is foreign language really not a requirement in other parts of the US? I just assumed that most Americans lost their skills or didn’t value them enough to use them… not that they never learned them in the first place.
it can be funny when you are abroad and you multitask, as in you speak your native language with a friend or a cousin and then you speak english with other people who are visiting *i tend to meet a lot of people, since i am very chatty, and then you speak french or italian when you are ordering your cofffee
never got to spanish, but i will.
That’s because in Europe, you’re much more likely to visit a foreign country with a different language. The United States is a large country where people mostly speak the same language.
The whole “Americans only speak ONE language” shtick is just a lot of snobbery. We don’t learn other languages because we generally don’t need to know them unless we engage in international business.
Again, not everyone in Europe has the money to travel.
What a great interview! I wish I was fluent. I spent a lot of time learning French and a lot of time in France (not consecutively though), but I’m not fluent at all. I studied abroad in France, and I remember my host family’s son was 11 and he knew French, English and he was learning another language. There is a French immersion school and a Spanish preschool in Dallas-Fort Worth (I’ve researched because I’ve got children that are too young for school but they’ll get there) but the French school is apparently $10,000 a year for FIRST GRADE. That’s just not in the budget. 🙁
Do any of y’all have suggestions of how to help kids learn a second language? I was homeschooled and didn’t start learning a language until high school…. maybe it’s just that you need to start learning much sooner? And I feel like here in Texas, most people learn Spanish, at least in the classroom… but I just love French so much. 😀
It’s interesting to me what Serena said about some African countries speaking French. We had dinner last night with some new friends from church, and the husband is from Chad. He’s multilingual and speaks French, but he also was sent to France while in high school for several months to really get the language.
TV did it for me. I learned German and Spanish by watching TV, and it helped with learning English too. My parents don’t speak a foreign language, I’ve never spent more than a few days in a foreign country, but I would say I’m pretty fluent in English and German ( my Spanish is a bit wonky because I never get so use it). I did learn them in school too, but if I wasn’t surrounded by them all the time when I was little I doubt I would speak them as well as I do.
But yeah, the sooner they start the better. Here you start learning at least one foreign language aged 7, and most kids learn 2.
My French mother learned English through Days of Our Lives and other soaps.
I think soap operas in particular are great for that because of the exaggerated expressions and the dramatic plotlines. It’s helpful to see the expressions that inform and coincide with the words that are being spoken.
Yeah, tv did it for me too (learned Korean that way) – Kitten, you have a good point about the exaggerated dramatic nature of soap operas being a big help in sussing out what is happening onscreen.
Tv really does help, I’m not even joking when I say that my Spanish skyrocketed when I started watching telemundo after classes. My little brother watches a Chinese cartoon on Nick and he’s actually teaching me a few words haha. If your kids have a tablet there’s a lot of apps and songs too!
I had no idea it was so expensive for a French immersion school, you’d might as well move to France with that price lol.
ooh TV is a good point. My toddler found some monster truck cartoons in Russian, of all things!
Yeah broke my heart. It’s such an elite thing to charge that much for an immersion school. I don’t think the Spanish preschool is that much, but my heart just loves French. :-/
Start off with integrating small words everyday; greetings, colors, numbers. My parents used to give me a random word in Spanish everyday, nothing too outlandish, that I had to use in a sentence for the week. Kind of like a spelling bee? If that even makes sense ha. It came out some sort of spanglish, but as I went on full sentences became easier.
Nothing can be worse than Peppa Pig really..
haha Ayra. Good call. I do read French kids books to them, but it’s definitely not a big portion of their reading. I’ll have to try it more often! We already do “school” so a random word would be super easy to integrate. I’m not fluent but I do know some words, haha!
Yeah, but even reading a just a little helps, at least you’re trying to start young when it’s easier to do.
I wish my dad did that to me with Dutch, unfortunately he decided that it wasn’t a language worth being taught, so now I’m learning it on my own. Though I think he secretly likes being the only one to speak it in the household.
I learned Portuguese because my best friend is Portuguese and her family was constantly speaking it around me and I just began putting two and two together, asking questions, asking them to teach me how to say things, and the combination of those things really made it just come easily to me. It was a bit like immersing myself in the culture. I can also read and write it.
There are so many programs available. There is an app called “Duolingo” and they have both paid and free versions. I’ve used it to brush up on Spanish since I’m a nurse in an area with a large Latino population. They have many languages and I actually really liked it.
I love duolingo! I use it a lot (leading up to trips especially). but not for the kids…
TV programmes, songs, reading to them, kids’ language classes, language exchanges, online courses, there are loads of options these days. Give them lots of materials and input and then have them teach you what they’ve learned–having to explain it to someone else turns their passive learning into active teaching and that will fix the information more firmly in their minds.
If possible, take them on a trip to Quebec. Canadian French is different to French French, but most people in the cities speak standard French, plus all the signs, etc, are in French as well as English. Speaking with people, even just in shops and restaurants, will help consolidate their learning.
As an aside, I love the accents of Francophone African countries. In grad school (French Literature) I studied with people from Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Cameroon, and their accents in French were so beautiful, soft and musical. I could listen to it all day.
Quebec is on our travel wish list now! Honestly it’s because of Louise Penny’s mystery series, but we do want to go!
There is an app called Duolingo that I’ve heard good things about. It’s not made for kids but my cousin’s son is using without problem and he is 12 years old.
Abby, if you have an iPad/iPhone check out Mind Snacks. Not sure if they are available on other platforms. It’s not free, but it’s very reasonable. My son is now 5 and he knows how to count, all the colors, animals, many food names, body parts, greetings, and simple sentences in Spanish, Japanese, and French. He plays their Mandarin, Portuguese, German and SAT words, too, but Spanish & Japanese are his favorites. Duolingo is better for older kids and adults, as you need to read and write, and my son is a great reader but can’t really spell that well.
oh thanks! We do have an iPad and my almost-3-year-old is a whiz at it.
Oof. Looked up the tuition at the only French immersion school I’ve been able to find in Dallas… it’s now $14,150 annually for KINDERGARTEN. I have a 2 and a 1 year old so tuition for private school blows my mind.
“Americans están que arden”. Not “en fuego” because it is an expression and as such, shouldn’t be translated literally.
Mon Dieu
Americans usually don’t speak another language because they don’t have to. English is very much the number one global language. As much as I love languages, part of the reason I speak more than one is necessity. No one speaks Croatian. Just existing in today’s world, especially professionally, requires me to speak English. And another thing that made it easier for me to learn languages was the fact that I was surrounded by them when I was a kid. And even now. We don’t dub anything, so I grew up constantly listening to English, German and Spanish so I picked them up more easily. And our school system is very much oriented toward learning language. There is a cultural component to learning languages, some societies support it, some don’t.
I agree with much of what you’re saying – but the British tend to be bilingual FAR more than the Americans, which kind of dilutes the ‘they already speak the global language’ argument. Of course part of it is the proximity to the continent etc, but I think there is also an element of Americans being quite insular and inward looking.
As to why Brits speak more second language, I imagine it’s a lot easier and cheaper to get to their second language country and practice than it is for Americans. Most of us only ever hear our teacher speak it and hear it in movies.
Most people I know only hear a foreing language on TV or from their teacher ( maybe from tourists if you’re from the coast). You don’t need to live or spend a lot of time in a country to be able to speak a language.
It’s only recently there’s been a push for languages in Britain though (I mean, like in the last five years) although they say languages at A levels have fallen over the years, because you don’t have to do a second language past ninth grade. That being said, my friend’s kids are attending school where they’re been introduced to Spanish from the age of seven. As for me, I’m watching and listening to a lot of TV shows in my target language(s) because I want to get a B1 level in said language(s)!
Duolingo and babel are good language apps too.
This is a direct contradiction to what commenters up-thread are saying.
Actually, we DO need to speak more languages. Our intelligence community has to rely heavily on other countries because we just don’t have the people with the language skills to interpret what we are hearing through all our technology or to infiltrate networks of spies or terrorists.
White Americans. (and Non-latino African Americans.) Latinos and Asian-Americans usually do.
Thank you for pointing this out. Actually lots and lots of Americans speak two or more languages. I work with many of them. Perhaps they are less likely to go on vacations through Europe, but they are Americans too.
And I will say as a Francophone who works quite a bit in the UK that Britons particularly overestimate their fluency in French.
I think a lot of English speaking people tend to do that. I wouldn’t say I’m fluent in a language unless I speak it really really well, whereas I know quite a few English speaking people who say they are fluent in a language yet make a lot of mistakes while speaking it. In my experience at least.
Absolutely. Someone above said languages are more common in Britain than the US, but I haven’t found that at all. In fact, the British seem fiercely resistant to learning languages and to pronouncing the words properly even when they do learn them.
They didn’t start teaching language in my school system until high school, so most people never took it seriously in my (heavily white) area. Most people who were bilingual grew up speaking multiple languages.
I actually wish I had started languages sooner so I could be better at it. I know a little Spanish and Thai, but I wish I could speak both more fluently. I am trying to teach myself Thai, but since I live in an area with no Thai speakers, I can’t really practice.
I think it’s very important to learn languages so we can actively communicate with other cultures. I wish US culture was more tailored to it.
Same here, G. We were required to take a language for two years in high school. What was a bit strange – we were not required to pass the class in order to graduate! To write that it wasn’t taken seriously would be an understatement.
I think she looks gorgeous… her interview is really interesting… I feel like she has grown so much over the years, it’s what makes me like her so much. She’s not perfect and never pretends to be.
I’ve never seen her so lovely as in this spread – wow!
What did she mean by this?
“But I don’t get involved in politics because of my religion.”
??????
She’s a practicing Jehovah’s Witness, isn’t she? They don’t get involved in politics or voting.
Oh wow I had no idea. Thanks, Guesto!
I wondered the exact same thing. I’ve never heard anyone say that before.
Guesto, I worked with a pretty strict JW (she didn’t celebrate birthdays or Halloween, for example) and she had plenty of political opinions. I didn’t think to ask her if she actually voted, though, I just assumed she did. I wonder why they don’t get involved in voting?
Esmom, devout followers are expected to put their trust entirely in Jehovah and not ‘interfere’ in his grand plan – see here –
http://thejehovahswitnesses.org/things-jehovahs-witnesses-cant-do.php
This kind of bums me out. Voting is such an amazing experience..such an integral and important part of exercising our rights as Americans. I always get such a rush when I leave the voting booth. Am I a dork?
Guesto, Thanks for this. OMG. Now I know why she was so sheltered and seemed to associate/socialize with no one except her family, even in her late 20s. There’s almost nothing she was/is allowed to do! But perusing the list, I see that they did break some rules. She talked about her brothers and their athletic excellence on their school teams. She did accept gifts (unless she disposed of them once she left work). And as I said she did talk about politics and did say “good luck.” She also played bingo with our preschoolers! She was also a huge fan of celebrity gossip — somehow I can’t imagine the JWs would approve of that.
And I thought being a “cafeteria Catholic” was tough when I was young. 🙂
The official website is http://www.jw.org and you can find the reasons for all of our beliefs there. Please visit this site. Lots of myths and rumors out there. We actually don’t have a “list” of rules and as for the bingo thing, we play all types of games we just don’t believe in playing for money.
As a sidenote, I’m actually surprised Serena still considers herself to be a practicing JW.
Thank you, Almondjoy. Fascinating to hear more about a religion that’s unfamiliar to me. My former co-worker flat out said she wasn’t comfortable talking about it when we tried to ask her questions. I realize now I should have just researched it on my own.
Esmom, you’re very welcome! 😘
I have no problems speaking about my beliefs, but your coworker may have been hesitant because there are lots of people who are very critical of our beliefs… maybe she didn’t want to be controversial or argue? If so, I get it. But our website does such an excellent job of explaining things clearly. And in between work I’ll try my best to answer anything else you might wonder about 😊
@Almond-So are you voting?
Kitten, I’m not. It’s not that I’m against politics or dislike politicians. I abide by government laws but I just I don’t feel that even the most sensible, large hearted hearted human has the power to bring about the type of change we need in the world, even if a genuine desire is there.
Loving her attitude and mentality about it. Especially since many (far too many) Americans are too arrogant to learn how to pronounce things (or even names) right. I’ve noticed that other nationalities will tend to ask in good faith or at least be apologetic when/in case they mispronounce something, but Americans tend to say, “well, I don’t know if I should be pronouncing X as X1 or if it’s supposed to be pronounced X2, but I’m American so I’ll just pronounce it X1.” Like being “American” makes it okay to mispronounce things without making an effort to learn how to pronounce things (because it’s a superior country and therefore being an American citizen makes one a superior human being and gives them a free pass). If you’re going to mispronounce something, mispronounce it but don’t add, “I don’t care how it’s supposed to be pronounced because I’m American and so I’ll just pronounce it the American way.”
So a gajillion kudos to Serena for being an awesome human being.
Lol she started mearning french bc she was banging her married french coach and after that was over she felt like sticking to it.
Really?! Lmao
Lol yes that was the beginning of the sharapova and serena feud….serena was pissed that sharspova started dating her ex bf and made a bunch of public comments about it until sharapova snapped and was like well at least im not banging my married coach with kids who is now getting a divorce who serena was dating.
P.s. i cant stand either of these two. they r both ridiculous, so im not on either side. its just entertaining to watch.
I think if you’re born here, you’re unlikely to be bilingual, but if you immigrated or are the child of immigrants, it’s more common than not. I work at a hospital and see tons of multilingual speakers all the time. It really depends on the area you’re in.
She looks great on that cover. Very powerful.
Agreed about if you were born here, you only speak English. We only speak English but sent all our kids to Spanish Immersion school. Our oldest is fluent at 15, and our other 2 are on their way.
It’s very hard to learn a second language young if one of the parents don’t speak it. I learned French basically from the day I was born since my mother who is American but can speak it and my father who is French only spoke it to me when I was a toddler. When I hit kindergarten I was enrolled in a French-American bilingual school and stayed there until 8th grade. This is where I learned how to read and write French as well. Now this wasn’t an “immersion school” (not sure what that is) it was a school approved by the French Ministry of Education meaning we were following the curriculum of French schools in France. Most immersion schools don’t have this status. I learned math in French until 8th grade and was so confused when I transferred to an American high school because math is taught diffferently in the US.
But I am 100% fluent. Native French speakers are astounded when they learn I never lived in France but grew up learning French in the US because it is not common to attain the level of fluency I achieved. It is rare to acquire that native level but due to circumstances and hell bent determined parents who paid an arm and a leg for the bilingual school it paid off. I also speak Spanish pretty fluently… So ridiculously easy to pick up when you already know French.
SO envious!!! 🙂
I completely understand why Americans don’t speak other languages – English is a language spoken pretty much everywhere in the world and also, a lot of Americans never leave the US (there is plenty to see here) – so there is no real need. I, on the other hand, come from a small European country, I learned English very early, I speak 3 additional languages which is normal for us. I live in the US now, I have a 2-year old daughter (her dad is American) and I only speak my language to her, she is fluent in both. Ideally I’d add French or Spanish to the mix.
Hahaha! I love all the Americans saying “we dont because we dont need to.” Hahahaha.
Second language, my auntie! Half the Americans I know don’t even speak their own language well.
Good point!
Oh such crap about the Africa thing. Listen I am from Ethiopia (East Africa) and one thing I can tell you is that most of the time it is very frustrating when someone says I want to go to Africa. Africa is not one country. Its a continent. African history is not one history. It is the hisory of many different countries. I get that her intentions are good and all with wanting to know her roots I get that. But most of the time, I find that anyone who says I want to go to Africa hasn’t really done their reasearch even though they love to speak about it. Where in Africa?? Its so general, its ridiculous.
I taught school for a long time. My school never stressed learning a second language. In high school they offered Spanish and French as electives.
I covet that woman’s arms but don’t have the talent or the grit to make them my own! I always like to read her interviews. I find them thoughtful and intelligent if, yes, a bit guarded. Can’t blame her for that though, can we?