Qui suis-je?
That is the million dollar question.
My full name is Emmanuella Rose Bikele Bonga, and I am 22 years old. I was born in Libreville, Gabon, raised in Kinshasa, DRC, and have undergone my high school and undergraduate education in New York, USA. I am currently a graduate student in Georgetown University's Conflict Resolution program, with severe wanderlust and a passion for languages, as you will soon discover. I like to say that I currently speak 3 and a half languages, the first 3 fluently and the latter conversationally. These include French, Lingala and - you guessed it- English, with the recent addition of Korean.
For as long as I can remember, I have always been fascinated with words: how they are used, combined and deconstructed to convey a specific meaning at a particular time. Perhaps the unintended consequence of growing up as a preacher’s kid in a household full of active public speakers and diplomats, this infatuation with words has grown to influence much of my life. Most notably, as a child my report cards all read: “excellent work, but talks too much”. Interestingly enough, this assessment by my teachers held whether I was in Congo, Gabon, or when I got to the US. My love for words also translated into constant reading, so that I was often chastised by my parents for crossing streets with my face buried in some novel. Musically, I prefer slow songs because they allow me to spend time listening to the lyrics. Gilmore Girls is my favorite show of all time, due to the rhetorical banter, and the list goes on.
When we were younger, my sisters and I liked to play a game that involved attempting to explain flavors and expressions from Lingala over to French. By the time we arrived in America, the game had become trilingual. This exercise allowed me to realize the ever so slight differences in implications and meaning when language was switched, that could result in huge misunderstandings. Throw in the cultural differences in use of any given language (i.e. French in Gabon vs. French in Congo), and is it any wonder that communication can become so strained, particularly on the international level? I fell in love with learning languages because they increased the pool of words at my disposal, and thus my realm of understanding. If I was already swaying, my encounter with rhetoric and public address in the course of my undergraduate studies threw me over the edge. What a wonderful thing, to be able to study the ways that words are engineered to influence from the perspective of the speech givers and writers!
My full name is Emmanuella Rose Bikele Bonga, and I am 22 years old. I was born in Libreville, Gabon, raised in Kinshasa, DRC, and have undergone my high school and undergraduate education in New York, USA. I am currently a graduate student in Georgetown University's Conflict Resolution program, with severe wanderlust and a passion for languages, as you will soon discover. I like to say that I currently speak 3 and a half languages, the first 3 fluently and the latter conversationally. These include French, Lingala and - you guessed it- English, with the recent addition of Korean.
For as long as I can remember, I have always been fascinated with words: how they are used, combined and deconstructed to convey a specific meaning at a particular time. Perhaps the unintended consequence of growing up as a preacher’s kid in a household full of active public speakers and diplomats, this infatuation with words has grown to influence much of my life. Most notably, as a child my report cards all read: “excellent work, but talks too much”. Interestingly enough, this assessment by my teachers held whether I was in Congo, Gabon, or when I got to the US. My love for words also translated into constant reading, so that I was often chastised by my parents for crossing streets with my face buried in some novel. Musically, I prefer slow songs because they allow me to spend time listening to the lyrics. Gilmore Girls is my favorite show of all time, due to the rhetorical banter, and the list goes on.
When we were younger, my sisters and I liked to play a game that involved attempting to explain flavors and expressions from Lingala over to French. By the time we arrived in America, the game had become trilingual. This exercise allowed me to realize the ever so slight differences in implications and meaning when language was switched, that could result in huge misunderstandings. Throw in the cultural differences in use of any given language (i.e. French in Gabon vs. French in Congo), and is it any wonder that communication can become so strained, particularly on the international level? I fell in love with learning languages because they increased the pool of words at my disposal, and thus my realm of understanding. If I was already swaying, my encounter with rhetoric and public address in the course of my undergraduate studies threw me over the edge. What a wonderful thing, to be able to study the ways that words are engineered to influence from the perspective of the speech givers and writers!