The Arabic Language
The only Arabic which Jackie was taught as a child was the Our Father prayer which she would recite on demand to her father’s Syrian friends when they visited to play Syrian card games. Her father thought this prayer was integral to his children’s learning of Arabic. This relationship with the Arabic language is discussed in the below clip.
The below clip shows Jackie responding to a prompt on whether she agrees with the statement "it is known that language is a mirror of culture and the two are faces of the same coin"
Although she was not taught Arabic, Jackie is fluent in French, as were both her parents. Her father was also fluent in Spanish and spoke Italian, whilst her mother was fluent in Spanish – having been raised in Columbia. This ability was beneficial to them both when working in the factory as it enabled them to communicate with their employees.
Jackie’s grandmother Adele was taught French growing up in Syria and although this commonplace, it seems that one’s ability at French served as a class indicator to others. Jackie believes this is still somewhat accurate, suggesting there is a certain snobbery to the French language in Syria. Despite this, Adele had a certain dislike for the French that she attributed to a massacre in Damascus by the hand of the French.
Although prejudice based on one's language skills have become relatively common today, this was not something Jackie grew up experiencing. Instead, she saw expressions of culture through food as bridges across different communities.