Listen to the story by pressing play below. 

With languages it’s often said that if you don’t use it you lose it. San Quentin Radio and NPR present this story of an inmate slowing forgetting his language in prison, Vietnamese. The inmate, who has been incarcerated in prison for over 10 years, shares his story on language, identity, and forgetting.

“Imagine if you forgot the language you learned how to speak as a child. A language that gave you an identity. A language says says, “Hey you belong here, you’re one of us.”

Mp3 Source: https://cpa.ds.npr.org/kalw/audio/2018/05/WEB_SQRLanguage.mp3