As a follow-up to the 2004 issue, “Teaching Writing on a Multilingual Campus,” this year’s invitation for submissions to Revisions: A Zine on Writing at Queens College requested offerings that explore the College’s linguistic diversity:

Communication at Queens College is carried out in multiple languages on a regular basis. Our admirable linguistic repertoire should come as no surprise, given our location in the heart of the most linguistically diverse county in the U.S. (and given our functions as an institution of higher education). This year...we seek to display the beauty and complexity of multilingual Queens, by taking a snapshot of the languages we speak, the languages we write in, the languages we learn in, the languages we read and comprehend, the languages we perhaps wish we had access to, and the languages we might sometimes wish we could forget.

The graphic on this issue’s first page partially, but by no means completely, captures the extent of this diversity. On any given day, there are native speakers of some 80 languages on this campus. Among their friends as they hurry from class to class, they speak their mother tongues, but in class they listen, speak and write in English, unless, of course, they are enrolled in a foreign language class. In the context of Queens College, it is almost comical to employ the term “foreign language.” Indeed, not long ago I spoke to a student who thought he could apply his credits from English 110 and 120 to the College’s foreign language requirement.

To our pleasure and surprise, the writers who responded to our call did so in more ways, even, than we suggested, presenting a kaleidoscopic view of the ways we struggle with, use, enjoy and learn the many languages we encounter here. A few took an Olympian view and literally charted the wide array of languages spoken by Queens College students or reported the ways in which this linguistic mix has changed over the years. Some gave a closer view by writing in their native language rather than in English. Others mixed their native tongues with their second language, English, while yet others wrote purely in this adopted language. A few native English speakers expressed themselves in languages they are in the process of learning. A few offer a glimpse into the kaleidoscope’s cylinder so we can see and hear how an individual shifts and turns while negotiating the complex challenge of living in a culture not one’s own and doing so in a new language. Still others took the term language in its most general sense, reminding us not only of the richness of cultures and spoken languages found on campus, but also of the range of academic and social discourse that language, in its infinite adaptability and flexibility, makes possible.

There is truth in the cliché that the world is getting smaller and that predicts the 21st Century will birth “one world.” The cultural and linguistic kaleidoscope that is Queens College means that our students, perhaps more than anywhere else, are ready for such a future. As always, we hope that this issue of Revisions will engender further reflection, discussion and response from the students, faculty and staff about the multilingual reality of our situation and the possibilities and challenges it presents. With that wish in mind, we invite readers to visit the WAC website at http://www.qc.cuny.edu/Writing to find out about future events and inspect, become familiar with and contribute to these resources for students and faculty.