Dean Jeffrey Shoulson
More Than One Way to Look at the World: Languages as Lenses
Jeffrey Shoulson, Dean of the Schools of Arts and Sciences, enthusiastically encourages students who are thinking about studying a language to start now because language "informs the way you think about the world."
His only regret about languages is that he did not study more of them in his younger days: "Do it, don't hesitate, and try to find an experience that is as immersive as possible. Don't worry about making mistakes, the effort that you put into speaking and trying out language is so valuable. It is unavoidable that you will be embarrassed, but try to work past shyness and hesitation, and you will find that you will make tremendous breakthroughs."
Languages other than English have been part of Dean Shoulson's life since his early childhood. He was born and raised in northern New Jersey in a home where speaking another language was important to his parents: "Hebrew was a language that they felt very strongly about. We were very proudly part of the Jewish community, and Hebrew, especially in the context of modern Zionism and the emergence of the modern state of Israel, was the language that was supposed to unite the Jewish people."
Thanks to his studies at Jewish Day Schools in New Jersey and New York City, Hebrew became a second language for him: "I don't think I ever thought of Hebrew as a foreign language." In classes, all religious subjects were taught in Hebrew, so he learned to read proficiently and to feel comfortable expressing himself orally in the language. His education also included Hebrew as a subject, and although he was "not all that keen on grammar rules," he did enjoy reading literature in Hebrew.
During this time, his progress in Hebrew was strengthened and solidified in Hebrew summer camps: "It wasn't exactly immersion, but the hope was that you would speak a lot of Hebrew, and you got extra points if you did everything in Hebrew, especially during Color Wars." [Editor's note: Color wars is a competition played in summer camps, schools, and some social organizations. Participants are divided into teams, each of which is assigned a color. The teams compete against each other in challenges and events to earn points.]
While growing up and going to school in New York, he became aware of other languages in addition to Hebrew, such as Spanish, French, and Russian. At home, Yiddish was the language that his parents used to communicate between themselves, especially when they did not want the children to understand what they were saying: "My parents learned Yiddish to be able to communicate with their grandparents who did not speak much English." Although Dean Shoulson "never really learned Yiddish," he has clearly passed on his love of languages to his children. His son majored in linguistics in college and his oldest daughter, reconnecting to her family legacy, is currently completing a Ph.D in Yiddish.
After high school, Dean Shoulson spent a gap year in Israel before attending Princeton University. Although he was already comfortable speaking and writing in Hebrew, his time in Israel reinforced his linguistic skills. One of his proudest moments was at a yeshiva when he successfully presented, completely in Hebrew, a close reading of rabbinic texts for Israeli students. It was an effort that required not only strong intellectual engagement but also a high caliber of language skill.
He credits knowing another language for allowing him to develop a deeper, more expansive, and more flexible understanding of the world: "The mere fact of having a second language, the way that different languages work mean that you realize that there is more than one way to look at the world. Language shapes your perception of the world; it's not just that you use language to characterize or describe your perception, but it actually informs that perception, it informs the way you think about the world."
Dean Shoulson acknowledges that for many, it may be comforting to believe that speaking English is sufficient. He feels strongly that this kind of limitation leads to impoverished knowledge and a kind of "arbitrariness due to national boundaries." For him, it is important "to think past those boundaries."
Languages have contributed significantly to Dean Shoulson's professional success. Holding a master's degree in philosophy in Renaissance studies from Cambridge University, and a Ph.D in English literature from Yale University, he uses both Hebrew, Latin, and occasionally Italian in his literary research. His work ranges from an in-depth study of Milton's erudition and literary style, heavily influenced by Latin, in "Paradise Lost" to an examination of the "interlinguistic exchanges" between English scholars whose knowledge of Hebrew and Jewish texts influenced the first Protestant translations of the Bible.
Dean Shoulson has done some basic study in Classical Greek and his Italophilia has led him to study Italian in an immersive setting. His study of Italian language and culture has contributed to his interest in food and cooking, and it has shaped his way of thinking about food. For example, one of his favorite cookbooks, A Tuscan in the Kitchen, is based on cultural culinary traditions instead of rigid rules: there are no measurements in the recipes.
Both personally and professionally, Dean Shoulson continues to find opportunities to use languages. Drawing on his knowledge of Italian, he has conducted research in Rome and has given a scholarly talk in Paris in French. Although speaking French is challenging for him, he recalls that on family trips to Montreal, Quebec City, or France, he would try to navigate the world in French: "There is a kind of running joke in my family. I would always try to use my French or my Hebrew, much to my children's embarrassment. Once on a hike in Iceland, my kids could hear an Israeli family ahead of us on the trail, and they knew what was coming, they knew that I was going to talk to them in Hebrew."
Two families from different parts of the world who meet by chance and yet are able to communicate? Humorous, of course, yet still another of Dean Shoulson's encounters in which language reshapes and informs experience, creating a space in Iceland where strangers are able to find mutual belonging and where the need to be "cool" pales in the face of reaching out and communicating with others.
This interview was conducted in 2023 by Hollie Harder, Professor of French and Francophone Studies.