English is one of the most personal and moving pieces of art I have been exposed to in a very long time. It’s a play by Sanaz Toossi exploring the struggles and profound implications of having to learn a second language—more specifically, English—to get ahead and succeed in our world today, while also touching on the difficulties of immigration and being an immigrant. What’s more, it—deservedly—won a Pulitzer Prize in 2023. Watching it as a lifelong learner of the English language, I often felt as if the play had been written specifically for me. But I realize half the world is going to feel the same way, and that’s the beauty of it.
It takes place in an English-language classroom in Iran and portrays five different characters, each representing a unique journey and need for being there. One is trying to get admission to study abroad, another wants to be able to communicate with her granddaughter who lives in Canada, and a third person—a teenager—is there because her parents thought it would be good for her future. There’s someone there who speaks English very fluently, and we don’t know his motives for being there until at the end of the play. And then there is the teacher, with her strict “English Only” rule for her class. She used to live in Manchester for many years and is extremely fond of everything English, and any tiny imperfection in her English makes her very self-conscious and upset.
I am not going to lie. As someone who has spent many hundreds of hours learning English, sitting through the play was very difficult, and not in a bad way. The class, with all its torment and suffering, very much seemed like it could be some place in hell, and I understood it fully. I felt a deep connection with what each character was going through, and saw a little bit of myself in them.
One of the most poignant themes throughout the play was how people are willing to sacrifice parts of their identity in order to be accepted in a world where every language but English is at a disadvantage. It could be something as simple as pretending American-made Coke tastes better, or as fundamental as wanting to change your name to something familiar to English-speaking people, as if to finally feel you could be one of them. The students were amazed and envious at seeing an American passport for the first time, all wishing they had been born there in the first place. I’m sounding like an outside observer, but the sad part is that I’m guilty of all of those things. I feel everything sounds better in English. I wanted to taste the American-made coke. I have been thinking about changing my name for years. Some part of me wanted to jump onstage and grab the American passport and hold and examine it.
I’m not proud of that realization, but looking around, I saw the faces in the audience and then I was sure they were feeling the same way. And that brings me to mentioning the special privilege I had: watching the play in Iran.
The original script is written entirely in English. When the characters are practicing English speaking they use broken English, and when they are supposed to speak in Farsi, they use fluent English to imply that they are speaking in their native language. I was fortunate enough to watch the play in Iran, where the character actually spoke Farsi when they were supposed to. That made the story much more believable and moving for me. Also, watching it as part of a fully Iranian audience and theater meant I knew exactly how everyone else in the hall was feeling. While I understand why the original play had to be all-English to serve a global audience, seeing the characters speak Farsi really hits differently. And I would even go as far as to say that the fact that the author didn’t use any Farsi in the script shows that she is suffering from the same damaged identity that I am, and felt using Farsi would hurt her play.
Final Thoughts
English is a near-perfect depiction of what it’s like to be an ESL (English as a Second Language) learner anywhere in the world, and I whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone who has had to learn the language at some point in their life. It made me reevaluate my standing with the language, and how much I let it take over and replace my life in Farsi. The most immediate effect was that I’m now confident I won’t be changing my name. If I am willing to put in hundreds of hours to learn someone’s native language, the least I can expect of them is to call me by my real name. I’m sure the play will have a meaningful impact on how you think about the language as well.
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