How a Bilingual Dictionary Opened the World of Language to Yecid Ortega
If you meet Yecid Ortega, you’re likely to notice his warmth before anything else.
There’s an ease to the way he moves between languages and ideas, an energy that hints at a life shaped by curiosity. For the OISE alum, that curiosity began decades ago in Colombia, with a single bilingual dictionary.
Born in Bogotá — Colombia’s capital and largest city—Ortega grew up in the 1980s amid economic hardship and violence. Access to English classes or learning materials were rare, especially for families with limited means. His mother, who had only had the privilege of attending elementary school, handed him a bilingual dictionary and encouraged him to learn English, believing it would help him create a different future.
He carries her words with him to this day. “My mom barely finished second grade. So it's difficult for poor people. They don't even have the chance or the opportunities to have any type of education. [And] that's what she said to me, I was not able to pursue education. You go ahead and do it,” he recalls.
The neighbourhood around him made that message urgent. Ortega says it was dangerous, and he knew he needed a way out. “It was too violent for me … I don't want to be here… a lot of youth [are] dead because of all of these gang recruiting, drug selling, drug trading,” he recalls.
His mother was clear, urging him to see education as his way out “I need you to [get] out of here and then study, because study or going to school is the only thing that is going to get you out of this mess.” That encouragement became both a responsibility and a source of motivation.
A gateway, opened
The dictionary his mother gave him became part of that path forward. Looking back, Ortega describes himself as “lucky to have this dictionary that helped me inspire — or inspired my curiosity — for languages.”
What began as a quiet, personal challenge soon grew into something he shared with others. Throughout primary and secondary school, he became the student who helped classmates with homework, offering “little words in English here and there.” Even then, he could see how language might open doors.
Growing up in a marginalized community, studying beyond high school was out of reach for most people – many students from low-income backgrounds were expected to enter trades. But he imagined a different future for himself. “I was like, ‘I want to be a teacher. I’m good with people. I think I’m good with teaching.”
He pursued a bachelor’s degree in Bilingual Education specializing in Spanish and English, at Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas in Bogotá, then began teaching in the city before moving abroad. “I decided to move out of the country because obviously the violence,” he explains, “but also the opportunities to explore, learning more English, but also connecting with other cultures.”
He first moved to the Chicago, where he worked as a cultural ambassador, sharing Colombian culture while strengthening his English and learning from others. He later went on to work as a curriculum designer and bilingual trainer in Spanish and English.
His journey eventually led him to Canada, where he founded iLanguage Kids, a multilingual language school offering Spanish classes for children. What began as a small Spanish program quickly expanded as families began asking for more. Ortega responded by training teachers in additional languages—including Italian, French, Mandarin, Japanese and Portuguese—building a team of about ten instructors.
Within a few years, the school had grown into a vibrant multilingual learning community.
During this time, he came to better understand the important role families play in language learning. As he explains, “my master's thesis was about that bilingual education with Spanish English families in Toronto in a bookstore, and how I would engage the families with literacy, or bilingual literacy with the families and the students.”
The experience strengthened his belief that language learning grows through community and relationships, not just in classrooms.
The OISE stop on a global journey
Determined to continue his research, Ortega came to OISE to pursue a master’s degree in Language and Literacy Education in 2013. He then went on to complete a PhD in the same program, specializing in Comparative and International Education. He was drawn to the Institute’s global outlook and its commitment to equity. He found his perspective expanding. His classmates at OISE were from Pakistan, China, Japan, Greece, Estonia, Finland, India, Brazil, and parts of Africa, each bringing different languages and experiences. “One of the most beautiful things that I remember is that multiculturality and the diversity of people from different cultures, but also languages, but also ways of thinking,” he says. The experience strengthened his understanding of multilingualism, interculturality and global education.
While working on his PhD, Ortega noticed that social justice and language and literacy were mostly separate, with little connection between them. Through conversations with friends in social justice, he decided to bridge the gap.
“I decided to connect these two things,” he says, explaining how he combined social justice and language teaching with ethnographic research. This work eventually became what he calls Pluriversal Applied Linguistics.
Those ideas have now taken shape in his new book, Pluriversal Applied Linguistics: Implications for Language Teaching and Research from the Global South, which was launched on Dec. 8 last year. The book represents years of teaching, research and collaboration across continents. It’s “about understanding and learning from other human beings, non-human beings, beyond human beings,” Ortega explains. It challenges traditional Eurocentric paradigms in which English dominates, instead amplifying knowledge from the Global South and recognizing that language learning is also about “feelings, emotions, spiritualities” and lived experience.
Two of his longtime mentors see the book as a natural extension of who he is. Enrica Piccardo, professor in the Language and Literacies Education program at OISE, and one of Ortega’s instructors during his PhD, says, “Yecid is one of those scholars who really practice what they preach, seeking connections across languages, geographical contexts and tradition, the Global North and the Global South, Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures, and more recently human and non-human perspectives.”
She adds, “[His book] is very innovative and timely… expanding the concepts and visions to promote inclusivity and stimulating new research paths.” Reflecting on their interactions in class, Piccardo notes, “after every single lesson, and every single topic we discussed, he continued his personal journey of reflection and came back with new questions… Yecid clearly understood how the concept of plurilingualism was richer and broader in scope than most other concepts circulating in academia in relation to linguistic diversity.”
Professor Kathy Bickmore, a member of Ortega’s doctoral committee, highlights the lasting impact of his work. “Yecid has demonstrated deep commitment, creativity, and influence on his community, within and well beyond the time he was working on his PhD at OISE.” She also calls the publication “an exciting new book that weaves together so many threads from what Yecid has continued to learn in recent years.”
Since completing his PhD in 2021, Ortega has held teaching and research roles at multiple institutions. He taught peacebuilding at OISE across different departments, as well as courses in the Doctor of Education program in the LHAE department. He has also lectured at Western University and the University of Ottawa, as well as at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland, while collaborating with Indigenous communities in Colombia and elsewhere. Today, Ortega serves as the founder of Liminal Research Services and co-founder of the Artem Research Collective, extending his commitment to collaborative and community-engaged research.
Whether in universities or community spaces, his focus remains clear. “One of the things that I want to do is to keep working or collaborating with universities, of course, and also with communities as well,” he says. He is especially committed to marginalized communities, alternative forms of knowledge, and the revitalization of Indigenous languages.
At the heart of Ortega’s work is an invitation. “My hope is that people open up themselves to the possibilities and learn from others without boundaries,” he says. He encourages educators and students to recognize that “we are plural diverse,” and to stay open to learning from the land, the water, and the communities around us.