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Is it rude or not? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6713 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes  Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 25 of 48 18 December 2010 at 9:52am | IP Logged | |||||
I have read something about such a law project in Slovakia that primarily would silence the Hungarians in the country - but hoprefully it never was voted through, I don't know. But it has been a very widespread practice to punish school children who spoke their own language, even among themselves, and with a delay of a few generations that can have the same effect. Edited by Iversen on 18 December 2010 at 9:54am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| CheeseInsider Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5132 days ago 193 posts - 238 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin* Studies: French, German | Message 26 of 48 18 December 2010 at 10:57am | IP Logged | |||||
My point was, America is a country in which the official language of the country is *non existent*. I said country, not state. So for Americans it is silly to say people should speak English because they're in America and it's America's "official language", well those who say that are either ignorant or outright lying. Edited by CheeseInsider on 18 December 2010 at 10:57am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kmart Senior Member Australia Joined 6134 days ago 194 posts - 400 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 27 of 48 18 December 2010 at 11:09am | IP Logged | |||||
With all due respect (and tongue in cheek) I would suggest that the majority language spoken in the USA isn't quite "English" (I mean, tom-ate-toe? vayz?) - probably better to call it "American". And we won't even mention the appalling spelling... ;-) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5140 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 28 of 48 18 December 2010 at 3:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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As happens often here it appears, this thread has gotten so far off track from the original question that I wonder how many people actually remember what it was.
R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6560 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 29 of 48 19 December 2010 at 2:56am | IP Logged | |||||
I'm guilty of this. I enforced the school rule - English only hour after the daily chores. I made the non English speakers do push-ups. To this day, ten years after I left, these villagers have a reputation of having the most muscular arms around. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6713 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 30 of 48 19 December 2010 at 12:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
The question was whether it was rude to scold other persons for speaking a language different from yours/not understood by you in a setting where that you had plenty of other persons to speak to. The implication is of course that this kind of mugging only can be in the interest of a fanatically monoglot majority, which could be Anglophone but also Hispanophone as in your own example with the Mexicans. It is inconceivable to me how anybody interested in linguistic diversity and language learning could possibly condone that kind of agressive monoglotist bullying. In situations where you are in a natural group for a prolonged period it would of course be impolite for the majority ONLY to speak languages not understood by one single person (you). On the other hand, if you joined a group of persons who already were discussing in a language which you didn't understand it would be impolite to expect everybody else to switch to your language - and if they did the intruder should at least be grateful. Edited by Iversen on 19 December 2010 at 1:10pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5140 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 31 of 48 19 December 2010 at 5:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
I don't believe the implications are anywhere near as deep as people are reaching here, though. languagenerd09 came back to describe the actual conversation - harmless - and hasn't weighed in since. Other than that, we don't know much else about the whole situation. It was a group setting, though. Look, I remember my time in college and being so passionate about a subject, to the point of excluding another person's feelings, usually coming off as pretty insufferable. My anecdote was actually a really good lesson for me. It taught me to carefully consider other people around me and realize that not everyone has the same interests or priorities that I have. I honestly did not consider it would be rude until someone specifically told me it was (and I was specifically told, just as languagenerd09 was.) Instead, we're concentrating on really silly things such as legally being able to speak another language (no one is disputing that) or that perhaps the girl was butting in (nothing he wrote really suggests that, but maybe she was. Why assume though?) The whole thing could have been diffused by languagenerd09 simply saying "Oh, sorry. Sometimes I don't realize how passionate I am when it comes to learning languages." The girl may then have just said "Oh, OK" and gotten on with life. Perhaps she would have shown some interest, instead of feeling excluded. Who knows? *EDIT to comment on something I noticed after the fact*
Really? A little sensationalist, no? R. == Edited by hrhenry on 19 December 2010 at 7:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5491 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 32 of 48 19 December 2010 at 10:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I have been called rude before because I was speaking German to a good friend of mine. We were on the bus
having our own conversation about school in German. Someone sitting behind us rudely interrupted saying that it's rude to speak another language in public. Neither of us were apart of any other conversations, and we weren't speaking loudly or anything. In my opinion, it's not rude to speak another language in public, as long as all involved in the conversation speak that language. Now, when there's only one person who doesn't speak the language, the situation can be quite different. When I'm with German speakers (since I'm half German, my family knows other German families), usually I have a friend along who speaks no German. This calls for the speaking of English, since it would be rude to exclude that person from the conversation, and since everyone involved is at least bilingual in German and English. Some people may also think that you are using this foreign language to speak ill of them (if they hear their name said or something), which even further clarifies their assumption. I was on a trip to my friend's beach home, to stay for about a week with his family. I called my mother whilst we were on the beach right before the fireworks (it was the fourth of July). So I called her, and began to speak in German, since I hadn't spoken it for about a week, and I missed speaking it (she's the Polish Jewish side of my family, but she understands German since her stepdad spoke it with her). I said my friend's name and something having to do with when we were coming back, and a few other things regarding what we had been doing, etc. When I hung up my friend said to me "My mom would prefer it if you wouldn't speak German while on the beach." I was really confused as his mom wasn't even there. Then I thought that his mother had actually said that, and perhaps she just didn't want the "snotty beach club people" to get miffed. However thinking about it now, I think he had assumed I had said something negative about him. So anyways, it really depends on the situation, but lets PLEASE not turn this into a big "America has no official language" brawl or anything like that. Edited by ruskivyetr on 19 December 2010 at 10:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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