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What is chic in your area... | ||
Tags: Chic Factor | Place of Residence | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| PonyGirl Groupie United States Joined 5019 days ago 54 posts - 70 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 25 of 56 09 April 2011 at 6:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I live in Ohio & French is probably the chic language here. Everyone chooses to "study" (har, har) Spanish in high school, it is thought of as useful, but not particularly cool or beautiful.
When I tell people I'm learning German they often lapse into a momentary unbearable and completely incomprehensible hacking noise to demonstrate their "german accent ability" o.o Oh, and a side story: I once had someone ask me if German was "like, Russian, kind of?" I think my jaw nearly disconnected. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Phantom Kat Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5063 days ago 160 posts - 253 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Finnish | Message 26 of 56 09 April 2011 at 6:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Like a past poster, I also live in South Texas. The only foreign langaugue offered is "Spanish." The only chic factor in it is you're white or black and you know enough Spanish to converse with the natives. Though I haven't seen any at school my mom is always infinitely impressed and thankful when a non-Hispanic knows enough Spanish to help her in whatever store she's in. Any other language like French or German gets a, "Why?" and if you're studying an "strange" language like Finnish or Danish you get blank stares or a "Cool," as they try to figure out where in the world they speak this language. If you actually know it, though, people will think it's pretty cool; my teacher, who's English, probably gets a kick out of speaking her French.
Back to Spanish, nobody (except my teacher) expects you to learn it. The Hispanics who don't know it are not expected to learn it, the Hispanics who do are not expected to improve it, and the few white and black students we have are not expected to learn it. I'm guessing there might be a chic factor in knowing Spanish if you're Hispanic and didn't know it before, but it's never happened for me to know. All for the exception of my friend simply don't care if they know Spanish or not. It might be because the Spanish classes here are catered to those who already know Spanish (aka. the children of immigrants) thus difficult for those who don't. How sad. :/ - Kat Edited by Phantom Kat on 09 April 2011 at 6:34pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Merv Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5273 days ago 414 posts - 749 votes Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 27 of 56 09 April 2011 at 7:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I never cared what was chic. That seems to be the least important question of all in selecting a language. I suppose
"chic-ness" comes with how the culture from which the language is derived is perceived more than anything else. I'm not sure that Japanese is seen as chic because it's tough, it's more likely because Japan is seen as a cool country in the US. I'm sure that Inuit, although perhaps equally difficult as Japanese, is not particularly chic in the US. I'd say that in the US learning ANY language from total ignorance to comfortable fluency is seen as chic. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| CaucusWolf Senior Member United States Joined 5272 days ago 191 posts - 234 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Arabic (Written), Japanese | Message 28 of 56 09 April 2011 at 11:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I don't want people to think that there's alot of language bigots in the US. If anything the majority is very supportive, but there is always that xenophobic minority that makes us all look bad. I've personally only gotten one bad comment from someone about my learning Arabic. The Americans I know think highly of those who can learn a second language.
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| koba Heptaglot Senior Member AustriaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5868 days ago 118 posts - 201 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, French | Message 29 of 56 10 April 2011 at 12:33am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'd say here in Brazil French is seen as very chic, not just the language but anything related to it (probably worldwide?). English is good, it's the language of business and it's international, and even though not many can speak it fluently there isn't really any chic in it. Anything else non-Romance (i.e. German, Russian, etc) is usually seen as very mysterious.
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| Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5066 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish | Message 30 of 56 10 April 2011 at 12:34am | IP Logged | |||||
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When I started to learn Spanish in school, I was pretty indifferent to it since it was a school requirement and was the
only language offered at my school. Now that I'm about intermediate in grammar and vocabulary, my interest in the language has skyrocketed and I find that I want to start learning at a much faster pace that of a classroom setting. Luckily I'm going to Spain next year and I can't wait to practice with the natives! On the subject of other languages, I live in an extremely multicultural region (New York) and every other person knows some language of their ancestry and I know people who speak everything from Portuguese to Tamil. However, very few people actually set out to learn a language that isn't their own and those who say they will rarely do. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| wv girl Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5239 days ago 174 posts - 330 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 31 of 56 10 April 2011 at 12:34am | IP Logged | |||||
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In the rural Kentucky area in which I teach, many of the adults I work with tend to think that knowing any language is rather chic, although kind of odd. Students, on the other hand, most of whom take Spanish because of its supposed "simplicity," do not see it as chic at all. There is a belligerent attitude many have toward the language, such as "Why should I have to learn THEIR language? THEY should have to learn English!" No amount of explaining/reasoning seems to convince them that learning Spanish is not a concession to the "Mexicans," which is what some assume any Spanish speaker or brown person in the US is. There is a strong element of racism, I believe, in their opinion about Spanish and their belief that it's "easier" than French. Ah, if it is so "simple," why don't they learn it any better? This is not to say that ALL my students have these ideas, but the ones that do are certainly vocal about it! Sometimes Spanish language education isn't just about vocabulary, gender and tense, but trying to dispel stereotypes and prejudices. French is seen as much more chic, but rather useless in this area. Edited by wv girl on 10 April 2011 at 12:38am 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5967 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 32 of 56 10 April 2011 at 1:17am | IP Logged | |||||
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I should clarify that, of course, not all Americans dislike Spanish or other languages. With 300 million + of us, it's unwise to overgeneralize about any national attitude, and I didn't mean to do that. The post was based on my own experiences and on what I hear from informal conversations and in the media. None of these sources reflect the full range of local opinions regarding languages. As a learner, I want to respect other languages and cultures, and this is my own choice, which no one of any national or international area is obligated to share. I've had very positive reactions at times, too, when I tell people I enjoy languages, and some ask me how they can learn them, too.
Perhaps my anecdote was not such a good thing to share: it's my observation only. I haven't chosen any of my languages because of general popularity, but from my own interest. It seems I didn't answer the original question too well. It's my hope that more of us, everwhere, might consider all languages of the world to be chic. And why not? They are fascinating!
That's funny! "Meramarina wrote, unfortunately" - yes, I often think this, too! Edited by meramarina on 10 April 2011 at 1:30am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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