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Language and Identity | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Shinn Trilingual Tetraglot Groupie India gallery.takingitglob Joined 6412 days ago 61 posts - 69 votes  Speaks: English*, Hindi*, Oriya*, SpanishB2 Studies: FrenchB1, Japanese, Irish | Message 1 of 13 11 January 2009 at 7:12am | IP Logged | ||
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I stumbled upon this article the other day:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/12/15/f-vp-ross.html The writer talks of "linguistic personalities" and how polyglots can switch between different identities when they switch between languages. I grew up trilingual myself and I was always convinced that was the reason behind my irreversible identity crisis! I'm not sure if speaking German makes you an aggressive churl any more than speaking French turns you into an aesthete, as the author implies, but I did find the premise of the article rather interesting. Thoughts, anyone? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6665 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 2 of 13 11 January 2009 at 2:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm slightly offended by this article: neither is the German language inherently aggressive nor are the Germans aggressive. A typical German would pay the taxi fare and then complain to his wife all day long that it was too expensive. It is true that Germans use 'please' or 'excuse me' a lot less than English-speakers, but that's just a question of usage. In international comparison, Germans are rather polite, in my humble opinion.
I have lived in Germany, France, the U.S., and Argentina and I haven't perceived ANY change of personality, no matter if I spoke German, French, English, or Spanish. It is true that depending of the language I speak, I use polite forms differently (for example: I use the polite form 'vous' much more frequently in French than the corresponding polite form 'Sie' in German), but this is a cultural difference and NOT a difference in my personality. There are many differences between cultures you can only grasp after thourough exposure to the culture in question. For example, when meeting a Dutch or a German, nodding your head can be perfectly sufficient (depending on the circumstances), but when meeting someone from France, a hand-shake or a 'bise' is mandatory. To sum up, I think the author completely fails to distinguish between linguistic and cultural differences. Language is only a means of conveying ideas. How to convey them is a question of culture, not of mastering the language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7156 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 3 of 13 11 January 2009 at 2:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think that this author merely projects his world-view which matches that of many people educated in Western Europe or North America. It's somewhat annoying for me to read articles like this since I still don't understand this fawning over French culture and language. Who died and made anything French to be the last word in aesthetics or protocol?
I agree with Marc in that language is better used as a means of conveying of ideas than as a marker of cultural or personal identity. Nationalists and snobs in particular seem to willfully use language for the latter purposes to the point where they begin disparaging people who don't speak quite like them, let alone speak different languages altogether. For example, I've run across English-speaking snobs who assume that someone speaking in a way that's typical of Texas or Alabama is simple-minded and incapable of being civilized. Another example is when I talk to people who think that native speakers of Received Pronunciation (~ 'BBC English') are superior to those who use other variants of English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Shinn Trilingual Tetraglot Groupie India gallery.takingitglob Joined 6412 days ago 61 posts - 69 votes Speaks: English*, Hindi*, Oriya*, SpanishB2 Studies: FrenchB1, Japanese, Irish | Message 4 of 13 12 January 2009 at 6:42am | IP Logged | ||
I agree with both of you that the author is rather naive when she takes such a simplistic view of language. I do not espouse the views in the article but what I wanted to debate was the veracity of the claims made in the article, since obviously most people in this forum speak at least two languages.
I agree! I like the French language and culture, but I fail to understand why French is often placed on a higher pedestal than other languages, some of which are far more difficult to learn. I have learnt both French and Spanish, but I've noticed that people are less impressed to know that I speak Spanish rather than French. As for English, I agree with you on that point as well. I have been speaking English ever since I could talk; however, often I'll meet an American or Brit who'll ask me - "where did you learn to speak English so well?" Why? Because I'm Indian and that means I am supposed to speak like Apu. I don't speak like a BBC newsreader, I have my own accent; but I don't speak like Peter Sellers from The Party either. In India, where I live, it is perfectly normal to grow up speaking multiple languages. And there is a significant amount of baggage attached to each. The language you speak defines who you are, where you come from, what you do and even what you like. For the kind of people I grew up with, speaking exclusively in Hindi or some other Indian language, or speaking English with a heavy accent immediately labeled you as a hillbilly from the boondocks. Interestingly, when I went to college and was exposed to kids whose parents were not filthy rich and written about in the newspapers everyday, I found that speaking exclusively in English (or not being able to perfectly pronounce Hindi words) invited an equal amount of social ostracism. It's bewildering for someone like me who uses both languages on a daily basis. While I usually speak in English with my family and friends, I use a lot of Hindi with them as well, depending on the situation and mood. I don't know if the assumptions in the article are perfectly true but I do know that if I want to be simply rude or sarcastic, I would probably use English, but if I wanted to swear at a driver of a flashy car that just tried to run me over - regardless of the fact that he would probably understand "f*** you" - I wouldn't dream of using anything other than a colourful Indian swearword directed at his mother. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Calvino Diglot Groupie Sweden sammafllod.wordpress Joined 5966 days ago 65 posts - 66 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: French, Spanish, German | Message 5 of 13 19 January 2009 at 2:57pm | IP Logged | ||
Cuz it's the language of luuuuv! But it seems ridiculous to assert that German would make you aggressive. Everyone knows that Germany is the land of "poets and dreamers". Except when they go to war, or play football, when they become the well-greased gears of a slick disciplinary machine. ;) Edited by Calvino on 19 January 2009 at 2:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Jiwon Triglot Moderator Korea, South Joined 6436 days ago 1417 posts - 1500 votes Speaks: EnglishC2, Korean*, GermanC1 Studies: Hindi, Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 13 19 January 2009 at 3:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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The author of this article is has a very simple mind and way too simplistic way of thinking. Of course the language you are using affects your responses to other people, but nothing as obvious as "If you use German, you become aggressive". If you look at it in a good way, the article is a nice time-killer and an intellectual stimulant; if you look at it from the other side, it's no more than a re-iteration of what everyone who speaks more than one language knows, and an over-generalised account of an individual who just happens to be a journalist and has to write something to impress anglophones.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Akbaboy Hexaglot Newbie United States Joined 5788 days ago 35 posts - 36 votes Speaks: English*, German, Portuguese, Cantonese, Catalan, French Studies: Mandarin, Spanish, Dutch | Message 7 of 13 19 January 2009 at 3:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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Its actually a romance language, kinda like main languages.....
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6034 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 8 of 13 19 January 2009 at 3:30pm | IP Logged | ||
It's funny that you say this. In my view, Anglophobes are relatively tolerant to differences in accent. In Bulgaria speaking with a strong accent automatically makes you a second-hand citizen. Only the way people speak in Sofia is OK, anything else becomes a source of ridicule. I was raised to believe that speaking with an accent is extreme provincialism and must be avoided at all costs. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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