|
 |
Learning languages despite of racism | ||
Tags: Discrimination | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| ManicGenius Senior Member United States Joined 5481 days ago 288 posts - 420 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese | Message 9 of 22 02 April 2010 at 5:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
... No. It's not 1938 anymore.
Again no. Racism (I believe), is a mixture of society, upbringing and exposure. I'm going to reference America here since, well... I live here and it's known for being very diverse. Societal Pressure: At least where I live, racism is heavily frowned upon. Other areas in the US it can be embraced, and therefore is very much alive. Upbringing: My parents brought me up teaching me everyone is essentially the same regardless of how they look. As such, I grew up with friends from literally every "race" (I don't believe in "race". Unless your a neanderthal, your the same as me). Exposure: Growing up with friends of every color/creed I have no apprehensions when approached or talking to someone else who looks/speaks/acts differently. However, I know people who have very sparingly met someone different than them in their lifetime and often feel apprehensive, frightened, awkward, or the keyword here: combative. --- Outside of that little rant I should add: Don't let worries or people dictate what you do in life, as long as it harms no-one and gives you satisfaction. Learn those languages, you'll find great people from everywhere regardless of skin tone, nationality and tradition. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| DavidW Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6526 days ago 318 posts - 458 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French, Italian, Persian, Malay Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Portuguese, German, Urdu | Message 10 of 22 02 April 2010 at 8:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
In response to the original question, I don't think you'd have any problems in France, at least in the major cities, it's quite a mix already with lots of immigrants from different parts of the world naturalised to different degrees. Not to say there aren't still tensions. I don't know what the situation is like in Italy.
I can sympathise with this worry. Calling for people to be high minded and tolerant is all very good, but in some places people will assume a lot based on your physical appearance and treat you differently, and this can make integrating an uphill battle. When I was in KL, Malaysia, often people would flat refuse to speak to me in Malay (I'm English), while friends from southern India (who knew no Malay) told me people tried to address them in Malay all the time. I guess the situation of the Malay language is a little complicated. But as soon as you cross the border into Indonesia (or perhaps go to smaller towns away from the capital..), people are delighted to speak the language with you. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 11 of 22 02 April 2010 at 10:48pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
I learn languages for myself. Not for others. I live in a country where I've been told
racist comments even though I was born here and my ancestors have been here 400 years. Therefore, personally, I don't care if others are racists towards me. I will continue to live my life and try to achieve the goals I've set for myself. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| The Blaz Senior Member Canada theblazblog.blogspotRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5600 days ago 120 posts - 176 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Swahili, French, Sign Language, Esperanto | Message 12 of 22 02 April 2010 at 11:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
A (white, male, English speaking) friend of mine has been living in the UK for over a
year now and has barely made any British friends. Instead, he socializes with other foreign students. But this isn't necessarily because British society is insular, but because it can take some extra effort to break into pre-existing social circles if you don't have a natural way in. I'm glad you find Canadians welcoming, but I wouldn't necessarily invite anyone into my home unless I became friends with them, and that pretty much just takes time and conversation. I realize this is separate from racism but in general it is true that the experience you have in a country is dependent on how much you are able to actually get to know people. Yes, perhaps your experience would be marred by some experience of racism, but on the other hand, the chance of that happening could also be rather low. I like to think that very few people have issues with socializing across race lines in this day and age. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| dantalian Diglot Senior Member Bouvet Island Joined 5682 days ago 125 posts - 156 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 13 of 22 02 April 2010 at 11:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Probably, you need to lower a bit your expectations about people in general. Lots of them are biased, uneducated or simply ignorant. Try not to visit places where you can be physically abused and pay less attention on verbal "attacks" wherever they may take place. After all it is up to you to decide on how to react and if you firmly decide not to be hurt you won't be hurt whatever you would hear by chance. Words are just words it is you who give them the sense.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| OlafP Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5435 days ago 261 posts - 667 votes Speaks: German*, French, English | Message 14 of 22 03 April 2010 at 12:18am | IP Logged | |||||
It's probably not the best idea to assume that people who keep a certain distance to others are discriminatory. It might be true but you could also be completely wrong with that. When you compare whole nations with one another then I'm quite sure your assumption is wrong. There are cultural differences which may lead you on the wrong track. Once I read a book on body language, where the author described an experiment set up some by behavioral psychologists. They told their test persons that someone else would approach them, drawing closer and closer. The test person should say "Stop!" when they had the impression that the other person would intrude into their private space. The psychologists found that this distance is quite equal among the people of every nationality but varies heavily between different nationalities. Among the nationalities they had included into their experiment they found that the difference is biggest between Norwegians and Americans. The author of the book came up with a funny image, saying that if a Norwegian and an American would start a conversation at one end of a long corridor they could find themselves at the other end half an hour later without moving deliberately, because the American would unconsciously draw closer and the Norwegian would unconsciously back off all the time. I think this is quite a good example for cultural differences that cannot always be measured in centimeters. It is part of the process of language learning to also learn how to interprete the behavior of people of various nationalities. It is easy to attribute unexpected effects to xenophobia, because for obvious reasons a single person cannot easily find out how the natives behave if no foreigner is around. My experience tells me that the French switch to a defensive behavior when they feel insecure in a situation, hence the myth of "French arrogance". Someone from an Asian country would probably start to smile in a similar situation. If you don't know how to interprete these things you can get in all sorts of trouble, and then it's easy to blame the natives for it. You can draw the same wrong conclusions if no cultural differences are involved. You may think that people react in a certain way towards you because you're too tall or too thin or your nose is too big or whatever. The crucial point is that once such ideas are ingrained into your brain you will behave in a way that causes people to behave differently. This is known under the term "self-fulfilling prophecy". If you look or sound like a foreigner in a country you have an easy way of stepping into this trap. I don't say that there is no such thing as racism, because unfortunately there is. My point is that you shouldn't project your own ideas on others or attribute something to xenophobia that really is only a lack of knowledge on your side. 8 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| nescafe Senior Member Japan Joined 5409 days ago 137 posts - 227 votes | Message 15 of 22 03 April 2010 at 1:46am | IP Logged | |||||
|
ManicGenius, Yes, and I have to say the scheme of majority vs minority may be already a racist thought. I made a distinction between majority and minority first, but it is a very subjective one. Unfortunately, when it comes to racial issue, the differerence is easily known by appearence. Racism wll be in principle the discrimination on appearence.
I know both the majority and minority are responsible for racism. I mean, [1] A certain percent of majority is racist or racistic, statically. [2] Minorities are likely to be too sensitive to possible racism, maybe overly sensitive so as to find the ghost of racism where no racism is actualy going. I personaly am not afraid of being an outsider, and be ineterested purely in languages (To learn a way to express things in exotic, sound-like-poetry ways is my reason for languages.). Anyway, nothing is impossible to overcome, I do not think racism can be a big obstucle to learning language in this day and age. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| brian91 Senior Member Ireland Joined 5444 days ago 335 posts - 437 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 16 of 22 03 April 2010 at 12:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
These are my thoughts exactly, and this is why I joined Amnesty International. Pleasance, I wish you every success. I am not sure whether or not to say Ireland is a friendly, welcoming country, as I need to travel more. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
