Yesterday I attended a lecture that discussed the pros and cons surrounding assimilation versus pluralism. When asked what are a few cultural elements that would be affected by either of these processes, the standard responses were given: clothing, language, music, religion, customs, social norms, and so on. Choosing to focus on language, Dr. Zaki went into a long explanation of why it was necessary for non-indigenous peoples to learn the language of whatever foreign culture they choose to live in. But, I'll be honest with you all, I have heard this so many times that eventually her words turned into the muffled "blah - blah - blah" that we are all familiar with. Instead of being able to listen, I found myself focusing on my own thoughts of language as it relates to cultural assimilation versus pluralism. What I am left with is a single question that I'd like to pose to you all, and see what you think.
Why is it, that if an academic type has a working knowledge of 3+ languages, we refer to her/him as brilliant; but if a non-academic type is bilingual, Western society often looks down on them as being somehow stupid or rude?
Feel free to discuss.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Multi-linguistic Conundrum
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10 comments:
Is it really that people with two languages are looked down upon in general, or is it more about which people, and which language is their first language? And it is truly a general issue, or certain narrow-minded bigoted individuals who struggle to acknowledge the world isn't like a piece of Wonder Bread. Jeez. I must be cranky today, Dave. Well, shut my mouth!
Hahah "Wonder Bread."
Definitely it's an attitude held by narrow minded bigots; no doubt. But the 'which people' is key too.
Look at this in the context of being in a public place. Then imagine that there is a small group of people who are speaking a different language, one that you don't understand. I've know people to be seriously annoyed by this, paranoid even, "they were laughing at ME" type thing, you know? Then to belay their fear, they accuse the people who are speaking a different language of being stupid, or rude. But they convey this attitude calmly, matter-of-factly.
Cranky? You don't get cranky, do you?
I don't see bilingual people as non-academic.
James,
You rock.
I've flirted with learning two other languages (French and Italian), so I've always been a huge admirer of folks who are bi or multi-lingual. I've met immigrants from all over, and think it's awesome that they've come from a foreign culture and made the very daunting effort to learn how to speak my language knowing that me and most like me here will never make the same effort to learn theirs.
Try Living in NYC - the modern day Babel! With it's myriad of languages, dialects & ELITISMSSSS! Whew! This is such an under-rated topic. Why am I NOT surprised that I'd find U address it, here - Dear DaveJ? ;-)
Fran,
Yeah, you're right, most of us never will. Even if only because we don't need to. There is a cultural shift coming though... I plan on taking a couple years of Spanish beginning next semester.
Cap,
I think I've gained a little more perspective on this today. Was riding the bus, and two gentlemen across from me were speaking what I think was Mandarin. After awhile, the thought occurred to me that I was frustrated that they were speaking in a language that I couldn't understand, because I couldn't listen in on it (I was bored, and curious... needed entertainment). Then after a few more minutes of this, I realized that not being able to understand them made me feel kind of stupid. At that moment it all clicked!
When people cannot understand someone else, it makes them feel ignorant, or stupid. But, human nature does not allow us to think this way about ourselves for too long, without our trying to mitigate the negative feeling. In order to reduce our dissonance, we transfer our own feelings of inadequacy onto the person or source that they stem from. The actor-observer bias in action.
Any less than four languages and you are downright barbaric in my book... btw... there has been studies that the way you think depends on the language you use... so maybe english leads to more thoughts about consumerism, exploitation, 'democratization', the simpsons, hot dogs, etc.
Skeptic,
You're on to something big here. Did you know that a study was conducted that involved going through the English dictionary, word by word, with teh goal being to record every word that describes an emotion? What they found was that there are 2/3 more negative words in the English vocabulary than there are positives.
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