Friday, January 10, 2014

Language dominance


The number of alphabets is astonishing and awesome. That is a wonderful take away from my time in Beijing, and 3 cities each in Cambodia and Vietnam. If I were queen of the U.S., I would make every child learn a second language and then at least have the basics of a third which had a different script - just to expose them to the world a bit more. 

Before I left on this trip, I read a fabulous piece by David Sedaris, the American humorist that can have me laughing out loud like no other, in "Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls", his latest book. He writes about how many Americans travel and don't even bother to learn "thank you" in other languages as he takes readers through his recent attempts at Japanese and the omissions in introductory language texts. I managed to get "Thank You" down in Phnom Penh by about day 3 and look it up in advance for Vietnam - saying it timidly each time until about half way through the journey. In Beijing a couple hours after arrival on the first night an adorable 5 year old at a family owned restaurant taught us. 

Maybe you could find a menu in New York City in multiple languages but you wouldn't expect to go to a Starbucks and have someone be able to help you in Chinese. "Cold water" in Chinese? I don't know, let alone have it listed in my menu in Chinese. But I get it - English is a lingua Franca. I've met 4 Swedes on this trip (and 2 Canadians, massive numbers of Aussies, a Brit, 2 Mexicans, Brazilians etc.) English, yeah it is almost exclusively used. But how crazy is it I could leave Sweden not knowing a word in Chinese beyond "hello" and expect no trouble. To be honest, I didn't even really think about it. When getting my Chinese visa the officer in Stockholm was willing to help me in Swedish or English. In the U.S. within discussions of race, we talk about being white and how many white people don't think race is a problem because they haven't had to consider it. That alone displays their privilege and is an example of the constructed and inherited power. It is analogous to what I realized once again or in a new way on this trip. I didn't even think about learning some Chinese before I left, I knew I could get by just fine. 

Although I study how to create positive peace and slowly dismantle structural violence, relearning or being reminded of your own privilege is important. 

And yeah, Queen Anna thinks we should all try to learn a language with a script different than our own. 

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