I do not have "On Bullshit" yet, but Amazon said it should be arriving soon. Meanwhile, I have had the essays, "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan and "From Outside, In" by Barbara Mellix, to occupy my time. Both were an interesting read and both followed the same premise: language at home for them was embarrassing so they tried hard to overcome that language, and only through that process did they come to respect the language that they were formerly embarrassed of. I liked Mellix's essay more because she conveyed the nervousness of what it was like to speak "formally" so well. I felt her unease in those situations.
While reading these essays I came up with an analogy that I liked: language is just like the clothes we wear. At home you can wear sweatpants and slippers, and you can speak more comfortably. But elsewhere, in more formal settings, language becomes more polished and proper, as do the clothes we wear. Mellix was often the most uncomfortable with her speech when she was in her "Sunday's best"- the desire to sound her best while she was dressed in her best. So I can imagine that her feelings of discomfort were figurative, as well as literal. I can also imagine that when the ability to speak as well as you are dressed becomes habit, you may look back fondly at those comfy sweatpants.
I really like your comparison between language and clothing. I think it is true that language can be sort of transparent. Thinking of my own language between my family and I opposed to a co-worker does resemble comfortable,relaxed conversation versus a more formal,structured language and word choice. I also thought your comment about the two authors Mellix and Tan's experience with language being embarrassing was thought provoking.Why is it that "broken" or "vernacular" language is viewed as "lesser" english? That sort of implies a sort of hierarchy within language and a measurement of intelligence. Looking at the article written by Amy Tan, it seems that native english speakers often assume that non native english speakers are simple minded people and easy to manipulate because of their struggle with communication. I also thought that the two reactions to this sort of language conformity was interesting. For example, in the article written by Mellix it seems that she decided to conform to appropriating her various languages, knowing when to speak "slang" and when to be "professional" and grammatically correct. As for Amy Tan she decided to conform as well but her mother seemed to be more rebellious and choosing to communicate in a sort of "fragmented way". In my own experiences I see younger generations choosing to become bilingual and sort of bicultural whereas older generations sometimes never even choose to learn english. What does that convey? Are they ultimately trying to preserve their culture? Identity? Or perhaps are they resisting the idea of masking and unmasking their identity in various settings? Is that what altering language to fit our environments suggest?
ReplyDeleteI loved that analogy between language and clothing also.
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