Great post! In other regions in which people who use English as a second/ third/ foreign language, it seems to be undergoing a "decolonisation" process: getting rid of the colonial ideologies (e.g., colonisers' language great, languages of the colonised bad; our varieties of English deficit). What do you think it may have to do with the mentality of the speakers of English as the first language?
(I'm a Cantonese native speaker, and acquired English as I grew up in my small world of favourite music and English-speaking culture). Have a good day!
Oo yes, definitely a manifestation of the global domination of English (and, like you mentioned, the symbolic weight of "standard"/elite forms of English). I would be really interested to know more about the linguistic decolonization process going on in HK right now -- I'm sure that in some domains, English is still viewed highly (for example, perhaps with the perception of EMI schools vs. CMI schools? Not sure about this though). Very curious about the overt & covert forces behind it all.
As far as I know, English is still privileged in the education sector, unis are for the most part EMI. Interestingly, some Mainland Chinese students would complain why classes are delivered in English, and there were indeed news about students getting into conflicts with professors over the MoI. This is more an ideological (political) war than really "decolonisation" to me.
That said, on a lighter note, some English users derive a variety of English called Kongish, and incorporate it in their discourse, including poetry (yeah they use Kongish in poems). Have a wonderful weekend!
If that reassures you, while we have to learn two languages (English and another one) in school in France, most people reach about the same level of Americans' "high school Spanish." What's shocking to me is to learn you don't HAVE to learn one in the US! I was sure you had to and classes were simply badly taught.
The data about the disappearance of heritage languages, though, is really depressing too, although I wouldn't be surprised to see similar data in Europe. Many of my French friends with heritage languages (like Mandarin, Vietnamese, and Khmer) barely know a few words..
I think I'm still grappling with that idea of heritage language decline -- it's so normalized for people to not be able to speak their heritage languages after a few generations, and of course it doesn't make them "less" Chinese, Vietnamese, etc. to not speak the language... but I do wish there was more of a shared, community-wide effort to maintain the language in the community!
To make Americans feel less alone, the majority of New Zealanders are also monolingual. My mother was a first/ second generation New Zealander who never learned to speak her family's language and so my brother and I can't either. Incredibly sad about that.
There is a revival in the indigenous language, and the next generation are growing up with more of it than my generation, so maybe there will be a shift but the monolingual thinking is hard to shift because by its very nature it isolates and you end up in a bubble where you think it's normal.
I definitely relate to you about the feelings of language loss, sometimes it can be hard to articulate exactly why! I have heard great things about Maori revitalization in NZ and certainly think that real shift is possible -- but it definitely requires long-term, multigenerational efforts (which it sounds like NZ is doing)!
Sadly its not only America but also Canada that has conflicting messages when it comes to "bilingualism". This especially evident when it comes to minority and Indigenous languages.
Oh absolutely! The decline of Indigenous languages in particular is so unjust and tragic. I also think many Indigenous languages get a bad rap for being "too difficult" to learn, and conclude that revitalization is impossible, which I think is misguided and unhelpful, but that's for another day haha!
Very true. What I've also noticed is that people don't even know about Indigenous languages in the first place so they aren't even on peoples radars to learn about.
For a class project in Grad school, I illustrated, designed and wrote a children's picture book using 7 different languages, 3 of which were Inidgenous. It was a vocabulary book with an illustration of something found in nature. For example a page would have a leaf and around it would be the word for "leaf" in all 7 languages. I did not know any Indigneous languages at the time so I had to do research to find dictonaries and resoruces available to learn the words I needed for the book. It was a challeging but fun project because I got to learn about Indigenous languuages and see that while there aren't many resources, there great ones there!
Thank you for putting what I’ve been thinking about for years into words!! I received the Boren Scholarship in April 2020 to study Portuguese in Brazil but by Spring 2022 (my graduation date) I was still unable to use the award because most countries were still “not approved.” However, people who received the Fulbright to study in Brazil were doing so as early as Fall 2021. I wonder if these decisions have anything to do with this conversation...
Oh my goodness I am also a victim of US program delays/cancellations haha! I was supposed to go to Hong Kong on a Fulbright ETA but everything got paused for the pandemic (and then the program was actually terminated fully for political reasons). It's such an unpredictable world haha...
Great post! In other regions in which people who use English as a second/ third/ foreign language, it seems to be undergoing a "decolonisation" process: getting rid of the colonial ideologies (e.g., colonisers' language great, languages of the colonised bad; our varieties of English deficit). What do you think it may have to do with the mentality of the speakers of English as the first language?
(I'm a Cantonese native speaker, and acquired English as I grew up in my small world of favourite music and English-speaking culture). Have a good day!
Oo yes, definitely a manifestation of the global domination of English (and, like you mentioned, the symbolic weight of "standard"/elite forms of English). I would be really interested to know more about the linguistic decolonization process going on in HK right now -- I'm sure that in some domains, English is still viewed highly (for example, perhaps with the perception of EMI schools vs. CMI schools? Not sure about this though). Very curious about the overt & covert forces behind it all.
As far as I know, English is still privileged in the education sector, unis are for the most part EMI. Interestingly, some Mainland Chinese students would complain why classes are delivered in English, and there were indeed news about students getting into conflicts with professors over the MoI. This is more an ideological (political) war than really "decolonisation" to me.
That said, on a lighter note, some English users derive a variety of English called Kongish, and incorporate it in their discourse, including poetry (yeah they use Kongish in poems). Have a wonderful weekend!
If that reassures you, while we have to learn two languages (English and another one) in school in France, most people reach about the same level of Americans' "high school Spanish." What's shocking to me is to learn you don't HAVE to learn one in the US! I was sure you had to and classes were simply badly taught.
The data about the disappearance of heritage languages, though, is really depressing too, although I wouldn't be surprised to see similar data in Europe. Many of my French friends with heritage languages (like Mandarin, Vietnamese, and Khmer) barely know a few words..
I think I'm still grappling with that idea of heritage language decline -- it's so normalized for people to not be able to speak their heritage languages after a few generations, and of course it doesn't make them "less" Chinese, Vietnamese, etc. to not speak the language... but I do wish there was more of a shared, community-wide effort to maintain the language in the community!
To make Americans feel less alone, the majority of New Zealanders are also monolingual. My mother was a first/ second generation New Zealander who never learned to speak her family's language and so my brother and I can't either. Incredibly sad about that.
There is a revival in the indigenous language, and the next generation are growing up with more of it than my generation, so maybe there will be a shift but the monolingual thinking is hard to shift because by its very nature it isolates and you end up in a bubble where you think it's normal.
I definitely relate to you about the feelings of language loss, sometimes it can be hard to articulate exactly why! I have heard great things about Maori revitalization in NZ and certainly think that real shift is possible -- but it definitely requires long-term, multigenerational efforts (which it sounds like NZ is doing)!
Great post!
Sadly its not only America but also Canada that has conflicting messages when it comes to "bilingualism". This especially evident when it comes to minority and Indigenous languages.
Oh absolutely! The decline of Indigenous languages in particular is so unjust and tragic. I also think many Indigenous languages get a bad rap for being "too difficult" to learn, and conclude that revitalization is impossible, which I think is misguided and unhelpful, but that's for another day haha!
Very true. What I've also noticed is that people don't even know about Indigenous languages in the first place so they aren't even on peoples radars to learn about.
For a class project in Grad school, I illustrated, designed and wrote a children's picture book using 7 different languages, 3 of which were Inidgenous. It was a vocabulary book with an illustration of something found in nature. For example a page would have a leaf and around it would be the word for "leaf" in all 7 languages. I did not know any Indigneous languages at the time so I had to do research to find dictonaries and resoruces available to learn the words I needed for the book. It was a challeging but fun project because I got to learn about Indigenous languuages and see that while there aren't many resources, there great ones there!
Wow I love that!! What a meaningful project! :)
Thank you for putting what I’ve been thinking about for years into words!! I received the Boren Scholarship in April 2020 to study Portuguese in Brazil but by Spring 2022 (my graduation date) I was still unable to use the award because most countries were still “not approved.” However, people who received the Fulbright to study in Brazil were doing so as early as Fall 2021. I wonder if these decisions have anything to do with this conversation...
Oh my goodness I am also a victim of US program delays/cancellations haha! I was supposed to go to Hong Kong on a Fulbright ETA but everything got paused for the pandemic (and then the program was actually terminated fully for political reasons). It's such an unpredictable world haha...