I participate on another list where the language issue has come up at
least twice. It's a list for those interested in Latin American languages
and linguistics and has a fairly varied participation with respect to
disciplinary background (linguists, translators, Spanish teachers and
students, computer people) and also language background (Spanish,
English, Brazilian).
Some six months back one of the participants started insisting that only
Spanish should be used. He complained explicitly about the "imperialism"
of the rest of the Net/Web and made a cause about having this space for
Spanish. I'm not sure he said it explicitly but he certainly conveyed an
attitude of "let THEM see what it feels like to struggle with a language
not your own". Others who (coin)/sided with him were Spanish speakers
living in the States, who appealed for the use of Spanish on the basis of
this being one of the few places where they could talk with others in
Spanish. Finally (luckily), what prevailed was a laissez faire attitude
where each speaker was free to choose what language to write in and what
language to respond in. Communication was definitely not a problem:
most of the participants are obviously bilingual or at least proficient
both in English and Spanish .. and ... there were no complaints about posts
in Portuguese, for example. So it was obviously a more ...I'm not sure
what word to use ... political? visceral? reaction to posts in English.
Now, a couple of weeks ago, the same person who started the previous
discussion wrote another fairly acrimonious note referring to some writers'
code-switching between English and Spanish. This led again to a very
prescriptive discussion about language and language use. References to
keeping language "pure", not using "bad" Spanish, not "corrupting" it with
loanwords etc. Again there were a number of responses, mostly from
linguists, stressing that a language grows, flows, changes and that
no stage in a language is better or "purer" than another. Aside from that
for those of us who are constantly interacting in both it's sometimes
very "desgastante" (tiring, takes a lot of effort) to try and keep them
separate.
This, just to illustrate how the issue has come up elsewhere.
Mike's post was aimed perhaps at working out or thinking through some
policy issues for xmca. I think the concern is how to make the very rich
discussion accessible to others and at the same time allow for others'
voices to be heard. I know that in my case I'm always finding discussions
that I would like my students to at least be able to read, that are
relevant to what we're talking about in class or relevant to their
research foci but there's a limit to how much I can translate and organize
for them, there's just too much information and things flow too fast.
English will probably remain as the principal language of use among us,
and that's ok since it seems to be functioning as a lingua franca for the
community. But (just wondering out loud) what happens in multilingual,
multicultural societies, how DO they get organized? Wouldn't it be
possible in this microcosm to find some way of facilitating communication
and at the same time allowing others to use their own voice (adapting
existing tools, designing others, adapting forms of interaction) that
might even provide a model that could perhaps be transposed to larger
multilingual communities/societies? Wishful thinking..I have no answers,
just mounds of messages that pile up for sharing with my students....
Rosa
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Rosa Graciela Montes
Ciencias del Lenguaje
ICSyH - UAP
Maximino Avila Camacho 208 Tel: +52 22 42-23-10, Ext.36
72001 Puebla, Pue. Fax: +52 22 46-26-00
MEXICO
e-mail: rmontes who-is-at cca.pue.udlap.mx
rmontes who-is-at siu.cen.buap.mx
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