A Backlash Against Chauvinism and The Native Tongue
As many yell at Hispanic Americans "Learn English!" with the venom of bigotry and self-importance, we have all but forgotten about the urban enclaves chockful of immigrants from other countries that have not learned English either...
This is the first official week of our hanging out and the last week of my spiritual exercise in humility. There are still two weeks left to go before Robin’s maid comes back full-time. But the impending holiday has caused us both to begin daydreaming too much to polish anything but our imaginations. Robin set about hiring professionals to tidy up the place while we cozied up in comfort in one of the back parlors. She started with the woman from [the cleaning company with the fairytale name] on Monday morning; it proved quite difficult. The woman barely understood English. Robin has mentioned previously that it was all she could do to get through French 2 in college. “What languages do you know again?” she asked as she picked me up from work. “French, German, ---that much Japanese and Spanish…why?” “Is German anything like…Russian?” I laughed out loud then stopped when I saw the troubled look on her face. “Who speaks Russian?” “The new temporary housekeeper” “Wow!” I answered, then troubled my own brow with the memory of an Ask E. Jean column where a woman asked her advice about learning Spanish and she answered, “Who are you trying to talk to, the gardener?!” Yes, we needed to tread lightly, least we seem as insensitive as E. Jean.
As we talked about her frustration with the new housekeeper, something seemed so familiar about the whole scene. “Let one sort this through…she understood when you explained about the sorting of the clothing and not touching your office and crafts room?" "Yes" "But she went into full 'does not compute' mode when you began explaining how you wanted her to clean the beams and open the curtains as she cleaned each room?" "Yes! And I even tried to show her" "Hmm..." "What is it?" "I heard similar stories when I lived in South Florida: domestics that SUDDENLY didn't understand English when something difficult or time consuming was asked of them." "You think she was faking?" "Well, I am off Wednesday, I'll come by and we'll see." I recounted for her amusement and caution, a tale from South Florida of a Caribbean domestic that acted like she was mentally challenged in order not to do windows; yet she understood when her employer was commenting in this fashion about how she was going to fire her: 'You know the domestic is oppositional when it comes to the glass portals. I assume research into alternate services is in order...' You cannot imagine how quickly she began cleaning the windows! Just before she left this persons employ, the employer found out that the domestic had been a staff assistant to a Senator in her home country- an English speaking country.
Wednesday I was picked up from my appointment and kept out of sight as often as possible- which is often easy in a home that size. The company had sent another woman who supposedly spoke English 'very well'. I found her in the upstairs laundry room mumbling to herself, "Leave (something in another language)! Hurry and leave!" over and over again. After listening to this mantra several times I realized she must be referring to Robin. I wrote the phrase phonetically on a piece of paper and advised Robin to ask the driver (who is also one of the owners) what the phrase meant. "There is a reason she did not say it in English" "Do you think she was calling me a name?" "While I'm thinking about it, ask her why she wants you to leave..." Robin nicely and frankly asked the woman why she wanted her to leave. First, she denied that she'd said it, when I appeared behind Robin, she began wailing and acting dramatic, yelling about people spying on her. Robin called the company and asked them to pick her up.
When the driver arrived I pronounced the phrase phonetically and asked him what it meant; he refused to answer me. When Robin asked, he claimed it did not matter. Robin did something I had never seen her do- she got angry. "You are refusing to tell me because it is rude, isn't that true?!" The driver relented and translated the phrase...apparently, Robin was a 'skinny rich B--ch' in the housekeeper's mind. They were both asked to leave. The scheduler kept calling but Robin and I were too busy searching through the entries for Housekeeping in the Yellow Pages.
I know people whose great grandparents are immigrants, as well as those whom are immigrants themselves. Ellis Island has entangled in its history a dirty little secret...many names were changed from native languages to more 'American sounding' names. The attitude of 'assimilate or perish!' has persisted in this country. Those who speak English with accents are segregated subconsciously from those who speak it with 'native accents' (think Brooklynites). Those who find our bastardized, convoluted form of English hard to learn are chastized as not 'trying' to learn. This is NOT an easy language. If it were, an English major would be a one year degree at community colleges. It contains words from other languages- spelled the same- with different meanings; and some meanings have changed from their origins within our country.
I am not saying that everyone should forget their native tongue the moment they touch down in America, nor am I saying everyone should just go about speaking their native tongue and hoping we understand eventually; I'm saying WE as Americans should be a little more understanding of the difficulty behind studying OUR language. And as for those who feel the Hispanics presently in America are getting away with something by not fully embracing English; citing immigrants who HAD to learn English from Europe...recognize that the Little Italys and Slavic Villages of our major cities are still housing some of the most die-hard non-English speakers in the country. Are you going to go there and yell at those little old ladies too?
I remember a vocabulary lesson my gu-mere gave me once with a parable attached. She said, "a fren is nothing like a friend, but more like a stranger until 'I'enter a common 'ND'ing". Are these people friends or strangers? Or are they frens who could be friends? If you are basing it on whether they know your language or not, you may be missing out. Not all people speaking a foreign tongue within ten feet of you are talking about you; try to assume the best in people before the worst.
This is the first official week of our hanging out and the last week of my spiritual exercise in humility. There are still two weeks left to go before Robin’s maid comes back full-time. But the impending holiday has caused us both to begin daydreaming too much to polish anything but our imaginations. Robin set about hiring professionals to tidy up the place while we cozied up in comfort in one of the back parlors. She started with the woman from [the cleaning company with the fairytale name] on Monday morning; it proved quite difficult. The woman barely understood English. Robin has mentioned previously that it was all she could do to get through French 2 in college. “What languages do you know again?” she asked as she picked me up from work. “French, German, ---that much Japanese and Spanish…why?” “Is German anything like…Russian?” I laughed out loud then stopped when I saw the troubled look on her face. “Who speaks Russian?” “The new temporary housekeeper” “Wow!” I answered, then troubled my own brow with the memory of an Ask E. Jean column where a woman asked her advice about learning Spanish and she answered, “Who are you trying to talk to, the gardener?!” Yes, we needed to tread lightly, least we seem as insensitive as E. Jean.
As we talked about her frustration with the new housekeeper, something seemed so familiar about the whole scene. “Let one sort this through…she understood when you explained about the sorting of the clothing and not touching your office and crafts room?" "Yes" "But she went into full 'does not compute' mode when you began explaining how you wanted her to clean the beams and open the curtains as she cleaned each room?" "Yes! And I even tried to show her" "Hmm..." "What is it?" "I heard similar stories when I lived in South Florida: domestics that SUDDENLY didn't understand English when something difficult or time consuming was asked of them." "You think she was faking?" "Well, I am off Wednesday, I'll come by and we'll see." I recounted for her amusement and caution, a tale from South Florida of a Caribbean domestic that acted like she was mentally challenged in order not to do windows; yet she understood when her employer was commenting in this fashion about how she was going to fire her: 'You know the domestic is oppositional when it comes to the glass portals. I assume research into alternate services is in order...' You cannot imagine how quickly she began cleaning the windows! Just before she left this persons employ, the employer found out that the domestic had been a staff assistant to a Senator in her home country- an English speaking country.
Wednesday I was picked up from my appointment and kept out of sight as often as possible- which is often easy in a home that size. The company had sent another woman who supposedly spoke English 'very well'. I found her in the upstairs laundry room mumbling to herself, "Leave (something in another language)! Hurry and leave!" over and over again. After listening to this mantra several times I realized she must be referring to Robin. I wrote the phrase phonetically on a piece of paper and advised Robin to ask the driver (who is also one of the owners) what the phrase meant. "There is a reason she did not say it in English" "Do you think she was calling me a name?" "While I'm thinking about it, ask her why she wants you to leave..." Robin nicely and frankly asked the woman why she wanted her to leave. First, she denied that she'd said it, when I appeared behind Robin, she began wailing and acting dramatic, yelling about people spying on her. Robin called the company and asked them to pick her up.
When the driver arrived I pronounced the phrase phonetically and asked him what it meant; he refused to answer me. When Robin asked, he claimed it did not matter. Robin did something I had never seen her do- she got angry. "You are refusing to tell me because it is rude, isn't that true?!" The driver relented and translated the phrase...apparently, Robin was a 'skinny rich B--ch' in the housekeeper's mind. They were both asked to leave. The scheduler kept calling but Robin and I were too busy searching through the entries for Housekeeping in the Yellow Pages.
I know people whose great grandparents are immigrants, as well as those whom are immigrants themselves. Ellis Island has entangled in its history a dirty little secret...many names were changed from native languages to more 'American sounding' names. The attitude of 'assimilate or perish!' has persisted in this country. Those who speak English with accents are segregated subconsciously from those who speak it with 'native accents' (think Brooklynites). Those who find our bastardized, convoluted form of English hard to learn are chastized as not 'trying' to learn. This is NOT an easy language. If it were, an English major would be a one year degree at community colleges. It contains words from other languages- spelled the same- with different meanings; and some meanings have changed from their origins within our country.
I am not saying that everyone should forget their native tongue the moment they touch down in America, nor am I saying everyone should just go about speaking their native tongue and hoping we understand eventually; I'm saying WE as Americans should be a little more understanding of the difficulty behind studying OUR language. And as for those who feel the Hispanics presently in America are getting away with something by not fully embracing English; citing immigrants who HAD to learn English from Europe...recognize that the Little Italys and Slavic Villages of our major cities are still housing some of the most die-hard non-English speakers in the country. Are you going to go there and yell at those little old ladies too?
I remember a vocabulary lesson my gu-mere gave me once with a parable attached. She said, "a fren is nothing like a friend, but more like a stranger until 'I'enter a common 'ND'ing". Are these people friends or strangers? Or are they frens who could be friends? If you are basing it on whether they know your language or not, you may be missing out. Not all people speaking a foreign tongue within ten feet of you are talking about you; try to assume the best in people before the worst.
Labels: Bigotry from emigres, Language Politics
posted by ScreenGoddessComplex at 4:22 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home