Comments on: How can we change language habits?

By: Livia

Livia — Thu, 09 Aug 2018 23:50:24 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot about Professor Puigdevall’s recent lecture and how the concept of muda might apply to my own research. The majority of young German backpackers entering Australia on a working holidaymaker visa do so at a ‘transformative juncture’ in their lives: they’re often taking a gap year between finishing high school and before entering university or the workforce. Arriving in Australia, they quickly need to adjust to hearing & speaking English, a language which – until now – was reserved for the foreign language classroom. Working and travelling, and being constantly on the move, means these young Germans need to form new habits in their everyday communication. However, these habits are somewhat complicated by the fact that they frequently come into contact with other German-speakers or ‘undesireable’ English-speaking interlocutors with lower English language proficiency than themselves. I’ve been thinking about whether the gap year experience can be described as a muda in the case of gap year travel, and what that would mean for young Germans as ‘new speakers’ of English within this specific context.
Thank you, Maite, for answering our questions before and after your engaging lecture, and I look forward to continuing the conversation online!

By: Elizabeth Gunn

Elizabeth Gunn — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 06:24:47 +0000

One of my colleagues speaks Manx (we work in Melbourne) and he takes all sorts of opportunities to use Manx; eg. taking notes at meetings, singing Manx hymns, appearing on Manx radio while he’s on holiday, and I’m sure there are many more opportunities he could tell you about. He’s absolutely ingenious in finding new ways to make Manx a habit. Maybe he’s even reading this comment and will shine more light on my (limited) observations of his Manx use…

By: Madiha

Madiha — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 02:17:25 +0000

It was an interesting lecture delivered by prof. Maite, especially the term ‘muda’ was a new learning, though the concept associated with muda was such that one could easily relate to. I also see great role of language ideologies in what, when, where, and how you speak. Agreeing with Ingrid, that the lecture inspires us to think of the moments where bilingual proficiencies may be turned into bilingual habits, I remember that I never used ‘Punjabi’ even though I knew it long before I entered the university as a professional. I was told and taught to speak either in ‘Urdu or English’. Punjabi was just the language of my grandparents and I gradually absorbed it as I saw and hear them speaking it. I never used the language with anyone other than my grandparents until and unless I came to know that not only it was considered a less prestigious language, but it was in contradictory spoken and well acknowledged by highly educated people who took pleasure speaking and conversing in Punjabi. So it was my employment actually which proved to be the language activation juncture.

Thanks Prof. Ingrid for giving us a chance to get familiar with what’s happening around us in the field, and I really look forward to other interesting talks!