Comments on: Is speaking English a civic duty?

By: Migrant women’s empowerment in the city | Language on the Move

Migrant women’s empowerment in the city | Language on the Move — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 05:33:35 +0000

[…] experiences of migrant women. Additionally, it provides a novel perspective on ethnic enclaves. Much maligned in immigration debates as encouraging segregation, they may actually provide the very environment for migrant women’s […]

By: Begoña Ballester Penalva

Begoña Ballester Penalva — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 17:10:26 +0000

First of all, congratulations because it is a interesting article, but moving on the issue, I would like to say that it is true and ironic that in this globalised world where there (supposedly) are no borders, the real borders are the languages. It is also true that the people with no language are most of the time discriminated, but we would have to think that some of those people have not means to get this required level of English. We just have to look to Spain to see that it is a country which is supported in the tourism, but the most people do not speak properly English, and we cannot blame them, but perhaps we can blame the education they had and the education we are inheriting.

By: Gunnar Gällmo

Gunnar Gällmo — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 16:51:11 +0000

If you don’t speak Dakota, don’t live in Dakota! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakota_language

By: Myths of melting pots and discarded tongues (part 1) | linguistic pulse

Myths of melting pots and discarded tongues (part 1) | linguistic pulse — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 23:42:30 +0000

[…] her recent blog post, Ingrid Piller points out that, in modern Western democracies, language seems to be treated as an […]

By: Ingrid Piller

Ingrid Piller — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 23:05:56 +0000

In reply to Nicholas Subtirelu. Thanks, Nicholas! I think you are right on the money. Most migrants to the US (as to the UK) actually have the ability to speak English; the vast majority of those who can't speak English, don't do so because they "resist" learning English but because they can't (too old, too busy making a living, unable to afford language learning etc.). Most people who are observed speaking a language other than English are then likely to be multilinguals who choose English in one context and other languages in other contexts/with other inlocutors. Unfortunately, monolinguals often seem to have a hard time imagining that speaking a language other than English has absolutely nothing to do with them nor with English ...

By: Nicholas Subtirelu

Nicholas Subtirelu — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 12:46:22 +0000

I’ve had the opportunity to think more in-depth about this topic since reading this post. I’ve noticed that there’s an interesting ambiguity going on, one that I think is actually being capitalized on by those propagating linguistic norms. “Speaking English” can refer to both the abstract sense of having the capacity to use English or the more immediate, concrete question of what language is being used in communication at the moment. It seems that the two are frequently and perhaps purposefully conflated as I think we see going on with the Chinatown example. I am quite skeptical that young children in San Francisco’s Chinatown would have no capacity to speak English (indeed it seems that the bigger problem is ensuring that they are also literate in their heritage language), but the speaker invites us to interpret the use of another language as evidence of a lack of English ability. This is something I’ve found to be an extremely difficult aspect when talking to others about these issues, especially when someone drops a narrative like the Chinatown one into conversation. I’ve sometimes found it difficult to convince people that the momentary speaking on one language is not evidence of inability to speak another (in this case English). Has anyone else experienced this?

By: Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江

Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江 — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 03:27:05 +0000

In reply to Christof Demont-Heinrich. It is also migrants themselves who come to invest heavily in the discourse of speaking English as a civic duty. I've had many conversations with new migrants in Australia, many of whom said that it's their duty to learn English, and those who do not want to, are disrespectful to the nation and thus should go back to where they came from. Linguistic policing among minority migrant groups is as concerning.

By: “Is speaking English a civic duty?” by Ingrid Piller | linguistic pulse

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 17:21:38 +0000

[…] at Language on the Move has written about my article. Go check out her perspective on my work here, and don’t forget to subscribe to the blog she contributes to: Language, migration, and […]

By: Christof Demont-Heinrich

Christof Demont-Heinrich — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:30:43 +0000

It is surely significant that the Russian in the example at the end is (I’m guessing, anyway), Caucasian, and most of those in China Town are not.

On a rather different, and admittedly idealistic note –>

I wish we could persuade members of dominant fundamental groups that life need not be a one-way (language) street, that we all have so much to gain and we lose so much in terms of life experience, richness, etc. by eliminating difference, rather than learning from it, and partaking in it (via language immersion education, etc.).

Ultimately, there is another deep contradiction in the mantra of linguistic/cultural erasure and assimilation, one that, if it were pointed out as being this, I suspect a lot of people would question: It is the mantra of “Less is more!”

Come again!?