Comments on: Language and inflation https://languageonthemove.com/language-and-inflation/ Multilingualism, Intercultural communication, Consumerism, Globalization, Gender & Identity, Migration & Social Justice, Language & Tourism Sat, 07 Aug 2010 08:56:30 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 By: Khan https://languageonthemove.com/language-and-inflation/#comment-1757 Sat, 07 Aug 2010 08:56:30 +0000 http://www.languageonthemove.com/?p=2384#comment-1757 Hi Vahid

Delighted to hear such generous comment. Thanks very much indeed. To tell you the truth the inspiration was very forceful.

Best

Khan

]]> By: vahid https://languageonthemove.com/language-and-inflation/#comment-1752 Sat, 07 Aug 2010 00:25:17 +0000 http://www.languageonthemove.com/?p=2384#comment-1752 Hello Khan!

Superb adaptation!

best,
vahid

]]> By: Ingrid Piller https://languageonthemove.com/language-and-inflation/#comment-1747 Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:57:32 +0000 http://www.languageonthemove.com/?p=2384#comment-1747 Great adaptation! The original is one of my favourite poems. Thank you so much for sharing this on Language-on-the-Move, Khan!

]]> By: Khan https://languageonthemove.com/language-and-inflation/#comment-1746 Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:12:59 +0000 http://www.languageonthemove.com/?p=2384#comment-1746 Dear Ingid
Thanks very much for a wonderful post. It triggerd many questions which I would like to ask through an adapted version of Roberst Frost’s poem’ Mending Wall” (North of Boston,1914)

Something there is that loves a wall,
That thaws the frozen-ground-swell under it
And cements the boulders in the wall,
And fills the gap where people can pass through. The linguistic variations I mean,

No one has seen them fill the gaps or heard them made
But they are there.
I let my neighbour know beyond the boarder
We dont need this wall,
You speak Japenese and I Persian.
My language will never kill yours, I tell him.
He only says, ” Good English makes good nations”
What is good English? whose English is good?
Why is your English poor?

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that loves a wall. I could see
My feeble words did not affect him,
He says again,” Good English makes good nations”

Thanks once again for inspirational analysis!
Best
Khan

]]> By: Peter Ives https://languageonthemove.com/language-and-inflation/#comment-1743 Thu, 05 Aug 2010 13:51:39 +0000 http://www.languageonthemove.com/?p=2384#comment-1743 Thanks for this Ingrid, I think the idea of the inflationary pressure on language learning is insightful. Knowing little about the Japanese case, I will add that I think theres also more going on here than straightforward inflation, in any even sense. The contradiction you point out is crucial and to the extent that language is a marker of class and a control in the labour market, I wonder how the notion of Japanese in general not being good at English functions in important ways which has little to do with how well Japanese actually speak English (and how that is judged). Thanks so much, Language on the Move is fabulous!!

]]> By: vahid https://languageonthemove.com/language-and-inflation/#comment-1741 Thu, 05 Aug 2010 05:16:30 +0000 http://www.languageonthemove.com/?p=2384#comment-1741 Hello, Ingrid!

It was in fact an insightful presentation. Many thanks to Prof. Oda and the organizers!

Since yesterday I have been wondering how this process (I mean this pre-occupation with the Native English Other) is not only at work in the metaphors EFL learners produce but is also entrenched through those metaphors. I remember a couple of years ago I conducted a case study with a then-19-year-old EFL learner asking him to complete a form which was something like this:

“A language teacher is … because…”

One of the metaphors he provided me with was this one:

[A language teacher is a bridge! Connecting two places!]

And now I am pretty sure that the first place was the homeland and the second place was the English-speaking Utopia!

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