Language - Words, Phrases, Sentences

 Man acts as though he were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language remains the master of man. 

Martin Heidegger

“Building, Thinking, Dwelling”

For years, we have tried as people to master language, but the unfortunate truth is that language is what controls us. We need it to communicate with others, to sell and buy, to learn, educate. Ironically enough, people tend to use this same tool as a means of power over others. In India, those who speak Hindi are considered superior as that is the national language. Similarly in America and Britain, those who speak a specific dialect of English consider themselves to be better than others. 

I come from a family in which we speak multiple languages: English, Urdu, and Punjabi. Along with these, my dad can understand Pashto and Sairaki and my entire family can understand Egyptian Arabic. With that being said, there are many languages swarming around in my mind but the language I am most comfortable speaking in is English. For a time, I used to think that I did not have an accent at all. Those who spoke English with an Arab, Indian, Pakistani, British, etc. accent had one but not me because I speak “American” English. It was not until I took a linguistics course last semester in which I realized that I too have an accent, an American accent. I used to feel a sense of pride for being able to speak English “without” an accent when I was a child but then I realized that accents are simply another barrier created by people to separate some from others. 

My parents are from Pakistan, where they learned multiple languages and acquired a high quality education. In addition to that, they continued their education here as well. However, there are people who judge them, look down upon them, or mock them for their accents. When they first arrived, they would use terms from British English, as that is the English they were taught in Pakistan due to colonialism. Using different words (such as “lift” instead of “elevator” or spelling “colour” instead of “color”) also got them weird looks from others. Something else they did in the beginning was lose words in translation. It is difficult to translate one language to another exactly as there are words or concepts that exist in one language but not the other. Their “bad grammar” (which was simply mixing up words in a sentence) made others think they were uneducated or civilized. Now when I think about these incidents, it truly hurts me to think that my parents went through such mockery and disrespect when they were so much smarter than most people they encountered.

The number one spoken language in the United States is Spanish yet people yell “if you want to live here, you need to speak English!”. There is no law or regulation that states any such thing yet people insist that speaking English is the only characteristic that makes you American. Speaking another language seems to be intimidating to those who cannot understand, as it makes them feel inferior because they only speak one language. No matter how hard they try to escape it, this country is a combination of so many various languages and cultures and if, like Europe, they embraced them instead of denying or trying to shun them out, they would be more successful as a nation. In Europe, students are encouraged to learn more than one language which makes them more open to the different cultures on the continent.

Speaking of Europe, those who speak European languages such as French, German, Polish and others or even speak with one of their accents (especially a British accent) are considered “sophisticated”, “knowledgeable”, and “educated”. It’s very ironic that these people are praised for their accents or their ability to speak multiple languages but if another man speaks a language such as Arabic or has an Indian accent, they are considered the opposite. 

In this country, people have fought tirelessly for language equality and awareness. In the early 20th century, Mexican and Japanese students organized protests due to the lack of resources allotted to them for their education. The country wanted (and still wants) its children to grow up learning English yet they did not give minority children enough resources to achieve that goal. In today’s day and age, students complain about spending long hours completing homework or having extensive classwork. However, the students in this time period wanted the extra work to help them improve and become educated yet the tools needed for them to meet this goal were not given to them. Also, these students were discriminated against because of their native languages. 

Although many people still face discrimination on multiple levels, it is safe to say that country seems to be going in the direction of becoming more open and accepting.