Hi. So I’m not sure if this is the right sub for this, but it is technically related to languages and language learning, so I hope its ok.
I’m resentful of English and American culture on a larger scope.
I know, I know, the fact that this entire “rant” is being written in the very language i am criticizing is ironic but it also demonstrates my point.
I am so fucking tired of how much english permeates the lives of people on every corner of the globe, how it is the language people turn to in order to express any form of intellectual thought, how generations are favoring it over their mother tongues. Hundreds of languages are DYING every year, taking with them cultures that are thousands of years old and leaving our population that much more of a monolith.
There is nothing wrong with English in and of itself. It is a beautiful language with a long, complex history and it is more than worth learning. But what I resent about it is how American culture is starting to color the realities if people who haven’t even BEEN to the US. Their language and life is overpowering so many unique perspectives all over the world.
And you know what? Its not even just the small, obscure languages with speakers numbering in the thousands. In so many countries, english has already been regulated into the language of the upperclass. I am an Indian living abroad. Recently, i’ve been visiting my home state in India and today I went to the mall. Every. Single. Store. Had a sign in English. If I was LUCKY i could spot maybe 30-40% with sub-signs in my native Telugu or Hindi. I stopped by a bookstore. What language was 90% of the material in? ENGLISH. So, yeah, maybe we still speak our languages at home with family, but do we write in them? Do we read in them? Do we use it for our jobs? The answer is no, almost every single time. I suspect in maybe two or three generations, 90% of the languages in india will be near extinction, with only the state languages barely clinging on as some sort of backup to connect with the boomers.
And people in my country don’t actively try to fight it. English is in our movie signs, 40% of our conversations, even our business dealings! Yeah, I resent them also for not trying harder, but at the end of day, colonialism is to blame.
And please don’t come at me with “well, what’re you doing about it?” Because i AM doing something about it. I’ve been learning to write my native language. I make an effort to speak it a home. I watch shows in it. I am even trying to read / text in it. I even try to speak it with my friends!!! But how do they react? They get all uncomfortable and weird!!!! In this way, i envy people like Germans or Koreans, who hold pride for their language and are able to use it in every level of life.
I am just one person, and stuff like this makes me lose hope that the world won’t just become Greater America. I don’t care what anyone says, language is art. And everyday we are losing that much more of it.
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