Traveling Beans

Some more comments on our language comments

Since the current theme on this here blog seems to be revolving around the relativity and the distinctiveness of language, I thought that I would add in my two cents.
Having lived now in four Spanish speaking countries, I am also now able to make some jokes and distinctions about language in different places. For example, I have been able to be shocked by the nonchalant use of ‘culo’ in Spain to describe someone’s buttocks, whereas in Mexico, the same word appears mostly in HipHop songs and conversations between teenage boys. The word in Mexico was ‘fuerte’, strong; in Spain, it was just another word. In Mexico, I also ‘walked the vacuum cleaner’, and ‘had a man’ when really I was just hungry. Also, looking for a comb could be dangerous, as ‘peine’ (comb), has only a slightly different pronunciation from ‘pene’ (penis). Such are the joys of speaking a language that is not one’s own.
Language can also reveal particular attributes about the ways that people think about life. Linguistic structures expose cultural attitudes; euphemisms often incorporate aspects of cultural histories or commonplace items. For example, many people joke about the phrasing in Spanish of things like “I forgot”. In Spanish, rather than you taking responsibility for forgetting something, the object forgets itself to you! Literally, you say, “My purse forgot itself to me in the restaurant”. For some people, this kind of roundabout way of saying things, identifiable in many phrases in Spanish, is emblematic of the way many of these cultures avoid direct confrontations, and rather often beat around the bush a bit. As far as euphemisms go, I remember in high school discussing sayings with a friend from Slovenia. When I brought up our dicho, “Don’t pull my leg”, he informed me that the saying with the same significance is, “Don’t sell me pumpkins”. This struck me as hysterical, but made sense when he explained that there is a plethora of pumpkins in Slovenia; trying to sell them to someone would be selling them something of little value, it would be wasting their time.
Attitudes towards particular languages can also be extremely revealing. Just as Jackie elaborated on the linguistic superiority that many native English speakers feel in a country where the language may be used “incorrectly,” Guatemala is a country largely shaped by linguistic divisions and particularly arrogant attitudes about language. There are more than two dozen languages spoken in Guatemala’s various region, a source of pride for the tourism industry, but historically a ‘problem’ the government and society has done its best to do away with. Similar to the United States, the government has limited the teaching of classes in indigenous languages, and in many places on the street, speaking an indigenous tongue is viewed as a sign of being uneducated, rather than a valued skill. By the same token, in retaliation, some indigenous communities attempt to shield their children from learning Spanish, fearing that such knowledge, particularly if gained through a formal education, will mean a gradual loss of indigenous culture in the next generation. At the same time, some young indigenous people who grow up speaking Spanish refuse to learn their language of heritage, an attitude influenced by ever-present racist undertones in greater Guatemalan society and culture. In these ways, the prejudice of people on both sides of the Guatemalan language divide blocks a mutual understanding and the creation of cultural spaces that would value both the Ladino and Indigenous aspects of the national legacy.
Language then, and people’s attitudes expressed both in actual speaking and in opinions or feelings about particular languages themselves, are informative, interesting and important cultural markers. Languages can reveal ways of thinking, world views, histories, and current power relations. They can connect us to people or separate us from them based on our understandings and uses, they can be funny, offensive, useful, but there is no denying the power of the spoken word.
Acknowledging all of this, the relativity of language for me is best captured in the following description: In Cuba, ‘coger’ is to take, or grab. A ‘guagua’ (pronounced wa-wa) is a bus. It is perfectly normal then, to “coger la guagua”. Say the same thing in Chile, however, and the reactions you get will be shocked and horrified, as there, the slang would translate your transportation plan into plans to “fuck (the slang meaning of coger) a baby (a guagua)”. Important then to watch what we say, and imperative to be able to laugh in retrospect at the variability of the ways that we communicate with each other, and indeed what it is that we may accidentally find ourselves communicating.

posted by Hilary King @ 7:36 AM