Babel Revisited

Catherine delves into the archetypal story and the connection of language and relationships.

From: Chapter 4 Babel Revisited

Being in the Philippines changed my sense about languages, why we care, why we learn. I had found myself connecting with people and understanding patterns of Filipino behavior in ways that I would not otherwise have learned in many years in the country, because when people switch from one language to another, if they’re skillful at all, they also modify behavior. If you want to have someone respond to you in a way that fits the local customs, the best way to get them to do that is to address them in the language of the place. Then the game changes, and the status relationship changes. With any luck, people who may look up to you begin helping you with your mistakes instead of laughing behind your back, but it may be hard to persuade people to do that, for in many places, courtesy forbids pointing out mistakes. And yet when it’s something as simple as language, if you can get people to do that, they may also help you out on some of the other mistakes that you make, and help you understand what’s happening around you.

We, as Americans, tend to go around the world assuming that other people will learn English. In fact, we’re likely to think that if they’re worth anything, they should have learned it already—that there is something wrong with them if they haven’t. And of course, the media and the Internet reinforce that, because although the Internet is now being used in many languages, it is still overwhelmingly English. Our linguistic provincialism is an extraordinary form of arrogance that we almost don’t notice. Some people just talk louder, or shout, when the other person doesn’t understand.

The statement that people “without shoes” learn the language of people “with shoes” is about a lot more than poverty. If you are speaking your native language, you have an advantage over the person speaking a second language. It takes years of using a second language for that inequality to disappear. So, Americans go around the planet, often hoping to build more egalitarian societies, but at the same time expecting other peoples to walk that extra mile of communication, making it in many ways a condition of anything to be achieved, any kind of cooperation, any kind of joint project. And just as we expect others to walk the extra mile in language, we often unconsciously expect them to accept our customs as well.