hozier had a point, you know...
Centuries later, the English language is still being pushed.
When I first realized that people were lying and being performative on their diaries1 to seem “cool” or “interesting”, my reaction was borderline hubristic:
“Why would you make a performance out of your diary? What’s the point if you can’t be honest with something that’s meant only for you? I mean, the whole world’s a stage, am I right? You guys can’t even take the mask off in the privacy of your rooms!”
I swore, briefly, stupidly, that it couldn’t be me. I swore I was above making a performance out of journaling.
But then I wondered why did I always write them in English.
Ever since I was eleven or so, I was filling up notebooks with text in a language that wasn’t my first. Especially in the beginning, it showed.
I was born and raised in Latin America, why am I always catering to an American and/or British audience, even with things that are supposed to be private? Why am I being so neglectful towards my own people as an imaginary audience?
Of course, I can’t really get all smug about English being a “colonizer language” because Spanish is also a language that was imposed on a population, like so many others before it.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that languages are more than capable of seeking dominance. The most aggressive one has the right to demand submission from the rest. If the situation is dire enough, a given language might become extinct.
It’s no secret that English has the upper hand at the moment.
In practice, it’s become the lingua franca Esperanto wanted to be, and is often the only language people have in common.
Some group chats demand that users write exclusively in English. In person, any other language being spoken demands translation. Doesn’t matter if the person asking for it wasn’t part of the exchange. Similar case with movies that don’t have subtitles: “bro translate it!” If the English-speaker in question is particularly racist, they will demand that no other language be used in their presence.
We learn it and speak it in school. We hear it in songs, movies and TV shows. We read it in books. We use it in social media. We think in it, we write in it, until our native language sounds strange and unfamiliar to our ears. Until our knowledge of English steadily gains on the knowledge of our mother tongue, and maybe even surpasses it.
No one’s holding a gun to our heads either.
In some cases, we even do most of the hard work all by ourselves. But that doesn’t mean English isn’t being imposed on us. That doesn’t mean there was never any violence in this imposition.
Yes, it can be frustrating when there is something you don’t understand and you really want to know what’s going on, but you must consider the impact that this entitlement can have, both in the past and the present.
You don’t always have to understand everything.
On the other hand, you don’t always have to bend over backwards for someone who clearly won’t take the time and effort to understand you.
