a very slurry guide to why french is Like That, Actually

SO

yall remember that post that went like…… “why is french… Like That”?

well, time for An Education from ur local french literature student

SO, BASICALLY, WHAT HAPPENED

first of all, well, it’s like the 9th century and the king is like…… hey what if….. and bear with me on this one but….. what if…….. we wrote………. the things about our country………… in the language……. actual people living in this country….. speak?

and people were like “holy shit youre the king so okay” and then the king was like “i want YOU to write this laws and THINGS in FRENCH!” and the monks were like “aw okay” so they started doing that

EXCEPT

that they had a big fucking problem. what was that problem, you may ask? well, the problem was thaT THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS DIDNT HAVE AN ALPHABET TO WRITE THIS FUCKING EXCUSE OF A LANGUAGE

lemme explain. all they knew was latin and the latin alphabet. bc like knowing latin was the whole thing when u were a monk. also latin was like… the Serious Language. but french doesnt sound like latin like at all. french sounded like some bitch ass demon had bitten their tongue and was trying to order a latte in the middle of an exorcism incantation. and i say “sounded” on purpose bc their pronunciation was wild, man. like ultra wild. like even WORSE than what we have to deal with now. and it had NOTHING to do with motherfucking latin.

so what did the monks do? well, they were like “aw this is a mcfucking embarrassment of a situation, ay” and had a choice. basically, they could invent a whole new mode of transcription for french weird ass sounds… OR they could do their best to try and adapt the latin alphabet to its demonic sprouting.

which is, pretty sadly if you ask me, what they went for.

so they started planning strategies that were complex at shit bc like how tf are you gonna write “cheval” with a fucking LATIN ALPHABET??? so basically they all went with whatever felt best to write in the moment and there were no rules and it was a weird fucking mess of a situation lemme tell you, ive seen the manuscripts, those men went APE SHITT

and like…. some of them never used the same spelling twice. also there were like no accent and punctuation and things that allow you to write like a fucking normal human being so jot that down

so, that was a big fucking mess and they started adding letters e v e r y w h e r e like……….. ok some of them were actually smart like they did their best to add letters that no one pronounced but it made it look like some latin thing. like basically they put up a pink hairband on a fucking DEMON CHILD and went “aaaawww look how CUTE it is, looks like its mommy so much!!!!” and prayed to god it would end up well (spoiler: no. no it didnt. bitch)

so you got things like “veult” for “veut” bc the “l” made it look a bit like the latin “vult” or something. but then as i said some of them went APE SHITT and were like, WOOHOO FREE LETTERS and started adding weird letters to words that had literally no etymological link to that letter. so they were writing “peut” like “peult” just because….. idk they felt like to??

so its Like That in the middle ages and then people started thinking about french as a language and they went like….. MAAAAW THERES A WEIRD FUCKING STRAY WRITING OUTSIDE!!! MAAAAAAAW!!!! IS THAT EVEN A FUCKING LANGUAGE???? BLINK MOTHERFUCKER!! AAAAAAAAAAAA and everyone was losing their shit alright

so like english students started going to college in france and they were like “bitch you live like this??” and the french were like :/// whelp

and like they did their best to like help non-native writing french but it had no rules so it didnt work out well and like….. in the 1500’s some guys were like “okay guys this makes no sense from now on well use a RATIONALIZED WRITING i built MYSELF” and their idea was basically to write french as they spoke it which i know SOUNDS like a good idea but actually AINT

bc first of all there are a shitton of words that have the same pronunciation in french and you need those weird spellings to actually know what the word is there for like….. they wrote like “me” for “mai” and “mais” and “mes” and “met” and basically that was wild

and some of those guys who knew a lot about grammar went like “ooookayyyyy so were removing those letters we dont pronounce buuuuuuuuuut its not alwayyyyyys like thiiiiiiiiis” and like…. right-wing people like the 1550 equivalent of republicans or some shit went like, foaming at the mouth like rabid fucking dogs when they saw “pe” instead of “peult” “oooooohhhhhh but you DIDNT and its not EVEN REALLY RATIONAL” and like they had a ton or arguments and it actually became a kinda linguistic war and all

plus they didnt pronounce the same things everywhere in france so in paris they wrote “otr” for “autre” and in lyon they wrote “aotr” and they were like……… “we got a problem here” bc the whole thing was to get a language that was the same everywhere in the country basically

so u got those reformist guys on the one side and the reactionaries on the other side and honestly, reactionaries’ arguments are so fucking funny they were like…

“okay so some of the letters are useful bc it helps understanding that the word comes from latin” this ones rational alright

“also some mute letters are used to link the words from an identical background together and create semantic links like “sang” (blood) does have a mute “g” bc it links it to “sanguin” (sanguine) and other words like this” alright cool

but THEN you got some weird fucking ideas like

“but actually writing IS the standard bc written things Are More Noble, Actually” which is like……. weird flex but ok

“yes, it makes it harder to learn, but so it repels women and non-educated people who would soil The Language if they could write it” like DUDE are you FUCKING SERIOUS

and finally – their main idea –

“bUt iT loOkS FaNcY” aka #aesthetics and thats basically it

also. the printing press workers were like……… guys are you SURE you want to get us to COMPLETELY CHANGE AND UNLEARN OUR WHOLE JOB LIKE C’MON so it kinda weighed in favor of the reactionaries

also the reactionaries won in the long term

tl;dr so french is Like That because 1. its a demonic language that monks desperately tried to tie back to latin and 2. old white men with bizarre aesthetic tastes hated women and The Poor

thanks for coming to my ted talk my language makes no sense and neither does its history

Essentials of Linguistics is an entirely free online open access textbook with accompanying videos for introductory linguistics classes by Dr Catherine Anderson at McMaster University. 

This is the first edition and it has a pretty basic set of chapters which are geared primarily towards the Canadian learner. It also looks useful for people trying to self-teach linguistics because it’s freely available online and all the chapters are designed to work together, which is so often an issue when trying to cobble together various online resources. 

Since it’s open access, hopefully it will continue expanding to provide intro chapters for more subfields and with more international options. Even if that ends up creating a book that’s too comprehensive to be used in full by any single intro course, it’s always great to have more options! 

Lmao this American girl walked up to a Hungry Jacks (Burger King) register with her drink and really, really loudly (I was at the other side of the place) proclaimed: “I asked for Lemonade, you gave me Sprite” in a really bitchy, entitled voice.

The cashier (and everyone within earshot) just looked at her like “the fuck is wrong with you”

In Australia, Sprite IS lemonade as far as we’re concerned.

Enjoy your 90c refund you cheap ass ho.

“Sprite IS lemonade as far as we’re concerned”

@fleamont can you verify?

Yeah this is correct. Lemonade is sprite. Clear fizzy liquid type thing. Solo is closer to what American lemonade is but we don’t actually have what you guys consider lemonade anyway so she was never going to get what she wanted lmao.

Y'ALL AIN’T GOT LEMONADE?!?!??

madness…

“we don’t actually have what you guys consider lemonade“

That entire continent exists on a different realm of existence

What the… Lmao

Why is it called lemonade then? 🤔

@casualswfan What is wrong with you guys?

IT IS THE SAME DAMN THING. You Yankees and your fifty brands of the same :P

LEMONADE AND SPRITE ARE NOTHING ALIKE

Things heating up in the drink fandom

I’m pretty sure the same is true in the UK at least was in 2010 except Sprite didn’t seem to be a common brand so I’d ask for Sprite get blank looks eventually figured out to ask for lemonade 

Sprite is a recognised brand here, but it’s not omnipresent, it is also considered a brand of lemonade.

This is fucked up.

Sprite: lemon-lime soda (pop/carbonated beverage). Lemonade: lemons, water, and sugar. Still.

LEMONADE IS NOT CARBONATED WHATT HEFUCC CK ARE YOU ALL DOIGN

Living? Sensibly?

Also on what planet does Sprite have lime in it.

Sprite, the lemon-lime flavored carbonated beverage, is made on Earth.

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, the densest planet in the Solar System, the largest of the Solar System’s four terrestrial planets, and the only astronomical object known to harbor Sprite.

The people of Earth are known as “Earthlings” or “Spriteloids” interchangeably (although not to each other).

At least in the UK, if you order lemonade you’ll sometimes get Sprite, but if it’s proper it’s a lemon soda akin to the Italian gassosa - less sweet than Sprite.

Oh shit, I’ve had gassosa, it’s AMAZING.

I just want to say that the whole ‘lemonade and Sprite are interchangeable’ is pretty common throughout Asia as well, in my experience

@bre-e-e-e what madness is this?!?!?!?!

@kingkilling-and-stormlight so… what you are all saying is. Lemonade is … not fizzy… in America?

You guys have orange juice at least, right? Grapefruit juice? In the US, Lemonade is a juice, like orange juice, but made with lemons instead of oranges. You can buy “fresh squeezed lemonade” at many restaurants and fast food venues. Typically it’s diluted a bit with sugar water, so the sour flavor of the raw lemon juice isn’t so overpowering. 

In the south, it’s very common for people buy whole lemons and make their own lemonade at home using a citrus juicer.

In Germany, you’d ask for “Limonade” and yeah, you may get a Sprite or a Fanta; it’ll always be a fizzy nonalcoholic drink and usually come in lemon, lime, orange flavor. Only in healthfood or hipster establishments would it ever be an actual juice drink.

As a fan of homemade rosewater lemonade, I am twitching at the thought of sickly sweet carbonated beverages that taste like they were invented by someone who may have been in the same room as a citrus fruit once but can’t remember what it actually tastes like being called lemonade.

Wtf did y'all think beyonce was talking about????

oh wow I hadn’t even considered that. Like millions of people worldwide hearing the album title but not understanding what lemonade means even on the most superficial level.

This is so epically disturbing. Lemonade is such an integral part of spring and summertime. I just … this breaks my brain and my heart. The cultural references too. Just, all the American shows that reference lemonade and people in other countries are thinking Sprite? There’s a reason kids do freshly squeezed lemonade stands. You can’t buy it like that from a store. And there’s nothing quite like screwing it up and getting the sugar ratio wrong. And parents grinning through the too sour or too sweet mess and praising your efforts. Lemonade Is a Thing.

Wait does that mean Aussies make Shandies with sprite?????

Does this mean a significant portion of the global population don’t know what to do when life hands you lemons?

Yes, Australians make Shandies with our carbonated soft drink lemonade, though if you’re using it as a mixer, you’re less likely to be using Sprite and more likely to be using Schweppes, which looks like this:

Like. We absolutely have a concept of flat, juice-based lemonade, but as an earlier commenter said, it’s a niche hipster speciality rather than the default, and even then, it’s still going to be premade rather than fresh. 

OH GOD THAT’S WHY AMERICAN CHILDREN CAN MAKE IT AND SELL IT SO EASILY. I ALWAYS WONDERED HOW KIDS COULD MAKE A CARBONATED DRINK AT HOME.

Reblogging for Beyonce. This thread is gold.

@cresselian

Mandarin Holiday Vocab

I recently went on a trip for 3 days to one of my favourite cities in the whole of my country, but I realised I didn’t have the appropriate Mandarin vocab to allow me to talk about the journey - so here we go!

假期 - holiday/vacation [jiàqī] 在度假 - to be on holiday [zài dùjià] 使放松 - to relax [shǐ fàngsōng] 公共假期 - public holiday [gōnggòng jiàqī] 旅程 - journey [lǚchéng] 出行 - trip [chūxíng] 城市 city [chéngshì] 城镇 - town [chéngzhèn] 村庄 - village [cūnzhuāng] 出城 - to be out of town [chū chéng] 在市中心 - in town [zài shì zhōngxīn] 地点 - location [dìdiǎn] 旅馆 - hotel [lǚguǎn] 住旅馆 - to stay at a hotel [zhù lǚguǎn] 乡间别墅 - villa [xiāngjiān biéshù] 消遣 - relaxation [xiāoqiǎn] 活动 - activity [huódòng] 旅游业 -  tourism [lǚyóuyè] 游客 -  tourist [yóukè] 游览 -  to visit [yóulǎn] 探险 - to explore [tànxiǎn] 观光 -  sight-seeing [guānguāng] 观光游览 - to go sightseeing [guānguāng yóulǎn] 冒险活动 -  adventure [màoxiǎn huódòng] 前往 - to travel [qiánwǎng] 旅行 - travelling [lǚxíng] 旅行者 - traveller [lǚxíngzhě] 海滩 - beach [hǎitān] 海洋 - sea [hǎiyáng] 游泳池 -  pool [yóuyǒngchí] 游水 - to swim [yóushuǐ] 冲浪 -  to surf [chōnglàng] 去冲浪 -  to go surfing [qù chōnglàng] 步行 - to hike [bùxíng] 做徒步旅行 - to go hiking [zuò túbù lǚxíng] 比基尼 - bikini [bǐjīní] 商店 - shop [shāngdiàn] 纪念品 -  souvenir [jìniànpǐn] 记住 -  to remember [jìzhù] 珍馐美味 -  delicacy [zhēnxiū měiwèi] 文化 - culture [wénhuà] 传统 -  tradition [chuántǒng] 地区 - area [dìqū] 买 - to buy [mǎi] 太阳 - sun [tàiyáng] 晒斑 - sunburn [shàibān] 按摩 - massage [ànmó] 海岸 - coast [hǎi'àn] 在国外 - to be abroad [zài guówài] 到国外 - to go abroad [dào guówài] 飞机 - plane [fēijī] 火车 - train [huǒchē] 汽车 - car [qìchē] 乘汽车 - by car [chéng qìchē] 公共汽车 - bus [gōnggòng qìchē] 轮船 - boat [lúnchuán] 飞行 - to fly [fēixíng] 驾驶 - to drive [jiàshǐ] 走 - to walk [zǒu] 航行 - to sail [hángxíng]

Mandarin Drinks Vocab

I’m a big fan of coffee and cocktails myself, so I thought it’d be cool to make a vocab list where I can talk about drinks - necessary but a type of vocab list I always somehow overlook! Hope this helps someone else!

玻璃杯 - glass [bōlibēi] 杯子 - cup [bēizi] 大杯子 - mug [dà beīzi] 啤酒杯 - mug (for beer) [píjiǔ bēi] 瓶子 - bottle [píngzi] 吸管 - straw [xīguǎn] 水壶 - kettle [shuǐhú] 烧水 -  to put the kettle on [shāoshuǐ] 茶 - tea [chá] 咖啡 - coffee [kāfēi] 黑咖啡 - black coffee [hēi kāfēi] 牛奶咖啡 - white/milky coffee [niúnǎi kāfēi] 一杯咖啡 - a cup of coffee [yī bēi kāfēi] 加奶油的咖啡 - coffee with cream [jiā nǎiyóu de kāfēi] 汁 - juice [zhī] 水 - water [shuǐ] 酒 - alcohol [jiǔ] 鸡尾酒 -  cocktail [jīwěijiǔ] 啤酒 - beer [píjiǔ] 葡萄酒 - wine [pútáojiǔ] 苹果酒 -  cider [píngguǒjiǔ] 威士忌酒 - whiskey [wēishìjì jiǔ] 伏特加酒 - vodka [fútèjiā jiǔ] 奶 - milk [nǎi] 苏打水 -  soda [sūdáshuǐ] 橘子汁 orange juice [júzizhī] 果汁 - fruit juice [guǒzhī] 药茶 -  herbal tea [yàochá] 喝 - to drink [hē] 抿 - to sip [mǐn] 大口地饮 - to gulp [dàkǒu de yǐn] 吞咽 - to swallow [tūnyàn] 吐出 - to spit [tǔchū] 尝 - to taste [cháng] 你想喝点什么吗？- Would you like something to drink? [nǐ xiǎng hē diǎn shénme ma?]

Bildzeitung glänzt mal wieder mit Qualitätsjournalismus

I refuse to believe that these categories are also for straights. 

‘90% success rate’ sounds a lot better than '1 in 10 chance of failure’.

This is known as the framing effect in psychology! The famous example of this comes from Tversky & Kahneman (1981). They has a whole experiment that was designed to show the intense effect that this sort of information has our decision making processes.

Imagine that you were told that there were two options to treat a group of 600 individuals with a horrible disease. If you chose the first option, you would save 200 lives. If you chose the second option, you would have a 33% chance of saving everyone, but a 66% chance of saving no-one.

If you’re like most people, you would choose the first option to save a guaranteed 200 lives. It sounds better, doesn’t it?

Now imagine that you were given another group of 600 people. For this group, if you choose the first treatment, 400 people will die. If you choose the second treatment, you have a 33% chance that no one will die and a 66% chance that all 600 will die.

Most people tend to go with the second option. 

Mathematically, the two conditions have the exact same choices. 1/3 will live, or a 1/3 chance all will live. There is no difference, yet the language generally causes a vast difference in decision making by participants (if it didn’t work with you, well, you’ve been cognitively primed to look at the options differently than you would if you had been presented only the question due to your exposure to both questions, AKA the context made you consider the details differently than normal conditions). 

Yet, despite the options being the same, in a positive-framing condition, 72% of participants chose option A (save 200 lives), in a negative-framing condition, 78% of participants chose option B (33% chance no one will die).

It’s definitely a strong business technique! Now to apply this to classroom teaching....

Sometimes I wonder if native English speakers appreciate how much more comfortable the internet is for them than for the rest of the world

Like, you can go on tumblr and simply read stuff in your mother tongue? Amazing. Go on youtube and you don’t have to replay some sentences ten times to try to understand what they’re saying? Incredible. Look for practically anything on google and know that there will be a fuckton of results that you can read without having to spend half the time looking up words in a dictionary? Fascinating. Make a post or send an ask without panicking that you’ll make a silly mistake or that they won’t understand what you meant? Unbelievable.

@dovalayn I did. I’ve studied English for about 10 years and I have the official diploma for the C2 level (the maximum for a non-native speaker) given by the University of Cambridge.

But it’s still my 3rd language and there will be always things that escape me, mainly the slang. Always. Because you know you are always less than the majority. And it’s tiring.

That’s all I’m saying. It would be nice for once to not have to make the effort. And effort is something that no matter how many years of English class I take will always be there.

But not everyone can do that. Some people can’t afford private English academies or are bad at languages, and they should still be able to exist online as well. Why are you so bothered by people not speaking English perfectly? Or by people posting on the internet in other languages??

Since you think my English isn’t good enough, I’d like to see how you do in your 3rd language, and if you don’t get tired after a while 🤷‍♀️

@dasakuryo

I hope @no-passaran doesn’t mind me going on a sort of tangent here, but the fact English is a lingua franca is, like it or not, permeated by features of linguistic imperialism.

Native English speakers are used to having the world, and by extension all non native speakers, accommodate to their language. If someone doesn’t know English then said person is uneducated, isn’t wordly, is not qualified enough. If a person doesn’t pronounce English like a native, they’re pronouncing it wrong. Tourists are expected to speak perfect English and be proficient in it to avoid any inconvenience to native English speakers when travelling abroad to English speaking countries (USA and UK particularly, yet interestingly enough we are demanded to speak in English when these people visit our countries). These are all mindsets and situations that exist and are part of the broader context, in which English does operate on linguistic imperialism grounds on a global scale; I’m going to quote Phillipson really quickly:

It’s… interesting, for the lack of a better word, how non native English speakers must even accommodate to native English speakers, when in actuality non native English speakers far surpass natives by several millions and, if anything, it should be them who ought to change, not us.

English becomes our second/third/etc language, we use it with several degrees of proficiency, being affected all the time by our L1, or all the other languages that we might know, we are constantly building on our current interlanguage and gaining a better grasp on how to operate with English. When we talk or chat with other NNE speakers with whom we don’t share a language, we make ourselves understood, we manage to sort any misgiving in communication, if we make a mistake we re-phrase, re-arrange, express things in another way. We are communicating, we still get our messages across despite some slips of the tongue, little mistakes or even a few errors here and there.

We are able to engage, through the use of English, in cross-cultural exchanges, in cross-linguistic exchanges that are allowed by using English as a lingua franca. We are making the language ours, we’re reclaiming the language that for so long was used to shush us down and we’re using it as an asset, we’re using it as a weapon, we’re using it so our voices cannot be silenced any more.

Our messages do get across, they can be understood. When native English speakers claim our Englishes aren’t clear, or we aren’t making any sense, they are really not making the extra effort. In short, many are uncapable of cross-linguistic and cross-cultural exchanges and communication. It’s easier to say we don’t make sense, and by extension snuffing us out, than paying attention to what we are saying.

And we don’t only have to defend our languages and our cultures in a globalised world (in which the normalised culture is that of the center), but we also have to use English as a tool for doing it.

And we should be allowed to express ourselves, exist online without having to constantly accommodate to native English speakers. Because no matter how good our English is, how proficient we are, someone is always going to argue we aren’t good enough, that we aren’t trying hard enough.

This makes me think of a theological debate I once had online - of course in English. The person I was talking to brought the wonderful argument that since I wasn’t a native speaker, I obviously didn’t understand what she was saying and therefore my arguments were invalid.

Yes. Obviously, while I’m writing university papers on Shakespeare in English and talking to you about eschatology in English, I’m actually just pretending to understand what I’m doing, and any disagreement with you must come from me not getting it because my grasp of the language is insufficient.

Not to sound like the most ignorant American possible - aren’t there social media and fandom spaces that are primarily for speakers of language X, Y, Z? 

I mean, having been part of vibrant internet communities with people from over a dozen countries (the majority from US, Australia, UK, Ireland, New Zeeland and Canada, I’ll grant, but still, plenty from others), I certain appreciate the internationality of the internet and as an English speaker, I like how I can speak to so many people from so many places without needing to learn a new language, and I’m not saying people should stick to their fellow… same language speakers always, but… I’m not entirely sure what the point of the post is? You guys chose to come here, to a website managed by an American company and with lots and lots of English speakers… but aren’t you quite likely to run into someone else who is also a nonnative speaker of English (but not a speaker your mother tongue either) and you’re using English as your Lingua Franca, as it is in so many places on the Internet.

Using English would be part of the price of doing business in an English language space, just like I’d have to learn say, Japanese if I wanted to go into a Japanese language space online, or if I was in Japan and wanted to get away from the tourist-manager people who speak English as part of their job to get English-speaking tourists to part with their money (and for the record, when I was in Italy for a few weeks years ago, I made an effort to speak Italian with what little command of the language I had, though it wasn’t much and I didn’t go far beyond the core touristy areas anyway).

I’m just - I’m not sure what the issue is? 

No worries ;) 

The thing is: Yes, there are. And all fandom members from non-English-speaking countries who don’t speak English or don’t speak it well enough to read/write/generally consume fandom content in English do use these spaces. And people who are good enough at English sometimes use both. Especially languages with lots of speakers will have ETA: huge fairly big fandom communities in their own language. But people who speak English as a second/third etc. language and whose native language doesn’t have a fandom community that’s all that big will - if they’re capable - take part in English-speaking fandom. There is incomparably more content. 

And that is precisely due to English being spoken by everyone – the point of this post isn’t: “IT’S BAD THAT ENGLISH IS THE LINGUA FRANCA”.

No, we’re glad that we have a lingua franca that means we can communicate without having to learn everybody’s language first.

The poster before me even said it:

The point of this post is that often enough, native speakers will a) not even think about the fact that lots of people they talk to are not native speakers, and b) belittle non-native speakers’ for their “inferior” English. While at the same time, most of the time they don’t have to put any effort at all into international (online) communication - because everyone learnt their language.

As the post and its additions say several times:

The issue is this: 

If everyone else is using your language, at least acknowledge that you have it easier and don’t ridicule others for not being 100% perfect/fluent or adapting the language a little. That’s all this is about.

Yes @lordhellebore is right, that’s what the post was about.

I disagree in 1 important thing tho, and I think it’s relevant here because it’s what I was thinking of when I wrote the original post: we have no fandom spaces in my language. I have to go to English if I want to find anything. That’s why I didn’t choose to come to English spaces instead of my own language’s spaces, it’s that English spaces are the only possible ones. It’s either this or nothing. A few big fandoms will sometimes have some stuff in other Big Important Languages™ like Spanish (and German since @lordhellebore said their language has fandoms and I’m assuming they speak German). But for most of us, it’s English or nothing.

@bringbuckyback you’re not understanding what we are saying.

No one ever said you and other English speakers personally are oppressing anyone. What we’re saying is that you’re lucky because you didn’t have to do the huge effort we did. And if you can’t see why it’s a huge effort to learn a foreign language and use it for everything, or why it’s a problem that people are replacing their own native languages for the one they are made to believe is prestigious, then the misunderstanding goes way further than this post.

When I made the original post I did in a moment of frustration, I didn’t even tag it or anything and wasn’t expecting it to get any attention. But seeing the notes, comments like yours and many, many more native English speakers (mainly USAmericans) make very ignorant comments I’m glad I made it, because it’s unbelievable that many of you don’t know this. But we do not have a choice to learn English. It’s a must. It’s not that you personally will shun me or anyone else for not speaking English, obviously not. It’s that we wouldn’t be able to live without one of those Cambridge English certificates. We can’t get hired anywhere without at least a B2 in English. We can’t even graduate college without an English certificate, even when our degree has nothing to do with English. We also must study English all years of mandatory education (so that’s 12 years), but English in school sucks to you either pay for a private academy or you fail, which is a huge problem for many families.

And the reason why English is the international language isn’t because it’s one of the most widely spoken languages on the world, that’s more of a consequence. England made sure that their language would be the global one as part of their programme to impose itself on the rest of the world (google English imperialism).

In your comments you seem to be looking for something to do with this information. Well, I’m not saying you should “be overtly grateful for being English” nor that you “thank the lord everyday for speaking the language you speak”. Honestly, I wasn’t asking anything of you with this post? I was just explaining our situation, which hundreds of people related to so…

Idk, if I made a post saying for example “that moment when you’re shopping and there isn’t any shampoo left of the brand you like :/” would you come to comment we’re “acting oppressed” and misinterpreting you and calling you an oppressor because you’ve never been in that situation yourself? No. Not every single post about an experience thousands of people face has to apply to you.

But well, if your reaction to a post of someone saying “uff I wonder what it’s like to have stuff in my own language” was to get so defensive, I imagine you feel guilty? And that’s why you ask what to do with it? To start with, look at what people are explaining in the notes and understand that WE DON’T HAVE A CHOICE. English is mandatory for most of the world. And for one post that explains a situation of distress that you can’t relate to there’s no need to get like that, calling others dumb and “acting opressed” (when the word oppression was never part of this post in the first place).

You showed in your comments that this post was useful in the first place, because when I made it I assumed all English speakers were aware of the fact that we are forced to do so many things in your language and your culture, but apparently not. And that’s normal given how self-centered Anglo media is (especially USAmerican media), so before you misinterpret my words again, I’m not saying you personally are to blame for everything. It’s a system of things that benefits the legacy of the British empire.

Like @lordhellebore said, “if everyone else is using your language, at least acknowledge that you have it easier and don’t ridicule other for not being 100% perfect/fluent or adapting the language a little” and, I would add, don’t ridicule others for having different experiences than you either.

There is an oppressive system of cultural and linguistic hegemony, but that’s a topic for another day.

Hi, so remember when I said I do research on bilingualism? This is a topic that we struggle with in that academic community and a topic that merits further research, but also policy change in many ways. So please forgive my tangent.

To begin, I am going to state that I whole heartedly agree with many, if not all, of the things spoken above. You do not need to look far to see the sprawling consequences of imperialism, both linguistic and political. On the internet English, due to its history and the fact that the modern use internet was originally created in English, is a norm. Rarely do you see a website that does not offer English translations. You are not limited by English on the internet. This is the point that @no-passaran and @dasakuryo were trying to make. Their point consists in the fact that as a non English speaker, often times you are forced to conform to the usage of English in order to obtain the same benefits of the internet. Well, you might ask, isn’t that a choice? They are choosing to use this system, so that comes with the territory. Well, unfortunately there are other influences at play. It is impossible to exist in the truly modern sphere without internet. Internet has become as ubiquitous as it has become anglocentric. 

That’s pretty much how it stands for L2+ learners of English, but something that hasn’t really been discussed here is the Language A and Language Alpha learners of English, otherwise known as simultaneous or native bilinguals. How does the omnipresence of english affect these individuals you might ask? Well, it pulls away from their other first language. A huge issue in bilingual language acquisition cases is the motivation to learn other languages. So, with the internet being more available in English than in Spanish, that provides English a upper hand in a tool that is essential for daily professional life. I do not fully subscribe to the economic theory of language acquisition that dictates children will learn the languages that they deem to have the most value, but there is a grain of truth to be found in that logic. That is partly why subsequent generations of immigrants tend to be English only monolinguals. There isn’t sufficient motivation to learn their heritage language when only English will suffice just as well.

That’s why this dominance of English transcends the issues of unavailable resources for things such as fandoms on the internet. It is one of the driving forces of the increasing dominance of English as a lingua franca, and a driving force in many’s lives to lose their heritage language. It is not the only factor, to be sure, but it a major player.

With the age of information ever progressing, the decreasing diversity of language is definitely something to be mourned. Research shows over and over that there is no disadvantage to being bilingual, in fact, in many aspects it is advantageous to be a bilingual. Yet, LOTE (languages other than english) are attacked constantly on a wide spread scale. This does not only apply to minority languages. Take for example, Deutsch/German. It has been increasingly prevalent for German youth to use a form of Deutsch called “Denglish” online. The effects are seen in other languages such as Spanish, French, and even Chinese. A large part of Chinese web culture has been influenced by English, even though it may look completely foreign to a native speaker of English.

The internet today stands as a constant reminder of America/Britain’s colonial and imperial past. It is a reminder that may never be wiped out. Linguistic diversity was already decreasing before the advent of the internet, and with technology becoming cheaper and more widespread, this trend will only accelerate.

So that is where I disagree. English as a lingua franca is a bad thing. It is a silent tragedy.