The Language Trap

The limits of my language mean the limits of my thought.
Wittgenstein 1921

Language is the main instrument of our refusal to accept the world as it is. George Steiner 1975

I live in a foreign country, a place where half of what I see defies my understanding and outrages my sense of propriety: This, I say everyday, is not how it should be. They have got it wrong. I am quite aware that this is largely a failing on my part and that to press the point would be cultural bullying. I teach English here, and I teach it to highly educated and successful people so that the majority of my lessons are free ranging discussions with the only element of accepted pedagogy being my note book, where I write down errors to be corrected or phrases that will enable my students to better express their notions.

Once I thought that as they gained proficiency in English their thought might likewise take on elements of Englishness. Now I begin to realise that this is not so and that what I do is enable people to speak their own language but using English words and structures. When a particularly apt English phrase emerges, they revel in it for a moment and then set about slotting it into their native thinking, distorting it as needed.

Likewise, as I learn their language, I tell myself that I might find a way into their thinking, but if that were so then the strangeness of the place should have lessened; the contrary is true. I have American friends, I watch American TV, and I am struck by the way in which Americans who have witnessed some newsworthy event and are thrust before the cameras to tell their tale have a narrative skill that the British lack; they dive straight in: Hell yeah, the truck came flying round the corner just as the Zebras were mauling the dog... And this is not about education nor accepted notions of articulacy; the most ordinary people seem to have this ability ingrained in them. Forgive the generalization. The equivalent scene on British TV sees an Oxford Don struggling to even begin; trapped in an endless web of false starts and equivocations.

The point? Are we able to escape from the limits that our language imposes on our thinking? I do believe, along with, I think it was Jacques Lacan, that language is consciousness, to all intents and purposes anyway. So if we can expand our language skills, can we expand our perception likewise, can we come to truly understand another culture this way, or even come to be part of another social class within our own society? I thought so once, now I am less sanguine. Should not each of us start to interrogate the implications of being born into a language?
What assumptions did we imbibe along with the milk from our mothers?

Answers are most welcome. (Post on the I.A.Forum)

--Will

Wordsmithing, a dying art?

As I sit down to write this piece, I have just come from a two hour stint as pronouncer for a campus spelling bee --somewhat at a loss as to why students have so little knowledge about words and their origins. My campus is a large elementary school in a major metropolitan area of the middle United States. I am the librarian for a school comprised of over 1100 students from thirty-four different nationalities, many of whom are not just bilingual, but trilingual and with a fair grasp of the English language. Often students come in to school without English skills and, amazingly, within months, are speaking English -- even with colloquialisms! But, I am puzzled. These same students and most of the native English speakers fail at the most basic words when asked to spell them.

Not only is this true of oral spelling, but the written word as well. I found it most interesting when given the word origin, use in a sentence and the word's definition,
that students could not spell. What was the problem? Were the selections too difficult? The students dropped from the starting group of forty-two to eighteen in round two--all failing to spell beginning level words. By the third round, there were less than a handful of students remaining.*

As I watched, students were familiar with the word's pronunciation, but attempted to phonetically spell the word or worse, spell the word as if written in slang. The problem wasn't with the students--it was with the words, more specifically with writers, publishers, mass media and music who have changed the spelling and use of words.

When I returned to my library--this possibility was pain- fully clear. There sitting on my desk, were books with words spelled phonetically and titles with slang used
as commonly as if they were part of the English language forever. It wasn't that the students couldn't spell--it was how English is perceived and used today that is
at the heart of the issue. We have all become less skilled at wordsmithing, taking shortcuts when writing in our PDA's, using abbreviations instead of the full word
while composing on the computer or in chat rooms, and watching (and listening) to words used incorrectly on television.

We are always learning, even if many of us thought that process stopped decades ago. We read and accept words as they are used, changed spellings and all. Wordsmithing
isn't dead, it is being created daily--sometimes to the detriment of the original word. Perhaps it is a problem with society and need for information retrieval at the speed of light, that we have forgotten the beauty of words and their origins. We educators need to take the time to explore words with our students and show them how to use words correctly and creatively.

Wordsmithing isn't dying, it may have taken a sidetrack in favor of pop culture, but as English changes, so will words, their usage and origins--thus extending the creativity of the wordsmith.

Jay M. Ihrig, Ph.D. -- JIhrig@aol.com

*As a side note. The spelling bee concluded with two students: an Egyptian student, who four years earlier spoke no English when he enrolled, became our alternate and the student who went on to represent the school, finishing second within the next region--a fourth grader competing against high school students. Words are wonderful!

The top 1 percent of Americans possesses more wealth than the entire bottom 95 percent put together. This leaves only a tiny sliver of the pie for the rest of us to fight over. Only the shrewdest and best connected succeed in grabbing most of that, which often requires a cultivated predator nature and alligator skin to dull the sting of guilt that accompanies questionable business practices such as misleading ads, undeliverable promises, embezzlements, and the like.

Most people don't possess this predator instinct and fall into a comfortable financial zone between wealth and poverty. This leaves the bottom tier, which is destined to suffer the role of prey for the predators. These people become victims of scams, false promises, and dirty office politics. Never wishing to hurt anybody, these innocent people never learn how to cheat. And, therefore, they never learn how to defend themselves against people who set out to cheat them. The price of this innocence is often harsh. It costs them their life savings, their reputations, and even their freedom when their naiveté is raped in legal venues by the predators.

Some of this lowest social group slip even lower, through gaping holes in the safety nets, into a kind of oblivion and finally resort to theft and lies to survive. But many in this group hold fast to the truth, even though their hardships become great, for they believe that truth is God.

Guilty people point accusing fingers at them, to divert attention away from their own guilty acts. They know how to take advantage of innocent people's naiveté. They blame these innocent people in order to justify, in their own minds, their own crimes against them. Most of the time, the innocent victims are so surprised and dumbstruck by these false claims that they can't defend themselves. Sadly, many innocents have had such tough lives that they look guilty, even when they aren't, when viewed against their clean and polished accusers.

It's not that the innocent are stupid. It's just that they don't think like thieves so they never see the hammer coming down on their heads. Innocent people often lose everything but the one thing that matters. And that is integrity. They do unto others as they would have others do unto them, no matter what the consequences. They never fall into step with the predators, and often suffer devastating ruin because of it. Innocent people keep the flame of honor alive and this makes them heroes.

--James H. Bath -- jamesbath@bellsouth.net

Joe: The Non-smart Intellectual

I just want to contribute my thoughts on who might be interested in ideas. Many years ago I was filming a documentary on prison life in a medium/maximum security institution. I noticed one teacher who was having a class discussion with ten or so inmate students circled around a table. As this was different than any other class, I asked if I could film them.

On the appointed day, they were discussing old sayings, but the teacher had left all the endings off, and the students tried to guess the final words. (They knew almost none of them.) After a few tries, the teacher would tell them the ending; then they would discuss the meaning of the saying and whether they thought it was correct. With the camera rolling, the discussion was a little lame. But, the next saying was "Every cloud has _________." Guesses included rain in it, thunder and lightning, snow, and fog. When told the real ending was "a silver lining," the class quickly showed it understood the idea.

The teacher said, "Guys, you are in prison. What do you think about this saying?" They immediately started dumping on the prison: bad food, mean guards, boredom, too few visits, no women! I loved it; this was going to really spice up my film. The teacher stopped them, "Guys, the saying is 'Every cloud has a silver lining.' Are there any in prison?"

At this point I expected silence, but instead Joe, who I swear had an IQ of 60-65 on a warm day if he were sitting in the sun, spoke, "Yeah, I'm learning how to read." That brought on not ridicule but agreement: "Yeah, Joe, you are, and you're getting better." "I hate to say it but the food isn't that bad and I get three meals a day--I never had that very often," and "And it is warm and dry, and the gym's pretty good." I'm still amazed; a high level discussion in a low level place.

--Director, Educational TV--