Re: CHAT: Multi-Lingos

On Mon, 21 Aug 2000, callanish wrote:

> Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> > I do it at home all the time. <rueful look> For some reason or
> > other I stopped speaking Korean in the house after we'd
> > moved back to the U.S. So my mom speaks to me in Korean,
> > and I reply in English, and everything works out fine.
>
> This, actually, I've seen a lot, with a lot of different languages. Immigrant
> parents understand English but speak their native language to the children,
> while the children understand that language but speak to their parents in
> English. I assume it's probably typical with immigrant familes, in whatever
> country.
...though many Korean parents who speak Korean in the home insist on
their kids learning Korean.  But yes, I think you're right.

> > I've learned *never* to assume a heavy accent/English
> > difficulty means stupidity...
>
> Oh yes, I've seen this too. One of my best friend's parents immigrated to the
> US from Romania (and actually they're ethnically Armenian!) and they're both
> fluent in English in terms of understanding it,  knowing English grammar, and
> having a wide vocabulary at their command; they just *pronounce* English
> words with a think Romanian accent, which for some reason they never lost.
> But I've seen this lead other people to talk down to them, or speak
> deliberately and obviously "more simply" to them than to other native
> English-speakers who were present, that sort of thing. Having an accent and
> having a command of the structure and lexicon of a language are two entirely
> separate things, though many people don't seem to realize this...
<nod>  OTOH, my boyfriend's Oma (German grandmother) understands English
pretty well, has a very thick German accent, bargains like a horse
trader...and *uses* her accent to fool people into giving her the
darndest low prices.  <wry g>

> > ...and from hearing a Dane at my HS read
> > the names in the Norse creation myth (while the rest of us
> > mangled 'em), I wouldn't bet on it.
>
> Now, the sounds of Danish are about as far removed from the sounds of Old
> Icelandic as those of English are! Better to get an Icelander to pronounce
> them :-)
It was closer than anything the rest of us Korean/Taiwanese/Malay/??? folk
could manage.  :-)

YHL