In Italy we ended up using (and misusing) English words when completely unnecessary. To us it would sound weird to use translations instead of English words only because we didn’t invest in preserving our language whenever possible.
What’s wrong using the national language instead of abusing others? We are the victims of US cultural hegemony and our provincialism.
I will admit that being from the US myself, it might be easier for me to have this opinion (just going ahead and accepting that at the jump here). Maybe it is because we don’t have like an official language (legally speaking), but I love using words from other languages when I can. Unfortunately I haven’t ever been able to get my dumb mind to really learn other languages in any helpful manor. For me it is at least mildly educational to hear what things are called outside the US (even from other variants of English). Reading/hearing about slang terms from other places gives lots of options for saying stuff. It at least “feels” like a starting point for us to form a more universal way to speak and understand each other. Being into anime and k-pop, I learn things that are relevant to the hobbies and prefer those terms (so long as I can both remember them and get my mouth to say them).
That doesn’t mean I think it is correct for other languages to just give up being used by those that speak it. English is where it is because of the mass colonization and literal genocides under their rule. And the US has been more than guilty of the same before and after surpassing the British empire. Too many folks in just the US alone just expect people from other places to accommodate us and not the other way around. I am a firm believer that my country shouldn’t ever have an official language or bans on using other languages. Too many reactionaries wanting to show how “patriotic” they were after 9/11 kept tossing out the idea of officially changing words that even just implied being French (like “Freedom fries” instead of “French fries”) just because of perceived lack of support from the French government to support us just invading other nations. Same shit was tried back in WW1 (I think) with anything that was or was perceived to be German.
We can learn stuff from each other when we adopt phrases and words that aren’t specifically our own. And we should respect those that do wish to use their own or other languages mixed together or not. Letting a language just “die” can make shit hard for learning from history. But we shouldn’t just stop evolving as our worlds keep blending. Again, this is certainly easier for me to say given where I am from. I would absolutely love to see more of other languages getting used in popular culture (even if it is just because it just sounds cooler/better to me at least lol).
I believe we come from very different perspectives. Your mother tongue allows you to speak more or less with everyone everywhere (of course with exceptions), you probably watch or listen almost everything in your language. You don’t feel the urge to learn a second language because actually you don’t need it.
I have 1 mother tongue that almost nobody speaks, I learnt other 2 languages in order to be able to communicate outside my country and to be able to understand everything I see and read elsewhere. Thus, it is more than usual for me to have contamination from different languages and to hear foreign languages on a daily basis.
Needless to say, English is the most used: cinema, tv shows, music, the biggest chunk of pop mass production in the area of entertainment comes from the US and from the UK.
With such premise, it is very easy that foreign words or expressions find a way in the national language. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing as such, but you are not closer to learning any Spanish if you say “margarita y churros” or English if you use a random word while speaking in your language.
What I can see in Italy is this tendency to abuse of English (even misusing the meaning of the words) when we have perfectly functional words or sometimes translation since forever. I’m not saying that we need absolutely to find a translation for “gamer” or “streamer” which are neologism coming from the US, but there are so many words that do not need the abuse of English. This tendency, in my view, is very sad, because often you hear people speaking 80% Italian, 20% random English words and overall it sounds so poor, so stupid, that it would be best to avoid.
Finally, Italian, as French, is a very complex language that require many nuances and long sentences, it’s completely opposite to English which is more direct, snappier and straight to the point.
The way we speak equals the way we think, and I believe that the tendency to oversimplify the use of a language that it’s not simple by nature is also changing the way people think in a more superficial way.
You might very much be onto something with regards to the lack of “needing” to learn another language from a place like the US being its own excuse. Truly needing to learn or be completely left behind (depending on the situation) is a very powerful motivator. My use of random things is sure to be no different than the folks you know for sure. Some is just because maybe a word from somewhere else in the world just sounds better to me (though I try to use them correctly). I will say that I imagine that the youth and the next generations that have such easy access to different ways to learn language might be a game changer. It would’ve been great to have super easy access to stuff like Duolingo when I was a child. The simple difference in just how a sentence is constructed in different languages does give an insight into how people think (or even explain why to a non-speaker folks from other places are no nonsense or super expressive). Which is very very helpful in building both relationships and real understanding. Also for what it is worth, I do tend to go with original languages of the media I am at least watching (dubbed over voice acting quality has definitely gotten much better but still “feels” wrong in most cases for me). The only times I tend to go with English dubs are normally due to needing to multitask or if my ADD is making focusing hard. Sometimes a dub that is done well might have me re-watching stuff just to see how things are presented differently. Having random interactions like this comment and reply also help me have a better understanding of the world. So many things are just catered to the US and leads to arrogance on our part. Just going through life thinking that we (US citizens) are “correct” about things. When the reality is that we just don’t care to understand. Especially re-enforced by our “America is the greatest nation in the world” indoctrination from our right-wing and centrist politics. We are seeing a rise in the drive to “whitewash” history and to keep forgetting all the times we have been both wrong and the creators of suffering (both metaphorical and literal).
In Italy we ended up using (and misusing) English words when completely unnecessary. To us it would sound weird to use translations instead of English words only because we didn’t invest in preserving our language whenever possible. What’s wrong using the national language instead of abusing others? We are the victims of US cultural hegemony and our provincialism.
I will admit that being from the US myself, it might be easier for me to have this opinion (just going ahead and accepting that at the jump here). Maybe it is because we don’t have like an official language (legally speaking), but I love using words from other languages when I can. Unfortunately I haven’t ever been able to get my dumb mind to really learn other languages in any helpful manor. For me it is at least mildly educational to hear what things are called outside the US (even from other variants of English). Reading/hearing about slang terms from other places gives lots of options for saying stuff. It at least “feels” like a starting point for us to form a more universal way to speak and understand each other. Being into anime and k-pop, I learn things that are relevant to the hobbies and prefer those terms (so long as I can both remember them and get my mouth to say them).
That doesn’t mean I think it is correct for other languages to just give up being used by those that speak it. English is where it is because of the mass colonization and literal genocides under their rule. And the US has been more than guilty of the same before and after surpassing the British empire. Too many folks in just the US alone just expect people from other places to accommodate us and not the other way around. I am a firm believer that my country shouldn’t ever have an official language or bans on using other languages. Too many reactionaries wanting to show how “patriotic” they were after 9/11 kept tossing out the idea of officially changing words that even just implied being French (like “Freedom fries” instead of “French fries”) just because of perceived lack of support from the French government to support us just invading other nations. Same shit was tried back in WW1 (I think) with anything that was or was perceived to be German.
We can learn stuff from each other when we adopt phrases and words that aren’t specifically our own. And we should respect those that do wish to use their own or other languages mixed together or not. Letting a language just “die” can make shit hard for learning from history. But we shouldn’t just stop evolving as our worlds keep blending. Again, this is certainly easier for me to say given where I am from. I would absolutely love to see more of other languages getting used in popular culture (even if it is just because it just sounds cooler/better to me at least lol).
I believe we come from very different perspectives. Your mother tongue allows you to speak more or less with everyone everywhere (of course with exceptions), you probably watch or listen almost everything in your language. You don’t feel the urge to learn a second language because actually you don’t need it. I have 1 mother tongue that almost nobody speaks, I learnt other 2 languages in order to be able to communicate outside my country and to be able to understand everything I see and read elsewhere. Thus, it is more than usual for me to have contamination from different languages and to hear foreign languages on a daily basis. Needless to say, English is the most used: cinema, tv shows, music, the biggest chunk of pop mass production in the area of entertainment comes from the US and from the UK. With such premise, it is very easy that foreign words or expressions find a way in the national language. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing as such, but you are not closer to learning any Spanish if you say “margarita y churros” or English if you use a random word while speaking in your language. What I can see in Italy is this tendency to abuse of English (even misusing the meaning of the words) when we have perfectly functional words or sometimes translation since forever. I’m not saying that we need absolutely to find a translation for “gamer” or “streamer” which are neologism coming from the US, but there are so many words that do not need the abuse of English. This tendency, in my view, is very sad, because often you hear people speaking 80% Italian, 20% random English words and overall it sounds so poor, so stupid, that it would be best to avoid. Finally, Italian, as French, is a very complex language that require many nuances and long sentences, it’s completely opposite to English which is more direct, snappier and straight to the point. The way we speak equals the way we think, and I believe that the tendency to oversimplify the use of a language that it’s not simple by nature is also changing the way people think in a more superficial way.
You might very much be onto something with regards to the lack of “needing” to learn another language from a place like the US being its own excuse. Truly needing to learn or be completely left behind (depending on the situation) is a very powerful motivator. My use of random things is sure to be no different than the folks you know for sure. Some is just because maybe a word from somewhere else in the world just sounds better to me (though I try to use them correctly). I will say that I imagine that the youth and the next generations that have such easy access to different ways to learn language might be a game changer. It would’ve been great to have super easy access to stuff like Duolingo when I was a child. The simple difference in just how a sentence is constructed in different languages does give an insight into how people think (or even explain why to a non-speaker folks from other places are no nonsense or super expressive). Which is very very helpful in building both relationships and real understanding. Also for what it is worth, I do tend to go with original languages of the media I am at least watching (dubbed over voice acting quality has definitely gotten much better but still “feels” wrong in most cases for me). The only times I tend to go with English dubs are normally due to needing to multitask or if my ADD is making focusing hard. Sometimes a dub that is done well might have me re-watching stuff just to see how things are presented differently. Having random interactions like this comment and reply also help me have a better understanding of the world. So many things are just catered to the US and leads to arrogance on our part. Just going through life thinking that we (US citizens) are “correct” about things. When the reality is that we just don’t care to understand. Especially re-enforced by our “America is the greatest nation in the world” indoctrination from our right-wing and centrist politics. We are seeing a rise in the drive to “whitewash” history and to keep forgetting all the times we have been both wrong and the creators of suffering (both metaphorical and literal).
English is an American language, got it.