3 Common Language Misconceptions: My Multilingualism Assessed.
Someone I’m just getting to know:
“Ohh you speak German? Quick, say something!”Me (taken aback):
“Uhh…uhh…schnell, sag mal was!” (translated: “Quick, say something!”)The person:
“Ohhh! It sounds fierce, so aggressive! Cool!”Me:
“Uhm okay…”
While I should be used to this by now, it still throws me off when people demand that I say something in a language they do not understand, for their own entertainment.
Why do people do this? Is it just smalltalk? Or are these the perils of multilingualism?
Reflecting on this situation made me think of some common misconceptions about languages — specifically the ones I speak. For instance, the immediate reaction towards me speaking German, is to dub the language as angry or aggressive. Perhaps hearing it was purely to confirm a theory that people already had about German?
Here are three common misconceptions of the three languages that I speak, broken down:
Myth #1:
German is a fierce and aggressive language.
This meme might be relatable to some of us:
While I agree that there are a lot of affricates (voiceless sounds like ‘ch’ in chair) and fricatives (consonant sounds made by the friction of breath in a narrow opening in mouth, like ‘f’ and ‘th’) in German and the rolling tongue is much more subdued compared to other languages, I disagree with the assumption that German is harsh.
Yes, German may sound phonetically staccato to the untrained ear. We’ve all seen the YouTube video of a man dressed in lederhosen shouting the word “butterfly” in German to prove this point, but I do not think that sounds of certain words should define a language. It is also important to note that the man is totally overdoing his pronunciation of fricatives. In fact, I have always argued that German is actually an incredibly beautiful language.
Let’s look at the word Sehenswürdigkeit, which is used to describe the popular sights of a town or a place. An amalgamation, it consists of sehen (to see), and würdigkeit (worthiness). It literally tells you what is worth seeing. Isn’t that a beautiful word with an even more practical function? Not beautiful enough for you?
Take the word for “graveyard”.
Similar to the practical English amalgamation of “grave” + “yard”, the German word Friedhof is also an amalgamation of fried (read as “freed”: coming from the word, “Frieden”, which means peace and “hof” which means court or yard). A yard of peace, a peaceful yard: a final resting place for the departed.
Myth #2:
Indonesian is an easy language to learn.
While many people think German is harsh, Indonesian on the other hand is considered a very easy language to learn. I agree that the idea behind why Indonesian is easy to learn may stem from some truths.
Pronunciation is quite straightforward, colloquial phrases are easy to pick up, and it is grammatically less complicated. For instance, there is no verb conjugation, nor are there gendered pronouns like in German. But aside from being able to order food, or greet people, complexities of the language can emerge in communication.
Let’s look at some examples:.
1. Kemarin
The word kemarin means “yesterday”. In conversation, however, kemarin can mean anything from a few days ago, last week, or even the biggest abstract: in the past. For example “Kemarin-kemarin saya ke pasar setiap hari minggu” (“In the past, I used to go to the market every Sunday”). You begin to see how communication can become difficult here.
2. Besok
Besok means “tomorrow”, right?
Right. But it can also mean, a particular date or appointment that is coming up, or some time in the future. When I got married, I had a consultation with my caterer a few months before the wedding where we planned the set-up. He proceeded to say “Iya, besok waktu set-up ‘kan saya bawa anak-anak.” This literally means, “Yes, tomorrow I will be bringing my children for the set-up”.
A new language learner would be so confused: why are your children coming to my wedding tomorrow (which isn’t tomorrow)? What he actually meant was, when I come to your wedding on your wedding day to set up, I will have a crew of helpers with me. In Indonesian there is an expression, anak buah, which means staff. It quite literally translates to child fruit (?), and in this case he used the common abbreviation of anak-anak instead of saying anak buah. Isn’t that a bit confusing?
Language learning is a very personal experience, and learning Indonesian may come easier to some. Indonesian has some beautiful complexities. Other than the use and meaning of words, it also has varying levels of formality, a plethora of slang (my favourite is JeNi, for lime, an amalgamation of jeruk and nipis), and an entire nation’s worth of cultural diversity attached to it.
Myth #3:
Because you have English ancestry, you should have a British Accent.
As my mother tongue is English, and my mother is from the United Kingdom, most people expect me to have a ‘British’ accent. Often people ask me at which point I ‘lost’ my accent.
It is a very odd question, but it does reflect the very common assumption that there is only one ‘correct’ British accent. There is, indeed, one type of accent which is described as ‘typically British’, and this is known as the Queen’s English, or Oxford English, formally called Received Pronunciation (RP for short). Surprisingly, only 3% of the population in the UK speak it!
My family members do not belong to the RP-accent category, and have not lived in the UK for more than 40 years. As a result, their accents have changed and I was never raised with any particular accent. Having said that, my pronunciation of certain words still appears more ‘British’. For example, my pronunciation of tomato (to-MAH-to), vitamin (VIT-uh-min) and niche (neesh).
While I may not speak RP, nor any of the distinct myriad accents found in the UK, I find myself adapting my accent and pronunciation depending on who I am speaking to. I can do some semblance of a Singlish accent — but to be very honest with you, I don’t know what my accent really is! I think for many of us, it depends on the education we received, and how and where we were raised. In fact, the various accents that exist in the UK itself are a result of environmental factors. Being from the UK does not necessarily mean one speaks RP. Likewise, living and working overseas can influence and change accents. But the bottom line is that we humans only want to communicate and be understood, regardless of where we are from.
If misconceptions and generalisations about a language and a culture have taught me anything, it has shown me that the beauty of being multilingual is that you can usually understand where other people are coming from, and have greater empathy for their perspectives too. If you feel like it, you can also strive to correct common misconceptions about the languages that you speak!
Written by Dewi Fitzpatrick
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