The Apparent Invisibility of English.

I had a really interesting conversation with one of my colleagues as we were driving back from a school visit (car trips are the best way to get to know someone quickly and then skip to the good bits) – about Aboriginal Australians, their cultures, the discrimination they face, and how their languages are being passed on but also changed, and in some cases, “eroded”

My colleague is a strong believer in supporting Aboriginal languages, and I found myself saying the usual thing about how languages are so important for sustaining culture, engendering confidence, etc. etc. You know. It was one of those great conversations where we agreed with each other the whole time but also learnt things.

But while I do think that language, culture, individual and community confidence, prosperity, and happiness are all linked in some kind of way thing and support each other and all that, I have absolutely no idea how. Not just intellectually because I don’t have the time right now to sit down and work out all those different connections and stuff. I mean, even if I intellectually understood it, I still wouldn’t personally know how. These kinds of questions just don’t come up when you’re a native English speaker in a predominantly English speaking country in the western (so western) world.

I’ve never had difficulty getting into university or getting a job because I didn’t meet the language requirements. I don’t get teased for speaking English. (Okay, I make some weird vocab choices sometimes but whatever, I’m posh innit.) I’m not the least bit concerned that my language won’t be spoken after one or two generations.

Furthermore from my world viewpoint, English is so widely spoken and printed everywhere that I don't even notice that I'm using it - I'm just getting (or refusing to get) the message being communicated. It's like English is so default, so behemothic and yet so insipid that you can't even see it.

That makes me wonder, then, if English gets to be a part of my culture, confidence, prosperity, and happiness; if being an English speaker is something I can enjoy being or if it’s just like wearing clothes – most people do, and it only becomes an issue when you don’t.

But then I remember that Calvin and Hobbes is written in English and I think yea – I have language pride.