As I pass the “en Espanol” section of Barnes & Noble, I can’t help feeling a little disappointed. No, I don’t have a problem with an aisle dedicated to Spanish texts; this isn’t based on xenophobia or a bulwark viewpoint on immigration. In fact, the opposite: what disappoints me is that this is the only section for a foreign language in a bookstore. As someone interested in learning a few more languages, I’d appreciate a section of a major bookstore chain to contain even a tiny aisle with “classic literature in their original tongues.” The closest I’ve come is the “Learn Foreign Languages” section, which I’ve almost completely emptied of Langenscheidt dictionaries (God bless them!)
My complaint against bookstores is peculiar, I’ll admit, but I think it highlights a problem of American culture and, more broadly, global culture. Why, – in a country that is supposedly more pluralistic than it has ever been (according to the critics of pluralism), in a country that has thoroughly embraced the cult of the diverse and historicist multiculturalism in its places of education, and in a country that takes itself to the rack at every artistic opportunity for being white, affluent, and Christian – why is there not more opportunity to learn about foreign cultures in their own words? To ask the question differently, how pluralistic are we actually when we all use the same language?
The instructions on my store-brand paper towels (English, French, & Spanish) are more literate than the bookstore at which the aura I presume I’m supposed to encounter is one of intellectual curiosity, ability, and a smidgen of the elite. Nice job, guys. Naturally, a store must appeal to its customers; one in America would be silly not to appeal primarily to an English-speaking audience. But a bookstore? And one famous for attracting the caffeinated denizens of womens’ studies departments? The lack of one row of Sanksrit texts is embarrassing; the lack of a German row, unforgiveable.
Are we so lazy? Perhaps. The European attitude toward American linguistic prowess has been smoothly expressed by Bridget von Hammersmarck’s comment in the recent film Inglourious Basterds: “Can you Americans speak any other language than English?” This comment is made even funnier (and sadder) by the Americans’ subsequent gambit to use their rough Italian to make it into a gala of the German Third Reich, capped by Brad Pitt’s pronunciation of Bon Giorno as “Bawn Jor-no” (talk about turning Italian on its head – being overtly expressive with it in the wrong way!) As a country whose linguistic neighbors are French Canada (to which we never relate) and Spanish Mexico (to which we have no need to relate beyond utilitarian considerations), America certainly has a disadvantage in comparison to Europe, so we can blame the seas for that one.
But as a country which, in its liberal circles, uses the redneck as a caricature of America’s xenophobic underbelly – flag-waving, baccy-chewing, moonshine-brewing, creation-teaching, and Nascar-cheering – we really ought to be ashamed. Without a greater respect for foreign languages, we are at a serious loss to respect, let alone understand, the cultures in which those languages define thought. Difficulty, the difficulty of learning a new language, is a problem, but no more than any other skill not exercised until college as something to fill a credit. If we treated our legs as we treat our linguistic organ, we would reach college gimps and cripples; and our approach to learning how to run would be just like little Colin Craven in The Secret Garden – totally aghast that we should be expected to struggle to learn what other people seem to be able to do so easily. Yes, we are lazy; more likely, we don’t know that there is work to be done.
The globe has become global. We have institutionalized Pentecost without tongues of flame. Robert Frost’s potent adage is forgotten: “Good fences make good neighbors.” We are wholesale removing our linguistic fences, so, on a national level, we are become worse neighbors. As far as this peculiar, grumpy, and romantic linguaphile can tell, we must play God to really be multi-cultural: putting down the bricks of Babel and breaking the tyrant of one language, with difficulty, on our own.
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Maybe it’s simpler than that. For one thing, America is really, really big–meaning that the only time we even have the opportunity to speak a foreign language is when we’re fortunate enough to travel overseas or south of the border, which for most poor American souls isn’t more than a few two-week trips over the course of a lifetime. Not really enough to make learning another language worth it, especially since, English being the language of travel, all essential services in most “safe” places overseas (ie Europe) have English speakers on staff. Even near the Iran border in eastern Turkey the manager of my hotel spoke English, though I had to pick up some Turkish and Kurdish to navigate the bus stations.
So, the only real reason to learn a foreign language is either extended travel (which happens rarely), picking up chicks (which happens often; thus, the foreign language sections in bookstores), improving the mind (also covered by foreign language sections), and reading obscure philosophers and great literature in their original languages, which, let’s face it, is only done by fanatics like us.
Quite simply, there aren’t enough fanatics around to warrant selling books in other languages. Bookstores do not exist to promote intellectual curiosity; they exist to make moolah. My suggestion is (surprise surprise) go to Germany! Go to India! You can stay in the EU for 3 months before your visa expires, and it’s cheaper than living in DC! Plus, you can practice spoken German, which does wonders.
Travel is essential.
Not learning other languages is an intellectual lethargy unique to Americans. As Tim notes, it is largely because we don’t have a practical reason to learn it within our own borders. As “pluralistic” America is, we only have every imaginable terrain and all of it English-speaking. My impression is that places with less of a melting-pot disposition have a greater understanding of other languages/cultures whereas America waters down everything that lives in it. Other places seem to have to fight to maintain cultural identities… not unlike the Hispanic immigration. In many places within the United States, you need to know Spanish and English to operate. Thus, the section in the corporate bookstore David describes. Maybe we need autonomous linguistic communities rather than allowing them to bleed together so indiscriminately.
A possible reason why there isn’t a Deutsche section is how common translation has become. We have ready access to virtually everything in English. What do you think that does to our way of thinking when we only think in translations?
If the bookstore supply is based on the demand of customers, perhaps your beef is with people not learning the languages and not with the prevalence of extra-English literature.
OH, and in paragraph #5 (the second to last), “Nascar-cheering” should be “NASCAR-cheering” since it’s an abbreviation of National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing.
I commend David for not knowing that NASCAR is an abbreviation.
HA!
On linguistic diversity I’ll only say first that I have used my meager Spanish, and second that after all my years of studying both Spanish and Latin, I have finally faced the fact that I am quite without linguistic talent. There is an element of natural skill and inclination that I apparently lack. Doesn’t mean I’ll stop striving, or that I’ll remove German from my “to-learn” list.
What I’d most like to critique is (I believe) a related issue: most Americans are not even skilled in their own language anymore, much less that of another culture. This has been made very plain to me in the last year, in which I have been mistaken as English in DC by American politicos (on two or three occasions) due to my comparatively expansive vocabulary, and in which my husband began law school and was surprised to find that few in his class knew basic rules of composition and grammar. I have a firmly Midwestern accent and those in my husband’s law class were theoretically intelligent enough to achieve and undergraduate degree and attain law school admission, so the only explanation I can come up with is a culturally accepted ignorance of their own language.
I’m not sure how Americans can successfully attempt to enlarge their lingual menu when they’re not even familiar with their native tongue. We did away with traditional English grammar and citizens lost their native entry point to understanding any system of language. And my spell-checking husband has suddenly become a Grammar Nazi.
…and I was writing so fast-and-furiously that I’m already seeing the typos. I am NOT the Grammar Nazi.