Language of Power: How it is getting more exclusive

#2 Beej

quote
``In fact, this fluency has indeed got Musharraf into trouble – by shooting off his mouth and saying all the WRONG things – then being unable to claim that his intent was “lost in translation”!


How true....!!


Infact I know of a person, who has turned the tables around.... He can speak english perfectly well , and can understand even the undercurrents through tones...

Yet he feigns ignorance for english... and takes a translater along with Him....and believe you me... ... It has saved him , on many a occasions from getting into trouble.....

He says.... he has picked this trick from Frenchs, germans and Chineese or were they
Koreans... who do the same....!!

Behram1

You meant ``Disresectfully submitted?``

Dear Rizwana,

I have seen our Pakistani ruling class speak on american TV and frankly I am not impressed with any of them, including Musharraf. Most of them come across as haughty and condescending. They come across as ``goondas.`` I am surprised how they get time of the day from the really enlightened leaders of modern day world.

It will be beneficial for the ruling class of Pakistan to head for a course in communications or to a self-improvement section of any western book store.

Respectfully submitted,

B

This was a nice write. Westernization is not modernization. We will continue to decay until we find a way around the capatilist dogma that we have been engulfed in. hopefully people will someday see the glory of progression and invention. Instead of finding the easiest ways to be accepted by the vastly different west. Until we build instituitions these problems won`t be solved. May allah give us inner peace.ameen.

Beej saheb:

take out your magnifying glass and Wren & Martin and get going please!

exhibit A:
A language comes with the baggage of cultural identity and English like always is the language of power spoken in degrees of perfection at every socio-economic level.

exhibit B
Their accessibility to private schools and then going abroad for further education stamps them as a special class who know English with an accent.

exhibit c:
Although the institutions practice English as their medium of operations, it’s a kind of English when taught without knowledge is unable to educate.

if you need more exhibits am standing by

rgd

t

An interesting article – especially the discussion of the ruling elite’s emphasis on English.

Language has the dual role of being the medium of communication and education as well as the vehicle of the culture. In the former role, English is currently unsurpassable because of the large amount of resources that have already been built up. In the latter role, the emphasis is misplaced – to interact with their masses, the politicians need to use their own languages.

Musharraf’s (or other politicians’) fluency in English has nothing to do with being acceptable in the West – that acceptance is based on factors to do with geopolitics and on comparison with (potential) alternatives. In fact, this fluency has indeed got Musharraf into trouble – by shooting off his mouth and saying all the WRONG things – then being unable to claim that his intent was “lost in translation”!

Words can inform our mind, caress and comfort our feelings, excite and thrill our spirit, or warm and kindle the flame of our hearts. They can also slap our face, punch us in the stomach, rattle our nerves, kill our desire, or destroy our self-confidence. Of course this is metaphorical, but these metaphors capture in words our physical reactions to what is said, and that is the power of language. It can emotionally move and affect us as powerfully as physical actions. Unfortunately, however, we have yet to recognize and legitimize this great power in the way we should, and we are left to deal with language in whatever way we have learned and adopted.