Jason personally responds to Bilal’s “Notes on Translation”, and broadens out the discussion to the politics of language in general. He argues we need to go beyond the promotion of learning certain languages by learning the language of critique.
I find Bilal’s comments on translation very fitting since this topic has come up time and time again this year in strange and unsuspecting ways, especially as I endeavor to think about my own research direction, and in teaching Chapter 1 of Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin White Masks to my undergraduate classes.
Indeed, just last week my cohort were discussing Aloha Betrayed and the role of the Native Hawaiian language in that book. And just a few weeks prior to that discussion, there was a court case just recently settled on the constitutionality of a Philadelphia cheese-steak restaurant owner’s decision to post a sign that read:
“THIS IS AMERICA: Please use English when ordering.”
This has gotten me to think about my own positioning in the language matrix that is North America. I was born with Korean on my lips, but English in my brain. I’ve also done a lot of work shoring up my French over these past several years, and had even attempted to learn Mandarin.
Despite all these attempts to educate myself outside of English, it all seems to be for naught as no matter what I do, no matter how many thousands of dollars I spend, English is the only language that matters, and I already know it.
So some may ask, what do I have to complain about?
I find it both troublesome and incredibly irritating that the above is the case. I have all these languages in my brain, but none of them really matter. I can afford to have poor Korean, dabble in French, and fail at Mandarin, but my life - nay, our very lives - depends upon the mastery of English.
“THIS IS AMERICA: Please use English when ordering.”
The sign tells us so, and strangely, if you haven’t noticed, it’s also written in English.
The idea that languages in and of themselves make you a better person is ludicrous. Cosmopolitanism is an idea spoken about, in and for English. Multi-archival work, multilingualism, and diversity are all thought about, spoken about and read about in English. We cannot help but sustain this matrix of English. We love it. We thrive on it. We are it.
My linguistic odyssey has thus been an overdetermined failure. Perhaps this is simply a sign of my incompetence, but nobody can deny the fact that even if one were to master these other languages, the world continues to turn and all of your polyglot prowess is for naught since English proficiency, above all else, seems to be the measure of one’s basic humanity, irrespective of your competence in any other language, hence,
“THIS IS AMERICA: Please use English when ordering.”
What is to be done?
Every time we open our mouths to speak we are engaging in a process of translation. The act of speaking is the process of translating thoughts as they appear in our minds into words with inexact meanings. Our choice in the usage of these words is tied to our particular circumstances - class, culture, gender, sexuality, political stripe and so forth. The problem lies in that, in many cases, these words are mere guttural utterances in this world. You can engage all you want in attempting to subvert the current state of affairs by voicing these guttural utterances, they shall simply respond:
“THIS IS AMERICA: Please use English when ordering.”
Thus, I propose nothing other than learning a new language. I know my proposal sounds ridiculous, but I do not make it in jest. I am being gravely serious here - this is not a satire or a work of irony, let me assure you.
I propose equipping ourselves with a grammar that allows us to enunciate only critical phrases. No matter through what set of guttural utterances you wish to convey these statements, it is ultimately this critical grammar that makes them different than the pronouncements made by this oppressive world.
pingback:
