You’re in our country…
Ah yes. This tweet from @badjournalism links to one of those rather nasty Facebook groups that have sprouted up like smelly mushrooms all over the place. It's called - and I think the capital letters are important - YOU'RE IN OUR COUNTRY SO SPEAK OUR F*CKING LANGUAGE. You know the kind of thing. Sometimes you see people you vaguely know - wives of second cousins, or people who know someone you used to work with, whom you met once at a party and thought were vaguely humorous - joining these groups, and you think, Jesus, really?
It's the age-old 'them and us' terminology. "You're" in "our" country... I wonder if these are the kind of folk who would follow through this logic to its natural conclusion - speaking Welsh if they ever popped over to Cardiff, for example, or learning any Spanish other than DOSS KERVEZZOS MATE when on holiday in Eye-beef-ah - or whether they'd just carry on blaring away in English as loudly as possible, getting more and more irate with someone who didn't understand every thundering word of Essex-twanged* English?
You can link it with the idea people have that the English are somehow some kind of pure-bred race, the so-called 'indigenous' population. English is a mongrel language, ever-changing and adapting, which is what makes it so successful. I'd argue that's what makes Britain, or England, so successful also: the ability to absorb and incorporate other languages, and other cultures.
Like immigrants entering the country, loan-words enter the language, and become a great success. Do the members of this Facebook group never talk about bungalows, chutney, ginger or kebabs? Or do they use those words and have no idea where they might come from? Or don't they care? Maybe it's a "some of my favourite words come from abroad" kind of an attitude; I don't know.
The country belongs to everyone, as far as I'm concerned. It's no more 'mine' than it is anyone else's. And as far as words go, the more new ones that arrive, the greater our beautiful language will be enriched. You're in our country, do what you bloody well like. Just make sure you don't spend too much time reading the rubbish written by the twats on that Facebook group, or you'll get the wrong idea about English people.
* I've got nothing against the fine people of Essex. It's just an example. Although I did once have an unpleasant evening in Hornchurch. Not that anyone's ever had a good one, I'll wager.
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February 11th, 2010 - 14:44
I got on Pat Condell’s case when he tried that “indigenous culture” line as there hasn’t been a truly indigenous culture in England since Julius Caesar showed up.
February 11th, 2010 - 14:46
Quite a few people from my old school seem to have joined groups like this. it always makes me wonder if it’s time to delete them – or if they realise just how stupid the premise of these groups actually is. You can bet they’d never speak a word of another language if they went abroad.
February 11th, 2010 - 15:01
I once joined up to one of those groups with the sole intention of absolutely taking the piss. I think the group title was “Your[sic] in England Speak English!!!”
So I started leaving long, rambling posts filled with run on sentences, little in the way of punctuation, spelling errors galore and accented speech (ie using wiv instead of with). I made sure that no words were more than 5 letters long and went down a long twisty path simultaneously saying that no one in India speaks English whilst also having a go at Indians for “steelin all are call center jobs!”
The first reply? “Well said Chris”
Chris
February 11th, 2010 - 15:42
I join these sorts of groups to try and inject some intelligence in to these peoples minds. Turns out it doesn’t work! I just get called racist slurs as they punch their keyboards. It’s funny.
February 11th, 2010 - 15:46
Someone has posted a link to this blog entry on this facebook group saying ‘you might want to have a read of this. oh and you’re all wankers’. haha. Good work. Not that any of them will read it
February 11th, 2010 - 15:48
Yeah, I’ve seen a few people join this groups. Personally I admire anyone who can speak more than one language, as I can barely manage this one.
The big problem with these groups is they are just jam packed with idiots and trolls. The people with opposite view points who join the group to discuss anything will just get dragged into mindless slagging matches. It’s like a poor man’s /b/
February 11th, 2010 - 15:50
these groups are staggering, i’ve found one that states “only in england are there homeless people, only in england do children go to bed hungry, but we donate £50 million to haiti – 99% of people are too scared to put this in their profile” – which really is staggeringly stupid.
what next? “ONLY ENGLISH PEOPLE DIE!”
funny how people in these groups lap it up though, as per chris’ comment – type a raging innacurate post full of bile and horrendous spelling and people will give you pats on the back and congratulate you.
February 11th, 2010 - 16:01
I can’t speak this language very well. I’m from Yorkshire so I randomly miss out letters which makes me sound, somewhat, stupid. I blame the parents (and the Vikings).
As for the logic and natural conclusion, I actually know (though not any more) people who think the Welsh are ignorant for speaking Welsh, in Wales (I live in North Wales and find it wonderful to hear people speaking it and sticking two fingers up to the ‘invaders’).
I understand a fair bit – and can say most pleasantries – also my 4 year-old son is teaching me new words everyday, in a ‘Welsh only’ speaking school.
Thatcher (she tried to stop the language from being put on road signs et al) and her facebook groupies would be outraged!
Clearly logic, nature and conclusion never even enters the heads of these people. The enemies of reason.
February 11th, 2010 - 16:14
Yeah, luckily none of my facebook friends tend to join any of these groups but if anyone did they’d quickly find themselves unfriended… The worst group I’ve seen someone join and considered de-friending them for is a ‘We Love The Evian Babies’ group!
February 11th, 2010 - 16:33
Blech. One of my cousins has joined. Luckily, I don’t see them very often in real life.
Favourite bit:
Not racist. Just screamingly xenophobic and paranoid.
February 11th, 2010 - 16:45
I am a qualified E2L teacher – I did the RSA/UCLES CTEFLA as it was then, and I went to teach English in Poland. Did I speak Polish? No. Do I speak any other language? Erm, biblical Hebrew, and a bit of French and Urdu. Do many E2L teachers speak a foreign language competently? Erm, some do. But I would hesitate a guess, and say not that many. And there are many.
February 11th, 2010 - 23:15
The sad irony is that English derives much of its beauty and complexity precisely from the fact that it has been influenced so strongly by “foreign” languages. English is flexible, and doesn’t have some Academy to stop it from growing and changing; that’s why it has become the language that I love so much.
February 13th, 2010 - 22:06
If these thick twats are so keen on people in Britain supporting all things English, what are they doing on a website created in America, by Americans, for Americans? What’s wrong with Friends Reunited?