Reflection # 9
Discuss the role of emotional language in your L1 and L2. Which language is emotionally richer.
Discuss the role of emotional language in your L1 and L2. Which language is emotionally richer.
Although Spanish, French and some Japanese are available to me as speech vehicles, since I lived in Germany for so many years, I would like to dwell on emotional expression in that language. Is it because English has such deep Germanic roots that I found no problem in finding an emotional voice in German? I spoke not only to the family friends, and clients / customers in German, but also to my horses, and also conversed with dogs and cats in that tongue. I rarely used English after a point, only for language lessons, or by special request. I still like to talk to the animals in German--they take to it better than Texans do!
In summary, I don't feel that there is any emotion that cannot be expressed in German fully well as I can express it in English.
As your learners acquire (participate?) in their new speech communities do you see a change in their emotional language behavior.
For the Japanese I worked with in Germany, some of the more extroverted seemed to enjoy finding that they could express "off-color" language in English. The Germans were always looking to pick up slang and swear words. In Gender Linguistics last year, I did a paper on the use of English in German-language blogs. The use of slang and swear words was the most frequent type of language used, probably derived from pop culture such as movies, songs, magazines. Also combos of German and English such as "drogenfreak," Elvisverruckt," and "Handy" meaning a cell phone, are quite common. I always felt that the students felt more liberated expressing these terms in English rather than in German.
Reflect on the notion of (re)construction of self in your own L2 or L3 learning experiences.
Since I never thought much about my identity when I was living overseas, this never seemed to be a problem. I just understood that my nationality and viewpoint were different, but that often gave me a springboard to get to know people and ask questions to find out how and why things in a particular country were different. Whether it was France, Spain or Japan, I just felt like I fit in. Frankly I feel most strange in the US, where I was faced with reverse culture shock in 2002, after many years in Europe. That is one of the reasons that I love ESL--it's international.
