Wednesday, 03 November 2010

• Intelligence through language

  I've noticed something about myself while being in Korea, which is probably true about other people as well, that I'm making an effort fix. I noticed it today, when my principle passed by me, and said something to me in what little English he knows. It's funny, because he's always mixing up his words and sentences. As he said it, I smiled and responded in the way I would respond to a little child, or to someone who is mentally retarded; I responded simply and politely, but subconsciously I thought of him as mentally deficient. Then, I realized that, as my principle, he has probably spent years and years in higher education, and even more years teaching, managing people, and running schools. He's probably a lot smarter than I am!

  I thought about it, and realized why this was. Language is the window to ourselves. When you see someone, you know almost nothing about them. But the moment they utter one sentence, you know tons of things about them! You can probably tell from one sentence where they're from, what there education level is, how old they are, what their current emotion is, and what they're thinking about right there. And when we talk with them a little more, we say that we "know" them. Language is what we use to "know" people.

  In the same way, when someone's pronunciation is strange, we immediately think of them as strange; they must either be from a different region than us, or they have some kind of speech impediment. When someone's grammar is imperfect, we immediately think of them as dumb; they must be either uneducated, or have mental issues. When someone doesn't understand us at all, we immediately think of them as rude or completely mentally handicapped. This is how we use language to define people, and most of the time, it's accurate.

  However, when you find yourself in a situation in which English (or whatever your native language is) is not the primary language, this method of defining people goes completely out the window. If someone has strange pronunciation, its because their native language is much different than yours, and their mouth isn't used to making the same shapes and movements. If their grammar is imperfect, then it just means that they haven't had as much time to perfect their 2nd language as other people have, and their native language's grammar is probably much different than yours. If they completely ignore you, then it probably just means that they haven't spent the time or money that is required to learn English, and they simply don't know it. Or, even more possibly, your own English is too fast and slurred, andyour words sounded nothing like the words they learned on the internet, or from their teacher.

  I have so many students that I think are just horrible students, because they don't do well in my English class, but then I'm surprised to find out that they're very successful students in other classes, or that they're even their class president. Looking back on before I came to Korea, I think that me--and most people--probably think this same way, albeit subconsciously. If you don't have a lot of time to think about it, and correct yourself, it's very easy to think of your local Mexican janitor, Chinese dounut store owner, or Indian convenience store owner (excuse the stereotypes) as less intelligent than you. Ultimately, we paint this picture of Americans in general as being more intelligent than immigrants in America. But you always hear these stories of the guy who "used to be a doctor" in his home country, but came here and is now cleaning toilets. I don't doubt that many of those stories are true, because when we use language as a means of judging intelligence, and someone is having to use a 2nd language, the results will not be accurate.

  So for me, from many experiences, I've had to learn to stop myself from judging people's intelligence by their ability with a 2nd language. And for you... just try to keep it in mind next time it comes up. :)

  • 8:17 AM
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