20 February 2010
By Hannah Dee
One of the things about privilege is that those who have it don't often realise their advantage. As a native English speaker, I'd never really realised quite how fortunate I was in the academic world. When writing and reviewing papers or giving conference presentations, the only thing I have to stress about is the content. Linking back to Maggie's post, networking at conferences is easy for me because everyone speaks my language. Indeed I often find myself walking around in an "English bubble" - on many occasions, I've joined a table at lunch and everyone else has switched from (say) German to English just so that I can join in.
Now I'm living in France, conducting research meetings in French, and helping colleagues with proofreading for conference and journal submissions, it's made it clear to me just how hard it is to work in a foreign language. My French is nowhere near up to the task of writing articles, and I have a new-found respect for the abilities of my colleagues who are not only excellent scientists, but also linguists. Maybe it's just the way that us Brits are not good at languages, and there's probably something circular going on (we don't generally need to be good at languages because everyone speaks ours), but I hadn't realised quite how difficult it was even just dealing with the day-to-day stuff when everything is in foreign!
It's certainly changed me. Looking back, I can see times when I've been short-tempered with overseas students, or checked my email during conference presentations delivered with impenetrable accents, and I'm kind of embarrassed by my behaviour. When reviewing papers I now try harder to be forgiving of errors in language and presentation, and to give extensive help in my comments where appropriate. I'm sure we have all reviewed some articles where the language is so bad it's hard to work out exactly what the authors have done, and those still have to be rejected for the language as it's impossible to judge the science. But I now have a much deeper understanding of linguistic privilege.
Sarah Davies21 February 2010 at 08:44 PM
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Thanks for this, Hannah. I entirely agree, and having worked on international projects I'm acutely aware of the (unfair?) dominance that English has as a language. While there are pockets of journals and conferences in other languages and in particular regions, I think these are often ghettoised given the status of English as a lingua franca. I'm not sure if this will ever change - or if we can do anything about it other than, as you suggest, be gracious when others struggle to express themselves. And perhaps, like you, be prepared to make the shift to another country and language!
Matthew Salois22 February 2010 at 08:44 PM
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Oh my, well if you think the British are bad at languages then I wonder how you would rank the typical American! I have found the British far more aware of worldly matters (including language) than Americans are in general. While I am poor at deciphering foreign accents, sometimes I even have trouble translating English to...well...English. I think it was Churchill who said something like the UK and the US are two countries separated by a common language. What hope is there for me when I have trouble understanding someone who speaks the same language as me?! Like you, I am deeply in awe of non-native English speakers who adapt such a powerful command of the English language. There are a myriad of cultures in my department (like any other in the UK) of French, Italian, Indian, and many others and I am always impressed by their ability to flawlessly move between languages, both in speech and in writing.