This post is actually about code switching on one's Facebook wall and negotiating this particularly virtual space.
[EDIT: I've made a few changes to the original because it sounded a lot more aggressive than I intended it to be.]
Earlier this week, I'd posted this on an Australian friend's Facebook wall:
Quoi de neuf? What's this about living semi-permanently in XXXX?
This was in response to something I'd read about him moving back to XXXX. I used the French for 'What's new?' at the start because he's living in France and I knew that he had been learning French. I didn't want to write the whole post in French because I wasn't sure of his current level.
However, his reply was about 4 lines long, completely in French. It was actually a piece of bad news, but I assume he felt comfortable enough to put it on his wall, even if most of his friends don't speak French. His switching from English to French made me feel like he was privileging me with the response / information. Of course I didn't know how much his other friends already knew and thought that maybe he'd already mentioned something before and didn't want to repeat himself in English.
So following his lead, I continued the conversation in French with a comment expressing my condolences.
Within the hour, another friend had commented:
Translation pls?
A few hours later, there was another:
English, please. ;-)
Now, if comments like these appeared on my own wall I would be really annoyed for two main reasons. One, I perceive the wall on my Facebook profile as belonging to me - I mean, it's 'my' wall. I own it. (And Mark Zuckerberg owns me, but that's a different story.) Sure, it's designed for public viewing, but I still perceive it as a space in which someone should be allowed to express thoughts / vent frustrations / share news in whatever language they choose and without having to explain themselves. It's fine for people to post on other people's walls, but they still have to be mindful that they are in someone else's 'personal space'.
For instance, I once posted a link to an article about the 2009 Xinjiang riots involving Hans and Uyghurs. A 'friend' on my Facebook (who I don't know very well and who also happens to be one of the annoying commenters above) replied to my post with a comment that I thought was somewhat racist and potentially insulting to my Uyghur friends, so I deleted it. Offended, this 'friend' accused me of denying him his freedom of speech. I said, sure he could say anything he liked, but just not on my wall. I then proceeded to block him.
Two, if someone posts in a particular language, I assume it's because they have a particular target audience in mind (also assuming they're not being a show-off douche). When one of my friends who lived in Japan for a bit posts in Japanese, I know it's intended for his fellow Japanese-speaking friends - the shared linguistic code serves as an in-group marker demarcating a group of friends within his larger network of friends. Some people might consider it rude to everyone else on the friends list, but I liken it to when people post quotes from a TV show, knowing that the only people who will get the joke are fellow viewers of that show. It therefore strikes me as somewhat rude when other people demand a translation for posts in a language other than English, like it's their right to understand everything that's on the wall. Admittedly there are times when people, including myself, make posts that sound a little cryptic in order to fish for questions or comments, but the idea is, if someone posts is in a language that I don't speak, I just ignore it, because it probably wasn't meant for me anyway!
I don't know how my friend felt about those requests / demands for English translations, but I can't imagine he would have wanted to repeat what he'd just said. His lack of a response to their comments seems to confirm my own suspicions that he didn't want to repeat himself.
In any case, here's a simple solution to people who still think it's rude that people post in languages they don't understand:
Just learn the language.
Or just learn to use Google Translate.
[EDIT: I've made a few changes to the original because it sounded a lot more aggressive than I intended it to be.]
Earlier this week, I'd posted this on an Australian friend's Facebook wall:
Quoi de neuf? What's this about living semi-permanently in XXXX?
This was in response to something I'd read about him moving back to XXXX. I used the French for 'What's new?' at the start because he's living in France and I knew that he had been learning French. I didn't want to write the whole post in French because I wasn't sure of his current level.
However, his reply was about 4 lines long, completely in French. It was actually a piece of bad news, but I assume he felt comfortable enough to put it on his wall, even if most of his friends don't speak French. His switching from English to French made me feel like he was privileging me with the response / information. Of course I didn't know how much his other friends already knew and thought that maybe he'd already mentioned something before and didn't want to repeat himself in English.
So following his lead, I continued the conversation in French with a comment expressing my condolences.
Within the hour, another friend had commented:
Translation pls?
A few hours later, there was another:
English, please. ;-)
Now, if comments like these appeared on my own wall I would be really annoyed for two main reasons. One, I perceive the wall on my Facebook profile as belonging to me - I mean, it's 'my' wall. I own it. (And Mark Zuckerberg owns me, but that's a different story.) Sure, it's designed for public viewing, but I still perceive it as a space in which someone should be allowed to express thoughts / vent frustrations / share news in whatever language they choose and without having to explain themselves. It's fine for people to post on other people's walls, but they still have to be mindful that they are in someone else's 'personal space'.
For instance, I once posted a link to an article about the 2009 Xinjiang riots involving Hans and Uyghurs. A 'friend' on my Facebook (who I don't know very well and who also happens to be one of the annoying commenters above) replied to my post with a comment that I thought was somewhat racist and potentially insulting to my Uyghur friends, so I deleted it. Offended, this 'friend' accused me of denying him his freedom of speech. I said, sure he could say anything he liked, but just not on my wall. I then proceeded to block him.
Two, if someone posts in a particular language, I assume it's because they have a particular target audience in mind (also assuming they're not being a show-off douche). When one of my friends who lived in Japan for a bit posts in Japanese, I know it's intended for his fellow Japanese-speaking friends - the shared linguistic code serves as an in-group marker demarcating a group of friends within his larger network of friends. Some people might consider it rude to everyone else on the friends list, but I liken it to when people post quotes from a TV show, knowing that the only people who will get the joke are fellow viewers of that show. It therefore strikes me as somewhat rude when other people demand a translation for posts in a language other than English, like it's their right to understand everything that's on the wall. Admittedly there are times when people, including myself, make posts that sound a little cryptic in order to fish for questions or comments, but the idea is, if someone posts is in a language that I don't speak, I just ignore it, because it probably wasn't meant for me anyway!
I don't know how my friend felt about those requests / demands for English translations, but I can't imagine he would have wanted to repeat what he'd just said. His lack of a response to their comments seems to confirm my own suspicions that he didn't want to repeat himself.
In any case, here's a simple solution to people who still think it's rude that people post in languages they don't understand:
Just learn the language.
Or just learn to use Google Translate.
I was hanging out with a French speaker all weekend and practicing a bit of French. So when I logged on to FB, I responded to another friend's (English) question with "oui". I didn't think he knew any French but guessed he might be able to work it out by context. He thought I answered "Oi" and later on texted me the same question. Haha.
ReplyDeleteI think you're touching on big questions about personal language policy. We're all different. There are those who are loathe to speak a language that some people in the 'room' don't understand and are very accommodating. There are those who are loathe to change anything about their language of choice in order to accommodate others. (If they're a minority language speaker, these guys are legends in my eyes). And everyone in between.
But I still think that if you're a prat, you'll sound like a prat no matter what. If you're a nice person, others will probably be quite happy for you to blather on in whatever language you like...
True, in a real-world conversation with people, I would consider it extremely rude to speak a language that some people in the group didn't speak. But I suppose what interests me here is defining the space that is a Facebook wall, where notions of public banter and private conversation are mixed up.
ReplyDeleteI have my own expectations regarding my own rights and privileges in that personal/public space, which are apparently quite different to some other people's expectations (like the person whose comment I deleted). But I think when my friend switched to French, he was making a decision, conscious or not, to exclude non-French speakers from the information (or making it difficult for them). If we were at a party, it'd be like having the two of us having a conversation in French, and suddenly having two guys come up to us asking us to interpret for them just so they can join the conversation.
Also, in reality, I don't generally post in languages other than English myself, and reading back on the post, I might sound a little aggressive in the post regarding my own 'language policy'. I was actually thinking of a friend who regularly posts in English and Japanese. Since I don't speak Japanese (and he knows this), I just assume the posts aren't for me!
nie rozumiem, prosze przetłumacz
ReplyDeleteHaha. Indeed. I remember being on a weekend away with two friends, one Swedish one Aussie. We got absolutely trashed on wine and gin (classy, I know) and I spent around an hour speaking solely in Swedish just because I suppose in my head I put dots together and thought it would be fun. Your sense of politeness and consideration tend to evaporate when you're extremely intoxicated.... Afterward I felt (and still feel) horrible for my Aussie friend who just sat there listening politely. Embarassing on my part, I'll never do it again! But the conversation was fun in any case. X)
ReplyDeleteI think I agree with your sentiments though, if you're posting in a language, you're targeting those who speak it (or being a prat). I'm not going to go and pm the message to everyone who doesn't speak English, just going to bang it up on my wall. If you really want to know what it says, google translate. If you don't know what Google translate is, and you can't understand the message, well life is cruel sometimes. X)
I can't see a reason why someone would desperately want to join the conversation when they have no idea what's going on, c'est bizarre!
J
... and 'lolz @ Lauren' (to emulate 7331 sp33k). X)
ReplyDelete