A lot resonates here. On the French point, there are a lot of English words in France nowadays, less so in Quebec. My French teacher in college used to make this point, that he appreciated how in Quebec they insist on translating everything (he was from France). On the other hand, it can be kind of ridiculous, especially when a new English word achieves global reach instantly due to the internet. Is it really “English”?
For example, I recently taught a workshop on dating slang to ESL students, things like “situationship” or “down bad” (lol). To my surprise, they all knew situationship because they say it in their languages (Spanish for example). So can we really say it’s an English word? I’m not sure. There’s also the fact that meaning of words changes in a new context. Italians love to talk about “feeling” (c’è feeling) to describe a romantic spark between two people, but we wouldn’t really say it that way in English. Anyway, I could go on forever, but language is always changing and evolving…attempts to freeze it in time seem misguided to me.
Your question - is it really English? - is spot on. What a good question!! I will ask my classmates tomorrow to see what they think. The word/phrase I’ve heard most is: ChatGPT. Lots of people use it to study, though it often comes up with an incorrect translation.
As for Tawada, I have yet to read a book of hers that I did not like, though Where Europe Begins is my least favorite so far. The Last Children of Tokyo had an ending I’d like to talk about — if you start with that one, please tell me what you think!!
Ok, I will look for The Last Children of Tokyo. About "ChatGPT"--I was horrified the other day to hear some students say "ask chat! ask chat!" about a question they were unsure of. It just makes it sound like...a person, the same way streamers will say "hey chat" to elicit a response from the people watching them. Too much anthropomorphism for me.
I love this essay (and not just because I got a shoutout). You've highlighted some great moments where Tawada is funny and annoyed at the same time. I really appreciate how she resists being sidelined as a non-native speaker of German or "essentialized" as a native speaker of Japanese, insisting on her right to be creative in whatever language or combination of languages she pleases. To be fair, she acknowledges the dark sides of exophony -- colonialism, a sense of exile into another language -- but she insists on its positive creative potential when it is chosen through curiosity and creative effort. And she reminded me just how abstract and amazing German *Redewendungen* are.
I'm just happy to see someone loves bread as much as me.
https://bretthetherington.net/2019/02/15/bread/
A lot resonates here. On the French point, there are a lot of English words in France nowadays, less so in Quebec. My French teacher in college used to make this point, that he appreciated how in Quebec they insist on translating everything (he was from France). On the other hand, it can be kind of ridiculous, especially when a new English word achieves global reach instantly due to the internet. Is it really “English”?
For example, I recently taught a workshop on dating slang to ESL students, things like “situationship” or “down bad” (lol). To my surprise, they all knew situationship because they say it in their languages (Spanish for example). So can we really say it’s an English word? I’m not sure. There’s also the fact that meaning of words changes in a new context. Italians love to talk about “feeling” (c’è feeling) to describe a romantic spark between two people, but we wouldn’t really say it that way in English. Anyway, I could go on forever, but language is always changing and evolving…attempts to freeze it in time seem misguided to me.
What do you recommend from Tawada?
Your question - is it really English? - is spot on. What a good question!! I will ask my classmates tomorrow to see what they think. The word/phrase I’ve heard most is: ChatGPT. Lots of people use it to study, though it often comes up with an incorrect translation.
As for Tawada, I have yet to read a book of hers that I did not like, though Where Europe Begins is my least favorite so far. The Last Children of Tokyo had an ending I’d like to talk about — if you start with that one, please tell me what you think!!
Ok, I will look for The Last Children of Tokyo. About "ChatGPT"--I was horrified the other day to hear some students say "ask chat! ask chat!" about a question they were unsure of. It just makes it sound like...a person, the same way streamers will say "hey chat" to elicit a response from the people watching them. Too much anthropomorphism for me.
I love this essay (and not just because I got a shoutout). You've highlighted some great moments where Tawada is funny and annoyed at the same time. I really appreciate how she resists being sidelined as a non-native speaker of German or "essentialized" as a native speaker of Japanese, insisting on her right to be creative in whatever language or combination of languages she pleases. To be fair, she acknowledges the dark sides of exophony -- colonialism, a sense of exile into another language -- but she insists on its positive creative potential when it is chosen through curiosity and creative effort. And she reminded me just how abstract and amazing German *Redewendungen* are.