Language is like totally oppressive.

Hi there. Have you ever noticed how oppressive language can be? Well, first of all, what is oppressive language? Well when I looked oppressive up in the dictionary it said something about “inflicting hardship.” So that would mean that oppressive language is language that kinda makes you feel bad. So when I thought about it, I realized that people that speak more than one language can use that language to oppress. If it has ever happened to you, you probably know what I’m sayin’.

For me, personally, I have had quite a few experiences when it comes to being oppressed by foreign language. If you didn’t already know, I’m Mexican and White. You would think that I would speak Spanish because I’m Mexican, but I don’t. Both of my parents never spoke anything other than English with me and my sister when we were young. My sister and I don’t really speak a foreign language because of this. So anyways, I’ve felt oppressed sometimes because of that fact. And I’m sure plenty of other monolingual Americans have been too.

I live in California, which is just north of Mexico. California even used to be part of Mexico.  As a result, many folks that live here speak Spanish. Some of those people are even native speakers, that were raised with Spanish as their main language.  In both high school, and now college, I have had to deal with not understanding some people who speak another language. For example, in my high school Spanish 4 class, there were a lot of native speakers that spoke the language fluently. When they would have a long involved conversation with each other before class I would feel left out or lost. The fact that they were speaking in another language, that I couldn’t understand as well as them, made me feel inferior or not smart enough. That’s what I would call oppressive.

Some other times I have felt oppressed by language were on trips to foreign countries. Like this past summer, when I went to Europe for four and a half weeks. My parents and I went all over Italy, and then to France and England. Just a side note, my Mother speaks Italian fluently and a little bit of French, while my Father speaks Spanish fluently.  Anyways, in Italy and France I didn’t understand a word they were speaking. I was like totally lost when trying to understand them. That made parts of the trip a little frustrating, but luckily my Mother knows Italian and French. But the fact that I couldn’t really communicate with another human being totally put me down.

Well, what if you’re thinking to yourself, “Hey, I speak another language and it’s part of my culture, which I’m proud of.” You know, that is true, but it can still be oppressive. Sometimes people that speak another language will connect well with other people that speak that same language. They might even have a private conversation, in that language, in front of a bunch of people that only speak English. You may think that that is a nice plus to speaking another language, but not always. It’s kinda rude sometimes to do that. That’s like whispering a whole conversation in front of a group of people. You may want to keep private what you are saying, but then how do you think it makes the other people feel. They probably feel oppressed or somethin’. Would you want a couple of people to be whispering in front of you all the time. I don’t think so.

Something most people don’t think about is how many of those foreign language speakers get away with saying certain things here in America that most English speaking Americans wouldn’t get away with. While a couple of foreign language speaking people are chatting away with each other, like in class or something, they may say a word in their language that sounds offensive in English. For example, my friend told me about some Chinese friends he had in high school. He said they would speak Mandarin Chinese sometimes when they were around him. But see, there’s this certain word in Mandarin Chinese that sounds like an offensive word in English. That word is “niga”, which means “you” in Mandarin Chinese. They would say it all the time like it was nothing, even though most Americans would think they are referring to the derogatory term that has been referenced with African Americans. If a Black guy were to hear a Mandarin Chinese speaking guy say “niga”, he would probably get mad about it. This is the kind of oppression that language can have on people.

If you were just having a conversation with buddies, you probably wouldn’t think that they are really oppressin’ you with their language. Most groups of friends don’t have to deal with other languages, ‘cause they are usually people with similar backgrounds or personalities.  But if you have ever had anything to do with people that don’t speak your language, you probably know what I’m sayin’. Now I gotta go. See ya.