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I just finished reading the Times article Share a Word. The author of this
article expressed outrage at the fact that Whyville encourages people to speak
in other languages. I strongly disagree with SailorL's opinion and would like to give
my counter-opinion. There are a few issues that I think the author may not have
considered while writing her piece:
First of all, SailorL seemed to think that people speak in other languages in
order to
"confuse and possibly upset the people around you", or because they "don't have
the heart to converse with their peers in a way that everyone can understand." I
would like to argue that most people don't speak in foreign languages to
annoy their peers. They simply are more comfortable and more fluent speaking
their native language. Plenty of people don't speak English at all.
So I think that to assume people are speaking in foreign tongues for the sake of
annoying or excluding us all is a bit rash.
The author stated that she disliked when people didn't speak English because
she didn't know if they were talking about "how bad [her] outfit is". If it
provides any assurance, I would like to remind the author that if people wanted
to talk about her, they probably would simply whisper to each other. They would
have no need to speak in another language for that.
She was also concerned that if a person was in a chat room where everyone was
speaking another language, they might feel left out and hurt. I personally have
never had this situation happen to me; I have never even seen anyone speaking in
a foreign language unless I explicitly asked them to demonstrate. So I don't
think this is likely to be a problem anytime soon. However, it is possible that this could happen.
May I suggest that the person who is feeling excluded either find a different
chat room (Whyville is full of rooms where the people are speaking English)
or even better, ask the people around them to teach him/her a little bit of
their language. You'll probably learn a lot and maybe even make some new
friends!
Towards the end of the article, the author protested the fact that Whyville
encourages people to speak foreign languages. She felt it was a "LARGE
contradiction" that a "safe haven" such as Whvyille would promote such a breach
of "civil decency". She also suggested that those who continually speak in
another language should be banished from Whyville. Perhaps this young lady
has a different definition of safe haven than I do; I don't know. In my
opinion, a safe haven is a place where everyone can be themselves and express
their feelings without discrimination or punishment. I think discouraging
or banishing foreign speakers would contradict this. I also wonder how
foreign languages offend civil decency. Perhaps these languages are
indecent? No, that opinion would be racist. And the author clearly states,
"I'm not a racist."
All in all, I found this article very surprising, especially because the author
had pointed out that she lived in Canada, "a place where diversity is accepted
and hardly ever questioned". Maybe she had not thought this through all
the way. I think that before judging others, it is important to put
ourselves in their position. In fact, I did just that before writing this
article. And I decided that the author of "Share a Word" did not realize
that her statements might come across as offending to some people. She was
just frustrated because of not being able to understand what people were saying
sometimes.
There is a book called Bloomability that relates to this subject. It is by
Sharon Creech and it is fantastic. All interested persons should check it
out.
Goodbye, Adios, Au Revoir, Shalom, Ciao, and Adieu,
JasmineK
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