On Languages

Disclaimer: These are sweeping generalizations and do not apply to any individuals I know, unless specifically mentioned below.

I once worked with a woman originally from Vietnam, and she explained some of the structure of the Vietnamese language to me. They have a different word for every possible kind of family relationship. Where we would say, "grandmother," they would have different names for your maternal grandmother and your paternal grandmother. Where we would say, "brother-in-law," they would have a name for the man who is married to your sister and another name for the brother of your spouse and another name for the man who is married to your spouse's sister.

But when it comes to verbs, they only have one conjugation. We have different conjugations that tell if we went shopping, we're going shopping, we are shopping, or we always go shopping. They just go, and they let the rest of the sentence tell you the details. "I go now." "I go yesterday." "I go tomorrow."

Language reflects culture. Asian cultures are socially based, so the emphasis is on relationships. Western cultures are indivually based, so the emphasis is on what individuals do.

I took French in school and really loved it. It's a soft-sounding language, that encourages the speaker to purse her lips and linger over the words. My children, on the other hand, took German, a harsh-sounding language that encourages the speaker to hawk and spit.

One time I was getting my hair cut at one of those cheapy walk-in places, and the haircutter was talking to a couple of his friends in a language that sounded French to me, soft and round, but I couldn't make out any words. I asked the guy what language that was, and he said it was Persian. And I found that interesting, because I'd heard Arabic before, and it sounds harsh to me.

The same sort of dichotomy exists in Eastern Europe. It may not look like it, with all the z's in their words, but Polish is the French of that region, and Russian is the German.

And that brings me to an assessment of these culture based on the sound of their language.

Germany was the aggressor nation in the two World Wars of the twentieth century, and France, when attacked (in WWII anyway), rolled over and invited the Germans to come in and run their country for them.

Poland has been conquered endlessly throughout their history, often by the Russians who (from my perspective of distance and much ignorance) seem hard and bent on conquest even now.

I live in Southern California, and we have a sizable Muslim population here, but all the Middle Eastern Muslims I know are Iranian (Persian), having come here with the fall of the Shah in 1979. Maybe they were predisposed to like us, because we supported the Shah, but these are some of the nicest, sometimes funniest, most helpful people I know. Some are conservative, some less so, and very likable.

On the other hand, back in 1983, my then-husband and I (Before Children) took a four-month bicycle trip through Western Europe. We stayed in campgrounds and youth hostels when we could to keep our costs down. At the hostel in Geneva, there was a large contingent of Middle Eastern-looking men who seemed to be Arabs, although I have no idea which country they were from.

I have never felt such an immediate visceral reaction to any group of people before or since. I didn't trust them, not for a nanosecond, not for a micro-millimeter, not for anything. I didn't feel safe around them and stayed as close to my husband as I could. I carried on polite conversation when necessary, but otherwise avoided them and was relieved when we left Geneva.

I'm not implying that we should worry about Iraq and shouldn't worry about Iran. No, Iraq is working itself toward self-governing liberty, and Ahmadinejad is a genocidal-wannabe dictator who needs to be stopped. But if you want to learn something about a people group to get a feel for who they are, try listening to the language for a while. It may tell you more than you might expect.