By Nicholas Aribino
(Writing in own capacity)
This world is not just as we see it, if we don’t listen to the unspoken messages as we converse, we are bound to lose the context and content of the conversation. Similarly, as conversationalists we should be adept at understanding where we have conversation starters and enders. Failing to understand subtexts or unspoken messages in a conversation is the worst thing that one can do because one risks being where he or she is no longer wanted.
Unspoken messages can patronise, flatter, pooh-pooh, discriminate, thingify, objectify, amplify or persuade. Unspoken messages communicate more to those people who care to listen closely and can be used either as the premise upon which conversations can continue or discontinue. When President Trump recently said to the Liberian President, “Where did you learn English?” he conveyed multiple unspoken messages to listeners who have third ears and eyes that look through the window.
It is the object of this opinion piece to undress the “Where did you learn English?” utterance.
In terms of socio-linguistic competence, utterances can be examined against the context of pragmatics and the need to hear out one another as social animals without necessarily looking at phonology, semantics, grammar, syntax or rules that govern a language. In the light of socio-linguistic competence, what is primary is the relaying of a message to the next person. What is of paramount import in a dyad where socio-linguistic competence is involved is not approaching a language as a subject, but as a tool for facilitating communication.
In the case of the question, “Where did you learn English?”, the questioner is departing from seeing English as a language and focuses on English as a subject. At the back of President Trump’s mind, the African President cannot be grammatically competent, hence his amazement regarding the African President’s fluency in the Queen’s language. By extension, President Trump is conveying the unspoken message that African Presidents are not good at English and that English is a preserve of a chosen few-the Whites.
President Trump, when he asks the question under interrogation is coming to the table with the perspective of grammatical competence. Grammatical competence is concerned with rules that govern a language, and these rules seem to be sacrosanct for President Trump.
In his remark about the competence of the African President’s fluency in English, President Trump forgets that English is one of the lingua franca of the citizens of the world. A lingua franca is a language that is used for business purpose; it enhances human connection.
That the Liberian President speaks English like a British is neither here nor there because the context in the oval office does not mirror the four walls of a classroom where an English lesson should connect perfectly the dots of phonology, syntax, grammar, morphology, and semantics, among other things that are tucked into grammatical competence. President Trump also sends an unspoken message of his pride in his source language, English. English for the Liberian President is a target language by virtue of his history and geography as it was introduced in Liberia in the 19th century by freed slaves from the United States.
There is another unspoken message to Africans that their languages are not in the same basket with English. President Trump is being full of himself as he converses with the President of Liberia, because for him English is a language extraordinaire that is also associated with intelligence. Arguably, intelligence for President Trump is just for a chosen few who happen to be Whites.
The interaction between President Trump and the Liberian President also comes with the unspoken message of power dynamics. Observably, those who speak fluent English wield social, political and economic power as compared to those whose source language is not English.
In African students’ daily interactions within and outside of the structured environments of education like early childhood development, primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, there is trumponomic thinking that English is of paramountcy and that anyone who speaks it through the nose has sound cognitive structures. That English is critical as a subject and a language is not debatable, but the same argument can be pitched for any other language.
Research has shown that formation of thought patterns is effectively done through one’s source language. One’s source language is the fulcrum for thinking and expressing one’s thoughts. Arguably, colonialism disrupted the development of African languages knowing very well that if they were to be developed, they were going to account for creative thinking, innovation and industrialisation.
Some African languages now have died out and out go some people’s cultures. Language is integral to culture. When African cultures pooh-pooh their languages, they resemble peacocks-beautiful outside and ugly inside.
President Trump sends a clear but unspoken messages to the listenership that their lives do not amount to anything if they are not conversant in English. Today Africa has in its universities French, Portuguese, Mandarin, German and English, among other foreign languages as intercultural communication courses. While this may be good for preparing students for the status of international citizenship, the Global North does not largely focus on teaching African languages in their universities as intercultural communication course.
President Trump in his, “Where did you learn English?” utterance or question observably demonstrates that Africa was defined and ruled and continues to be presided over according to the linguistic tastes of the colonialists.
Originally published on TellZim
Source: Tellzim
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