Reviewing most basic Spanish has been a crash course in RE-realizing that the formal and in-formal “you”, one of the most fundamental rules of the language creates an unspoken social hierarchy which infiltrates speech and culture on all levels. Here in Quito, Ecuador people are self-affirmed classists, not racists, but “classists”.
More than word choice, using the in-formal versus the formal can also be a strategy if you want to butter someone up to speak informally or conversely, if you want to put walls between others, you speak formally. As Ecuadorians feel no strong moral, Catholic consciousness binding them to shame in speaking politically incorrectly, the application of this seemingly simple concept becomes exponentially biting in some situations.
Example: the businessman that choose to address me informally, talks to me as a close friend because he wants to make me comfortable with my purchase (AKA not-so-kindly rip me off)
Another Example: An employee uncomfortable with the semi-sketchy boss can choose speak to him formally (AKA create an invisible “you’re a sketch-ball and I’m keeping my distance” line)
Now if that aspect of language doesn’t help you to see that peoples language influences the way that they think, I don’t know what will.
1 comment:
I figured it out! Now I can comment on your blog. You should read my note on your facebook wall. :) Love ya Ella Brown Sugar!
P.S. One of my Hispanic students is trying to teach me the words to a Spanish pop song. I am trying to learn it so I can sing it to you. Wish me luck, if it does not go well you'll have to listen to me sing the one Spanish song I know about a large family with one toilet. (Or the camp body part song.)
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