DESPERATE EXPATWIVES
Do you speak - sprechen Sie - parlez-vous - schwätzt
du…?
When you move to a new country with a new language, learning that language should
be a must - at least it’s a very good idea - as a sign of respect, humility
and willingness to adapt, but also for purely selfish reasons. You get to know
fellow learners; it’s easier to mingle with the locals and in general figure
out how things work. I know all this, of course I do, and I could give you plenty
of other reasons and advantages as well, but have I practiced what I preach?
Let me hurriedly say that I admit this with my head lowered in shame – and
I do mean that – but no, I haven’t…
Why? Well, I live in a peculiar little country called Luxembourg, Lëtzebuerg
locally, with a peculiar little language called Lëtzebuergesch. The vernacular,
spoken by less than 400 000 people and still struggling to become a written language
in its own right, is mainly like a German dialect, but with a certain Dutch touch
and I guess an unavoidable French influence.
To give you an example, this is what I understood when I was eavesdropping to
a phone conversation the other day:
- Moyen (the ubiquitous, Luxembourgish for “hello”)'
- OK, ça va (OK, that’s fine – French)
- Hald op (stop it – Dutch)
- Bis dann (until then – German)
- Merci villmools (thanks a lot – French and German / Luxembourgish)
- Ciao! (Italian / International)
My main excuse, petty as it might be, for not learning this droll little language
is that it is just that – little. The droll part I don’t mind. As
long as we’re not here to stay, it is – well, a pretty much useless
language anywhere else. It would require a whole lot of time and effort to learn
it, and by that time, we might very well be moving on. Besides, the locals are
doing us a huge favor by being admirably multilingual. Apart from employing their
mother tongue for day-to-day talk, they are perfectly fluent in German and French:
they watch German TV and have German language local newspapers, but use French
as the main administrative and commercial language. And you get by just fine
in English too.
That is my defense, and not only mine. Most expats don’t learn the language,
and there are almost as many expats as locals living in Luxembourg. And as expats
often form their own national bubbles, there are so many language bubbles in
the air that you never know which language will float around the corner. Babel
bubbles. The Heracles and Hydra of the languages, brave little Lëtzebuergesch
versus a many-headed linguistic giant.
All these Babelish bubbles might seem rather invasive and bring the locals to
make their own bubble, within a certain distance to the others. It is (too) easy
to draw the conclusion that they’re hard to get to know, whereas they might
very well see our reluctance to learn their language as arrogance. And they would
be right. It is arrogant. Also, some 120 000 people cross the borders from Belgium,
France and Germany every day to work, so the Luxembourger might find that he
cannot even shop in his own language. If more of us learned the language, we
could pop some bubbles.
Through my glasses, the language reflects the culture and the society – small
and a bit strange, with strong French and German waves and international currents.
I have also pondered whether this might lead to certain identity issues – the
mix of French laissez-faire and German rigidity can be hard to master! But this
is of course pure speculation and also a tiny fling.
HSBC Bank’s annual Expat Explorer Survey shows that expats living in Europe
are most likely to learn the local language. 75 % of expats living in Germany
learn the local language, followed by 70 % of expats in Spain and Belgium. Expats
originating from the Americas were most likely to learn a new language.
I’m pretty sure I would learn Spanish in Spain and shake up my German in
Germany. It might actually be more understandable that expats in Luxembourg don’t
learn the local language than expats in many other countries. But I still think
I should learn it, and I do feel bad that I haven’t. But I probably won’t.
My loss.
Who wrote this?
| UNNI
HOLTEDAHL Living in Luxembourg Born in Norway Family: Married and mother to Helena and Henny Occupation: Mother and journalism student |
 |
Unni will share with us big,
small and slanting glances at the lives of the expat wives.
Previous stories:
’tis
the season to be busy
(May09)
Therapy for dummies
(April09)
Walk that walk, talk thath talk (Mar09)
Expat Wives Unite
(Feb09)
New
glasses
(Jan09)
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