Language Warriors
For those of you who have been abroad or are an immigrant, you may know who I’m talking about.
Language warriors are those people who will pick up on you speaking another language and regardless of what you’re doing or the tone of your conversation, interrupt to find out what language you’re speaking and which country speaks it.
This happens most frequently when I’m with the kids and the warriors hear me speaking English to them. I can be in the middle of reprimanding my daughter or trying to understand my son in his two year-old speak, and someone says, “Are you from Trinidad?”. I try not to roll my eyes and in showing the kids good manners, I reply with “No.” Of course the next question is “You are from the United States?” and for reasons I’ll explain in a different post, I say “We’ve lived there, yes.” 
Other times, people will hear me speaking Haitian Creole to my husband and once they’ve stared long enough to get our attention ask “De donde son ustedes?” I force a smile and say “Haiti” and quickly try to resume my conversation.
One evening, while we were walking back to our apartment, I noticed this man kind of lurking around us (which was pretty creepy), when all of a sudden he blurts out “Kouman nou ye?” (How are you in Haitian Creole). I have to say that startled me more than his lurking. Turns out, he’s an Algerian who has worked in Haiti and fell in love with the country. He was spending a few days in Caracas and when he thought he overheard us speaking Creole, he had to say “hi”. So, while usually a nuisance, sometimes it turns out okay.
I’m sure these people have good intentions, but it’s almost as though they are patrolling for the opportunity to interrupt someone and ask about his/her heritage. And while I love to talk about my culture, while I’m explaining to my daughter why it is not polite to point at people is really not a good time.
Do you have any stories about run-ins with the language warriors?
Photo credit: The US Army
Tags: American English, Caracas, Cultural Assimilation, Expat Families, Foreign Languages, Haiti, Immigrants, Living in Caracas, Social Norms, Venezuela
Well, I've spoken Jamaican patois with my friend in France (since so many ppl speak English) and it's puzzled a lot of people. They just stared and stared and stared. This was mostly on the Metro, and while nobody came up to us, but I could see that they were VERY confused. In mainland Europe, most people don't recognize the accent, and even if they do, we try to speak authentically, so even if they recognized the accent they wouldn't understand us.
You know, I forgot to add that most people think that my friend is Chinese. So I'm sure they are wondering what language a "black" woman and a Chinese man could possibly have in common. Even here in Canada, Asian people are confused by us. Which is just fine with me.
"what language a "black" woman and a Chinese man could possibly have in common" LOL
Especially, what language could they have in common…