What resonated with me most during the CGST205 language panel is how closely culture and language were linked, as well as how cultural values were so deeply embedded into communication across the world. For example, the way people greet each other in Gonja is fascinating because this first interaction makes the importance of ancestry, family, and societal position immediately clear. At the same time, the lack of gendered terms deemphasizes the concept of gender. Similarly, there were no gender pronouns in Mandarin, nor was gender accentuated strongly in ASL. In comparison, my experience with romance languages such as Spanish and French has taught me to be very aware of and accustomed to gendering terms in conversation, which in turn shapes cultural values. If we had more time, I would have been interested to learn about gender roles and stereotypes in these different global regions. I would have liked to discuss whether these aspects of language are actually reflective of how men, women, or nonbinary people are seen and treated– as well as whether a nonbinary distinction exists. For example, although in English we do not give objects and places gendered pronouns as one would in a romance language (i.e. “el” vs “la” in Spanish), English still emphasizes gender (i.e. through a distinction in careers such as “actor” vs “actress”, pronouns like “Mr.” vs “Ms.”, or phrases like “ladies and gentlemen”) that have been ingrained in our vocabulary as proper ways to address others. At the same time, gender roles are quite strong in the United States, and gender expression is often politicized. In a way, our language both reflects and influences our culture. Thus, I would have liked to hear more about gender in Ghana or China.
Something else I found very interesting was the discussion on dialects and language diversity in China and the deaf community. Before this discussion, I did not know that Mandarin was an “artificial” language that is “not naturally spoken” in the different regions of China. Although it is based on some Northern dialects/accents and does not truly “belong” to a region, it is the most popular dialect in China and most widely spoken. It is a necessary common language for Chinese people from the North and the South of the country to communicate with each other. I would have loved to know the history of how this came about, but knowing that it did is an almost admirable trait of mankind, highlighting the value of communication. Learning the extent to which the deaf community has worked to be able to communicate with each other globally was similarly fascinating. When Dr. Pedro Pascual Villanueva was asked how someone who signs in ASL can communicate with someone who signs in Spanish or French sign language, for example, he explained that although there may be some basic similarities (as there are in Western culture or romance languages), for the most part it can be very difficult to understand. But, he also explained that there is an international sign language that deaf people from different countries came together to create in order to communicate and understand each other in the right contexts. This was something that really stood out to me; the creativity and ingenuity that it takes to build such a stylized communication system is truly impressive, and once again reminds me of the centrality and cruciality of language in life.
