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The anti-concept of so-called "language privilege". Or anything privilege really. X privilege, insert whatever particular polysyllabic blah blah blah into X you wish....
Poor right wingers, too closed minded to bother learning what "X privilege" really means. It has nothing to do with collective guilt, but understanding that some people do not have it easy.
As a native English speaker, I can go to a university-educated person in any country and they will be able to understand me.
If I only spoke Vietnamese, I would not be able to communicate with anybody, university educated or not, unless I had specific reason to believe they spoke Vietnamese.
If I find myself lost in Cameroon or Surinam and find an educated person, I can get help by speaking to them in English. I do not need to feel guilty that I am a native English speaker. "Checking my privilege" simply means that I am aware that if I did not speak English I would not be so lucky. It does not mean that I am part of the oppressor class, nor does it mean that all my hard work was nullified because it was all handed to me on a platter. It only means I have awareness of my advantages. That's it. That's all privilege means.
Same goes for White privilege, straight privilege, Christian privilege, male privilege, and able-bodied privilege. I'm straight and male and I acknowledge the advantages these statuses give me in society but it in no way means I'm guilty of sexism or homophobia or am being part of the oppressors.
Given where I live and my background and my wife's (she speaks English as well as I do) we could have very easily chosen to make our kids English native speakers but chose not to. We're not prisoners of our non-English language by any stretch. I am totally free to move about 20 minutes from here and I could raise my kids as anglo ''natives'' just as they'd be in Nebraska or Western Australia.
There is a saying in French which I have heard which goes: Le français s'apprend, l'anglais s'apprend (French you learn, English you catch).
Now, my kids will likely be fluent second language English speakers with French accents and probably won't ever be able to do stand-up comedy at open mic night in Atlanta, but I am not sure why this is at all relevant anyway. Even culturally to be quite honest.
Given where I live and my background and my wife's (she speaks English as well as I do) we could have very easily chosen to make our kids English native speakers but chose not to. We're not prisoners of our non-English language by any stretch. I am totally free to move about 20 minutes from here and I could raise my kids as anglo ''natives'' just as they'd be in Nebraska or Western Australia.
There is a saying in French which I have heard which goes: Le français s'apprend, l'anglais s'apprend (French you learn, English you catch).
Now, my kids will likely be fluent second language English speakers with French accents and probably won't ever be able to do stand-up comedy at open mic night in Atlanta, but I am not sure why this is at all relevant anyway. Even culturally to be quite honest.
Given where I live and my background and my wife's (she speaks English as well as I do) we could have very easily chosen to make our kids English native speakers but chose not to. We're not prisoners of our non-English language by any stretch. I am totally free to move about 20 minutes from here and I could raise my kids as anglo ''natives'' just as they'd be in Nebraska or Western Australia.
There is a saying in French which I have heard which goes: Le français s'apprend, l'anglais s'apprend (French you learn, English you catch).
Now, my kids will likely be fluent second language English speakers with French accents and probably won't ever be able to do stand-up comedy at open mic night in Atlanta, but I am not sure why this is at all relevant anyway. Even culturally to be quite honest.
I believe that people that are at loss are monolinguals, no matter their language. It must be very boring to know only one language. Every language is a world. As to Vietnamese, I bet that the language skills of their educated class are far superior to educated Australians.Their cultured language is French, and many do speak other languages.
I think this is a bit shortsighted there's English and then there's Un official English or dialects of English.
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