To English and back again
What colour is the sky?
The answer obviously depends on many factors, none of which we have any control over. It’s a reasonable question.
What colour is the ground?
This is also a perfectly reasonable question, with all the same limits as the question about the sky. So why does it ‘feel’ so different to the sky question?
We’ll revisit this idea before the end of the post, but let’s move on for now.
I’m not a big fan of ‘being confused’. I much prefer understanding what’s being said to me.
So, imagine the sheer infinitude of my overwhelming horror at realising I’m essentially alone in this desire. I could have been any of 7 billion+ people, and I get saddled with a brain that requires linguistic clarity!
Here’s a quick riddle/joke for you:
Q) Why do bigots hate immigrants so much?
A) They’re jealous of their superior English skills.
The joke, of course, being that Native English speakers usually aren’t very skilled with English.
Powerful? Yes.
Skilled? Rarely.
For instance, let’s look at what I’ve written so far. I’m a professional writer, so you’d think I’d have decent writing skills. You’d be wrong, because skills are very different from talent and/or desire.
And yet, in this post:
I started a sentence off with the word ‘So’, which is grammatically incorrect.
The previous sentence should have begun ‘I started off a sentence… etc.’, so that’s also wrong.
The phrase ‘sheer infinitude of my overwhelming horror’ perfectly describes my exact feeling, but it’s also incredibly clunky and kind of elitist.
‘Kind of elitist’.
That’s what I wanted to talk about.
The idea that ‘they are’ is not shortened to the word ‘there’ or ‘their’ truly and genuinely escapes some people. What’s worse, I’m supposed to act as if those people deserve my time and attention.
What I don’t understand is why. They’re certainly not being respectful of my time and attention - making me translate from English to English and back again.
I find this interesting, because it’s one of the many ways in which us common folk actively fight against any meaningful solidarity.
The question that people like me (people who prefer ‘correct language’) need to ask is: Where does correct linguistic usage come from?
Imagine the following scene:
Ug (a caveman): ‘Ug no like pain’
Thok (also a caveman): ‘And that’s why I’m glad I didn’t get sent to a public school’
It’s a safe bet that didn’t happen.
So, where does the idea come from?
Like most so-called ‘standards’ in this society, it came from those at the so-called ‘top’. Until fairly recently - let’s say 250 years, give or take - most people couldn’t read. Do you know who could? Lawmakers, such as Kings and Priests.
That’s why religious leaders read the bible aloud: Because the congregation couldn’t read, and the church simply hasn’t updated that yet. You know, along with stuff like ‘human rights’ and ‘not being massive pedophiles’.
You’re right, I didn’t specify which church. Did I really need to?
If you can show me a church that cares about human rights and isn’t literally just a bunch of pedophiles and their enablers, let me know, and I’ll edit this. But you can’t, so I don’t have to. Moving on.
The point is, who are these people – these ‘leaders’ to tell the rest of us how to spell things, and what makes them so damn important compared to other people?
Who am I, to be judging other people for using their own spellings?
Do I not value independence of thought?
Do I not value freedom of choice?
And that’s why ‘what colour is the ground?’ is considered a weird question, and ‘what colour is the sky?’ isn’t. Because language isn’t purely about communication.
It’s also about experiences, and you know full well what damn colour the ground is, but the sky? Well that’s a different question, because there are so many variables.
Dirt is brown, grass is green (or brown or purple or whatever), concrete is grey – and so on.
But the sky?
Do we see the actual colour of the sky, or does outer space just look blue from Earth?
We know about the ground because that’s where we live. But nobody lives in the sky. A lot of people work there for long periods, but nobody lives there. Nobody has the sense of ‘well duh’ when asked about it, because there’s still a little mystery there.
And I love that for us.
The sky, it could be said, is truly the limit.
I’d still like to be able to understand people, but maybe it’s okay that I get confused sometimes – maybe that’s the price of all of us needing to communicate. Maybe everyone else gets confused too, but they’re just not honest about it.
And not everybody had the same education, and that’s not their fault. If you believe in systemic oppression (which I do), then you can’t also hate people for not using what are essentially ‘rich people words’.
Well, I mean – you can – it just means you’re a hypocrite.