[37] - Pressed Plant Designs
Expressing oneself in English
Hi everyone, haven’t posted in a while but with the coming of summer and having more leisure time on my hands I’ll be posting more often. So today I am sharing with you some things I find interesting about the English language and how that comes into play in our lives. As always, along with thoughts come some new plant designs I hope you’ll enjoy.
Also, in case you haven’t heard the news on my social media, I have an online store now. It helps a lot as you can see there all the items I have currently available.
So without further introductions: ⬇
Writing just like drawing, is a form of expression. Drawing, painting, sculpture, woodwork, all come accompanied by little texts describing the artist’s processes in galleries and albums. These two are interconnected. They can exist on their own but they do complement each other.
As you know, if you’ve been following along for a while, I also like to talk about the drawings and compositions I make, talking about the ideas and inspiration behind them, the feelings they emanate in my view, highlighting details, telling stories, sharing moments.
As I find myself more inclined to writing this newsletter in english rather than in my native language, and because most of the resources I read are in english, I want to share a few very relatable paragraphs to me, from two essays i read not long ago covering this exact topic, of writing and expressing oneself in a language different than the native one.
The circumstances that lead to acquiring a new language involves a bit of history and politics. It’s all connected. All need to be considered in their right context. Who knows if we would have ever learned english if it wasn’t introduced to us in school.
The first essay from which I have selected a few paragraphs is entitles ‘The writer in english in multiethnic Singapore: A cultural peril, a cultural promise’’.
“Even Mandarin, nurtured to greater strength by a series of national campaigns, is unlikely to dislodge English as the dominant language in Singapore. By any indicator - extent of use in government administration and education, dealing with foreigners, number of speakers, degree of prestige accorded - English is the undisputed language of Singapore.
The changeling child who was dropped on the doorstep, adopted by the household and who soon gained ascendancy over the rightful heirs. … Such has been the dramatic story of the rise of the English language in Singapore! Yet it was no story of love and bonding, but rather one of sheer necessity and opportunism.
…
It was easy to see that while the ethnic languages and cultures were hence protected and preserved, this model of Singaporean way of life was a very unequal one. The top layer was growing, and the bottom layer was merely existing. For the top layer had a vitality of its own and was continually developing, in response to its own impulses and to those of the larger world of cosmopolitanism to which it looked, whereas the bottom layer, historically cut off from the parent cultures, had no source of sustenance and had to continually draw upon itself. In its most visible form, it was still little more than a showcasing of Chinese, Malay and Indian dances, music, costumes, festivals, customs, etc for special occasions such as National Day, or for tourist entertainment
…
It was useful for the central purpose of the government then, which was to fully exploit the use of English for rapid economic development. … Not surprisingly, processes that did not lent themselves to precise quantification and quick results were less valued: the ultimate criterion of merit was a paper certification attesting to so many distinctions and credits obtained in an examination. Within such a framework, scientific technical and managerial disciplines received greatest support, the humanities less and the creative arts not at all.
“Firstly, the sense of guilt that the English-educated invariably feel at some time or other for speaking English and repudiating their own mother tongue and culture, was very real with me.”
…
“I found, to my surprise, that the English language was no impediment to the conveying of local flavours.”
…
“One of the insecurities that has translated into some difficulty for the writer in English concerns the matter of censorship. The authorities are not worried about the writers in Chinese, Malay or Tamil, but they are wary of the writer in English who is more critical and questioning and more likely to write on the forbidden subjects. There are no censorships by publishers and by the writers themselves. Any topic that could be construed as even remotely touching upon the sensitive issues of race, language and religion in this multiethnic society is likely to be self-censored out at the manuscript stage.”
…
“Meanwhile as a writer in Singapore and aware of my responsibility as such, I will continue to work on my little square inch, and be comfortable in my use of English, which is no longer a foreign language to me, but my own very language, to be used by me as I please. The changeling child is no longer alienated from the family; but welcomed as truly one of them. If they look closely enough, they will see that all the signs that were ever alienated are gone now, for the adopted child has taken on the very colour and tones and accents of those who adopted him. And that should be enough reason to stop feeling uneasy about him in their midst, and to start accepting and loving him.”
The second essay from which I have selected some quotes is ‘‘The filipino writer in english as storyteller and translator’’. Do consider these extracts in the context of each country, Singapore before, Philippines bellow, and if you know nothing about these countries I hope the curiosity leads you to the search bar of a new tab 😄.
“I am here largely as a result of an historical accident;
I am here not because I chose the English language as a medium, but because it chose me;
to one degree, or another, all of us here are translators of a culture; and finally
The question of audience - of who will read us - is probably the most crucial issue we need to face.”
…
“By the very nature of language, sound cannot be isolated from sense nor rhythm separated from meaning. “
…
“A translator is ordinarily thought of as a bridge between cultures, as one who takes ideas and carries them over (as its etymology suggests) from one culture to another. It is as though the translator has no life of his own apart from the existence of the two separate cultures for which he is the bridge. My view is that the writer in English as translator is the unity, that is, he is the synthesis, the embodiment of both cultures. In other words, there is no longer a bridge; the unity that is possible between cultures is already incarnate in the writer whose medium is a non-native tongue. For the non-native writer in English, the very act of writing is pure translation. “
…
“Yet even as we try to confront ourselves and reconcile the contradictions within us and our culture, using a language we were not born to but is widely read and understood all over the world, how are we to interpret ourselves to our own, especially to those who are deprived of the opportunities that English offers in addition to their own dialects? There will always be questions with answers never quite catching up, but the world moves on.”
Hope these paragraphs enriched you as much as they enriched me and enlarged you perspective beyond you current borders.
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