Nationalism & Language in the South Caucasus
While relaxing in The Club last night with some friends, Nessuna rang and said she was with a German friend. Half an hour later the two joined us before we all set off to Cactus to watch the German-Portugal match. Nessuna’s friend was working as an intern with a major international organization in Armenia, but said that one thing she didn’t like about her stay so far was that her fellow workers, who knew fluent English, would always speak in Armenian when they were out and about socialising and relaxing.
This meant that she would be left sitting like a fool isolated and bored at the table as if she didn’t exist. In the West, this is considered the height of bad manners, and the German girl said she would never do this to anyone — not even a complete stranger. Anyway, I agreed, but it got me thinking about a post that Zarchka over at Life Around Me recently made. This time, however, it was a similar situation in Tbilisi, capital of the neighbouring Republic of Georgia.
Here I came to the conclusion that she does understand Russian, but categorically refuses to speak , she is supposed to know English, but she does not. And this is the case with most Georgians, this is the result of the dark side of nationalism propaganda. And I as a human and not as an Armenian or as a Russian speaking person, I feel insulted and humiliated by the ignorance, by their manner of looking down at you, by the slight and disrespect. Regardless of this fact I am always glad to help people of any nationality, especially when that help is just limited in some telling the time, translating two words or showing the street they want. And I’m sure most Armenians do. So I still hold to my ground that such expression of nationalism is a hectic one and it must be uprooted.
Actually, the situation is the same and it’s not. Both Armenian and Georgians appear ready to ignore foreign visitors even if they know a language common to both, and both will insist that people learn Armenian and Georgian if they are in their respective countries. Perhaps the only difference is that while Armenians — but not Diasporan Armenians, especially when it comes to the assimilation of Russian words into general everyday Armenian — are quite happy with the proliferation of Russian in their country, Georgians are not.
Nevertheless, it’s a pity that Georgians dislike a language they can have in common with other CIS republics, but the main point is that typical social etiquette taken for granted in the West does not exist in both Armenia or Georgia. Whether it’s being left ignored at a table surrounded by fluent English or Russian speakers in Armenia or Georgia, the root cause is the same, and even when I was surrounded by French friends in London, they always chose to speak in English so that I was part of their group.
The same was true for most of my friends, including Turks, Greeks, Pakistanis and everyone else for that matter. The one exception at that time when I knew not even a single word in Armenian, were members of the London-Armenian community. Even attempting to attend the local language school didn’t help because it was impossible to learn Armenian without offending one side of the community.
First, there was a choice to be made — Western or Eastern Armenian, and then there was either attending the Dashnak classes on a Saturday or the non-Dashnak classes on Sunday. Of course, as with culture, language is almost always tied in with nationalism, but in the South Caucasus it can take on far greater connotations. Zara experienced this in Tbilisi as representative of an ethnic group that, when living in Georgia, refuses to learn the official state language saying that it’s an attempt to destroy their own minority identity.
Meanwhile, the Armenian Government has created its own problems among the Yezidi minority here by ratifying both “Kurdish” and “Ezidiki” under the European Charter even though it divides the community. The two languages are in fact, the same — the Kurmanji dialect of Kurdish. The reason for this artificial division is considered to be political.
The German girl experienced a lack of common decency from her co-workers that should have seen them communicate in English. Diasporan Armenians also get irritated when locals switch to Russian from time to time, but also when they discover that American Peace Corps Volunteers know almost fluent Eastern Armenian while they face difficulty communicating in often sub-standard Western Armenian. In all cases, it would appear that everyone has forgotten the main point of language — communication between people.
Ironically, the German girl was visiting Armenia to examine the situation of minority education and language in the country. Esperanto anyone?
I have noticed the same behavior as Nessuna’s friend. Not just with locals, but also with Diasporans. It is the main reason why I don’t like hanging out with (most of) my boyfriend’s Diasporan friends. Or if I know that we will be meeting them, I take a book with me and I will just sit in my corner and read. I kid you not! I know this will probably be considered rude as well, but I prefer being rude and reading a book over being bored as hell and feel like I am waisting my time!
When I am with a group of Armenians, whethere they are colleagues from work, my friends or others, they will always speak Armenian. With my friends, I am usually able to follow the conversation and join in in Russian, and we usually end up talking a mix of Russian and Armenian. But in other groups I usually understand at least the gist of the conversation and often more, but the conversation goes too fast for me to jump in, so I tend to just sit and listen.
As for me learning Armenian, yes I would like to, but it is a difficult language for me. Not because of the grammar, but because of the sounds, the different k’s, t’s and p’s, r’s and all the ts-, tz-, dz-, ds- etc. sounds. While I understand the differences, my ears are just not trained to hear them and pronunciation is hard. And when I do my best to say something in Armenian, most of the time I will still get a “Huh? What are you saying?”-reaction. I noticed that the most common reaction to me speaking Armenian with an accent and with mistakes is noticing the mistakes I make, not being positive about at least trying or making an effort to understand me.
Once I really got into a fight about this with the man who was sitting next to me in the marshrutka to Spitak. He had started a conversation (where do you come from, what do you do here, the usual) and I answered, not wanting to be rude even though I didn’t feel like talking to him. Atone point he asked me if I knew Armenian, so I said, yes, a little - I am learning. Then he asked me to pronounce some of the difficult letters (ds, dz etc.) and of course I didn’t get it right. So he said: “Ah, you see, you can’t speak it properly.” I got really pissed at that point and said quite rudely: “Instead of pointing out all my mistakes, you could compliment me for my efforts to try to learn your difficult language.” Needless to say this was the end of the conversation.
This kind of reactions have for now put me off of making an effort to improve my Armenian. I know I should start to study again and take time for that, but at the moment I don’t really care, mostly because of the few encouraging reactions I get when I make an effort to speak Armenian. That is, not from my friends, they encourage me and love it when I speak Armenian, but from random people in the street, in restaurants etc. Then again, what those random people think, shouldn’t bother me in the least.
Comment by Myrthe — July 9, 2006 @ 3:33 pm
Yeah, it was interesting. After your comment I went to Kond today and someone told me my Armenian was awful. She didn’t correct me, she put me down instead.
Hardly an incentive to try harder.
The icing on the cake, perhaps. When I asked a local friend to help me with my Armenian she told me that she didn’t think I really wanted to improve my language skills. Can’t win, can we?
Comment by Onnik — July 10, 2006 @ 2:52 am
There are also those Armenians who speak Russian in front of the non-Russian speaking Armenians. I’m sure they don’t do it to be rude and it’s more that they can not speak good Armenian. This does not happen as much as it use to. In the early 1990’s it use to happen to me almost daily. I guess in time people started to learn how to speak Armenian, something they didn’t do that often during Soviet days.
As for those persons who talk down to those who don’t speak as well as a native, I would say that it is a lack of self-confidence, insecurities and their attempt to feel more superior to make up for something they lack. I too have noticed a few that will laugh or talk down to me if I say something wrong.
As for the the ts-, tz-, dz- and ds-, I never get them right it seems. A friend of mine originally from Turkey, myself, my wife and my truck driver Lavrent had a one hour conversation/debate while driving from Lachin to Stepanagert about dz- and ds-. The two of us non-native Armenians could not even hear the difference between the two letters.
Comment by Ara Manoogian — July 10, 2006 @ 6:28 am
I should admit this is something that I may do too, although I speak a few widely used languages. Of course it very much depends on situation. If there are couple of locals and the guest is just a stranger it will be highly unpolite. If the foreigner is in a large group of people, a party or other large social event it will screw the whole event if you request everyone to speak a foriegn language just for a sake of one pesron. I believe in such situations there always will be a person or two to socialize wit the guest. On the other hand if it is some foreigner who lives in the country for two three years I believe its their problem to learn the local language. After all Armenians or any othe small nation when they visit Russia or USA the locals do not speak Armenian for the sake of the guest.
Comment by Gagik — July 10, 2006 @ 10:42 am
Point taken Gagik, but then read Myrthe’s and my comments about what happens when foreigners do try to learn the language. Also, we were talking about when EVERYBODY around the table speaks FLUENT English.
Of course, you’re right about learning the local language, and that should also include Armenians in Georgia. Incidently, I suspect that Zara’s experience in Tbilisi might have been because Georgians thought she was a citizen who didn’t know Georgian, although that doesn’t excuse it.
Nor does anything really excuse the attitude of Armenians who speak fluent English when they’re sitting with a foreign guest. Like I said, this German girl wouldn’t speak German to another in front of English-speaking people.
Or at least, that’s what she says, and that’s been my experience with the French and others.
Comment by Onnik — July 10, 2006 @ 10:55 am
You are very right Gagik, people who move to any country to live there for a longer period of time, should at the very least make an effort to learn the language. I do want to improve my Armenian, but right now I am not in the mood for it, because of too many reactions like the ones I mentioned above. I will get back to making the effort though, I am sure, once I get over these stupid reactions, because I do like learning languages in general and I want to learn Armenian exactly because I live in Armenia.
On the positive side, the other day one of my bf’s friends accidentally called me instead of his girlfriend (he used redial without knowing that my bf had just called me from the same phone) and neither of us recognized the other’s voice. Later my bf told me he thought I was some local girl. Also, recently someone else who heard me speak Armenian on the phone, told me I spoke without an accent! Hah!
Comment by Myrthe — July 10, 2006 @ 12:30 pm
Georgians’ not speaking Russian has quite a different ground, as I mentioned in my post, which is their blind nationalism not accepting anything Russian, which to my strong conviction is wrong. The situation of talking Armenian while a foreigner is present may be looked down from different angles. For example, they want to discuss something and don’t want the foreigner to understand it, which is rude. Or two of the group for a while discuss something not referring to the main subject of discussion, which is ok. Or they don’t mean anything, just having Armenian as their mother tongue from time to time they make a slip of a tongue, which is normal. But this mainly refers to the cases when Armenian language takes place not during the whole interaction, but from time to time. It’s up to each of ours choice to decide what situation we find ourselves and what our attitude is.
What refers using Russian words in our every day conversation, I think it’s normal if considered the long-termed influence of Russian language, it’s literature, after all news and films. Never forget that for a long period of time all the subjects in Armenian schools were carried in Russian and with Russian books. Though the words used in everyday conversation are mainly jargonizms or Russian slang or professionalisms. They are corrupted and foreign words though and will never enter the main stock of Armenian vocabulary. On the other hand I think it’s right to use Russian or international terms for technical words or new scientific inventions, instead of trying to create compound and composite Armenian coinages and neologisms, thus making the language even more difficult and non productive. For example what would you choose: the Russian word ‘plintuz’ for ‘plinth’ or ‘hatakapatatakayin tapakapayt’, which is the direct equivalent? Or would you prefer to say ‘pult’ (remote controller) to ‘herakaravarman vahakan’. I think even a foreigner who tries to study Armenian will rather choose the Russian variants, at least after several unsuccessful attempts to brake their tongue while uttering those words, which are not limited by these two. I wonder how those words sound in Georgian?
I totally back Gagik’s stand point about learning the language of the foreign country where we are going to live for several years. And It’s done first and foremost for ourselves and not the others. Even during my short visit to Georgia, I learnt several words and expressions and incidentally I also learnt the letters just by reading on the advertisement hoardings. And I didn’t learn them out of the fact that they didn’t respond to my Russian, just I think it is the usual case when you go to a foreign country, and besides, knowing several Georgian words would do no harm, would they?
And Myrthe, I think you are right trying to learn Armenian, because you need it in your every step, not everyone knows English, right?. Funny that I said this, because usually I advise the foreigners to study Russian instead of Armenian, knowing that they will need it more in the future. I admit that studying Armenian is far arduous a task, because Armenian is a very difficult language due to it’s morphological and phonetic structure. But after all the organs of speech of every person are the same, though they can be redeveloped when strongly desired. And why do you pay a hid to what people may say about your accent? Most Armenians don’t know pure Armenian. You think they don’t deride one another and laugh when they misutter the words? Especially when Western and Eastern Armenian speakers meet each other and they imitate each other. They still argue whether it’s ‘bambak’ or ‘phampak’. And though I like western Armenian and can speak that dialect, I must say that Eastern Armenian is structurally, syntactically and grammatically more correct and distinct. This is another problem which I guess will never find its solution like many things referring the phenomenon Armenia. But probably it shouldn’t, because every unit of the language is valuable and it shouldn’t be lost. In this case let’s not evaluate what is what. Once I had the audacity to tell one of my professors, who declared that she didn’t understand Western Armenian, that it was all because of her own fault, because she had never read a single book in Western Armenian. I expected reproaches on her part, but she admitted my word and said the only barrier was her Russian education.
A language net…!!!
Who wants to study Armenian?!
Okey, you can
Comment by Zarchka — July 10, 2006 @ 5:26 pm
It is amusing to read a Dutch person complain about difficult sounds. That guttural sound in Dutch at the back of the throat is impossible to replicate. When it comes to English though the Dutch along with the Scandinavians are in general very fluent.
Armenians in the Diaspora have always impressed me with the number of languages they speak. My wife speaks Armenian, Arabic, English, French, Spanish and Italian.
The British and the Americans, in fact most English-speaking peoples, are terrible at other languages, and in an age of globalization this is a problem. English is so widespread that Anglos no longer make the effort to learn another language and consequently lose out on much of the richness and diversity of other cultures. There is a Turkish saying to the effect that each language is like a different soul. In my experience Anglos are overly self-conscious about making mistakes and looking silly.
There are rules of basic courtesy. In general a guest should not be excluded if there is a common language. Someone living in a country for an extended period should make an effort to learn the local language. The person making the effort should be encouraged not ridiculed.
As far as Georgia goes, the issue there is that the Georgians are fed up with the Russians for a host of reasons and one way to protest is to refuse to use the Russian language. There was a time not so long ago when many French-Canadians in Quebec would refuse to use English. Thankfully they are getting over that stage as the survival of the French language has become more assured and most non-francophones have learned French.
Comment by Liborale — July 10, 2006 @ 6:49 pm
Haha! Liberale, you may have a point! Though, when it comes to learning Dutch, the Armenians are in my experience the ones who get the pronunciation down better than other non-Dutch. I think it is because Armenians have so many different sounds in their language already, including gutturals (khaghogh anyone?). Armenians speaking Dutch tend to have problems with some other sounds, mostly vowel sounds.
Zarchka, I hardly use English here - I mostly speak Russian with people, including almost all of my friends. In fact, my boyfriend is the only one with whom I speak English. I use English at work as well, but that is because my colleagues prefer talking with me in English s0 they get to use their English. But then, I also use Russian, Dutch and Armenian at work…
Comment by Myrthe — July 11, 2006 @ 10:17 am
your comments made me think about the “exclusiveness of language behaviour of Armenians”, or, in other words… would other nations or regions also start to speak in their language when a foreigner (short-term visitor to the country) is around… my own experience said no… but, one is always biased, so I started an survey among my friends how are, as I am right now, interning in international organisations in developing or transitional countries where the working language is english… out of the 17 people who replied, none of them was in the same situation like me… ( I admit, none of them was in the Caucasus, so no idea about Georgia!) well, I understand that for a country that not that long ago has regained its independence, language is a major identity issue… I understand to a certain point… inclusion always means exclusion… and so there I am , speaking 6 languages as well ( among those russsian, at least to the point to understand a conversation) and I will just follow myrdal’s tip to take a book with me to have lunch in the cantine… let’s see if they realize…
Comment by nanauatzin — July 11, 2006 @ 12:06 pm
well, i guess we all had experience with a small nations nationalism. Even in Soviet times speaking russian could be not welcomed in Baltic states. Nowdays the same thing takes plae in Gerorgia. The phenomenon is ugly and unpleasant. I hope Armenians do not follow that path but speak Armenian in presence of foreigner because unfortunately most of them do not have a command of Rusuuian or English good enough to communicate naturally.
On the other hand my previous post was rather directed to nationalism of big nations, which amounts to shovinism. I hated always when a russian will try to force me to communicate with my son or any other routine exchange of words with fellow armenian just because they were present, although my conversation was not concerning them at all.
The same thing happens with americans who usually know only American, not even proper English.
Comment by Gagik — July 13, 2006 @ 12:29 pm