With the verve of words: Learning foreign languages in Iran

[O M I D]

MAA: What motivates Iranians to learn English in the 21st century?

AF: I still think education is the primary reason. Iranians love the academy and they attach a lot of prestige to it. They want to go for M.A after their BA and pursue further studies. This is the future they see for themselves and this certainly does not exclude learning a foreign language. Also there is the internet which requires language skills to some extent. Next are other factors like travelling and migration.

MAA: How do you see the general situation of English language teaching in Iran?

AF: There are two sectors. One is private tutoring and the other is the public education system. I think private teaching has been very beneficial as they are always after new approaches and the best instructors. Students still have to overcome challenges in learning. While they don't have much difficulty in reading and comprehension, production and writing is a challenge.

MAA: The medium of instruction at the academia is Persian. Do you think it is better to study imported knowledge in the original language or in translation?

AF: We can deal with this question from two perspectives. When you import knowledge, it is better to use the original language. But when your goal is to nativize that knowledge, not only you need to translate but you will also reproduce that information. At this level, reproduction is not mere import but it also includes a sense of creativity.

MAA: I quite agree but when we want export the same information; we are challenged because of language. For instance, I see some Iranian researchers and thinkers who are challenged to get their views across in another language because they communicate only in Persian.

AF: Very true. Iranian researchers have always faced this difficulty. We have excellent articles written inside the country in Persian, but foreign scholars do not become aware of them unless they are translated. And as soon as one good article is translated and published, you see the feedback and realize how our findings are interesting and important also outside the country. This obstacle does exist. We have, as I said, problems in foreign language reproduction. Of course I can only talk about linguistics which is my field. My professor, Dr. Haghshenas always said it was fortunate that the terms in our field of study were translated and nativized within classrooms. Because they are a product of student-teacher interaction, they seem real. When we use them, we make them ours.

MAA: Another interesting area for me is code mixing (mixing of two or more languages or language varieties in speech). How do you see that in Iran?

AF: Once again, I think it happens on two levels. In the academics, sometimes you don’t find the exact word or term that would express your need while speaking about a specific field, so you prefer to use English. It also happens at the colloquial level, particularly among the youth, like when have stayed abroad for some time or travelled. For some, it is tantamount to being trendy (hip) or belonging to a certain community. So it varies from social to educational reasons.

MAA: I find that at times speaking on certain topics which we would normally avoid in mother tongue is much easier in a second language.

AF: True. It is much easier to speak about Taboos in a second language. Perhaps one reason for code mixing is in case of taboos. We often think we cannot express ourselves fully in a foreign language but it seems as if in some cases, a foreign language is more expressive.

MAA: It is as though the new language provides us with a new space for thought.

AF: True. A space which is fresh and less strained and one doesn’t see oneself under the semantic and lexical pressure of the mother tongue. This applies to all languages, not just English and Persian.

MAA: But this can also cause its own complications. For example, we may feel freer than most native speakers in using some words which may not be as emotionally charged for us as they are for them and this can cause misunderstandings.

AF: Yes. Emotions are relevantly a new topic in linguistics, particularly on a cultural platform. It is very complicated. Concepts like tars (Persian for fear), sharm (shame) and gheyrat (possible translation, sense of honor) have very different connotations in every culture. Sometimes you cannot even find an equivalent for them.

MAA: Can we say if there are no words for a certain concept in one language, then that concept does not exist in that language and culture. For instance, "Gheyrat", I don't think I can convey the meaning to a non-Persian speaker. I believe it to be a very eastern word.

AF: Yes, some emotion words are not even defined in another culture. But as I said the NSM theory proposes that all languages have some fundamental conceptual similarities with the help of which we can rebuild these emotion words. In case of "gheyrat", you can perhaps expand the definition and explain it as possessiveness, because everyone experiences this emotion. Then you further explain that it applies to humans, you love someone so much that you want them for you.

MAA: But then it could be mistaken for possessiveness or jealousy which I believe is not the case. We think with words and express ourselves with words; I have a feeling that if I cannot express some concepts in a certain language because they are not defined in that system, then when I become a speaker of that language, those concepts are nonexistent for me. It is as though you develop a second self when you speak in a second language.

AF: This notion has been dwelled upon by men for centuries, for instance Leibniz proposes the alphabet of human thought. These people are looking for solutions, for conclusions that say perhaps despite all our cultural, ethnic, historical and linguistic differences, we still need to dwell on our similarities because if we as humans have a common alphabet in thinking, then perhaps we can form unison on this basis. Many thinkers, anthropologists and philosophers have attempted the idea. Even artists have tried to creatively diminish these borders of differences in their work. But the question is: how impactful can these attempts be? Globalization as one face of this movement and the internet are posing the same questions: Where it is after all that we all come together? Where are our similarities? Can we ever completely unite over these common points or we shall always be people who are stuck in the middle path, detached from the past and at the brink of the future?