I've come to see this complication as beautiful although it's at times a pain. It's not about grammar and words, or rarely; it's about cultures and perspectives, experiences, stories and ways of life - and mostly ways of communicating.
I grew up German speaking in a predominantly French environment. When I visited my cousins in the German speaking part of the country, I was amazed to hear perfect strangers talk in German to their children. I grew up with a sense of belonging to a minority and it took me about 30 years to realize that sense had become a part of who I am, wherever I went and whatever I did. I was never completely and perfectly "one of them". And that betrays me, doesn't it: "them". So in a way my aspiration always oscillates around wanting to be one of them and at the same time wanting to be different from them.
Learning to see and feel complexity - diversity - as beautiful and dignified is a long journey. Not being afraid of it, outside and within, that's part of coming to be at peace. Identity can be pluralistic, manyfold, diverse. Perhaps that's why I was drawn early on into peacemaking....
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That's great, I like the idea of beauty of messiness (you should see my desk, I think it is a good example!)!
ReplyDeleteIn this line, I'm suprised that you don't mention the fact that the German language you are referring to is in fact Swiss German, a dialect that many Germans from Germany would hardly understand.
So you grew up in a Mennonite minority, as part of a French speaking minority, in a Swiss German minority amongst the German culture, which itself becomes a minority language in the globalized world... and you write your blog in English...
Merci Olivier, and welcome here, I'm honored! You are absolutely right, the sense of minority is manyfold, being Swiss German is being part of a minority in the Germanic world. - And the Swiss tend to be intimidated by Germans anyway - except for the ones in Zürich ;-)
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I also have a blog in German... will sometimes be similar, but I feel I need to do it for my own sake and for my community here in Switzerland...
Why not post in different languages, depending what you're writing about? I find my tone of voice and emotional affect differ depending on whether I'm speaking German (grandmother's language), French (learned at school) or English (mother tongue). On the other hand, my tongue and ears couldn't cope at all with Berndeutsch during the exchange year I spent in Switzerland, so maybe I'm in favour of English after all...
ReplyDeleteActually, I do have a German blog as well but I'm not yet sure whether both blogs are going to be sustainable. I feel the same way - the effect is not the same in a different language, and depending on the topic or context one language seems preferably over another.
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