She’s Got a Powerful Tongue

Depending on your age, you might think 25 is young, but by Kazakhstani standards, I’m a crusty old raisin. I went to a surprisingly un-CCCP “training seminar” the other day in which, after being taught disco dance moves by the jelly-shaking hostess, we were told to write 20 things we have done and 20 things we have yet to do. I’m an American, man – I jumped on it! I was scribbling #25 on my to-do list, “Document obscure language in tropical location”, when my friend nudged me forlornly. She had two things written: Get married; Have kids. “We’re so old!” she said. Sorry, girlfriend, no empathy for you. Old is not in my genes. My grandmother is currently sailing around the Caribbean with her boyfriend.

[Random tangent: after having us make those lists, the trainer showed us a priceless inspirational video called Law of Attraction. Basic premise: everything that happens to you was attracted to you, by you. After invoking Galileo and Newton, the hosts (whose stellar titles, such as 'Michael Lambasto, Visionary', and 'Wilson LaMonte, Entrepreneur', mean the thing was made by a bunch of unemployed guys in a basement) went on to explain that if, for example, you are afraid that your bike might be stolen (dramatization of man in fuzzy sepia city locking his bike to a pole and looking around nervously), the mind vibes that you let off (man's head emits radiating light akin to nuclear bomb impact) will attract bike-stealing thieves (man returns to pole, despairingly grasps at limp bike chain). Wilson LaMonte or whoever then clarifies that, although you might be thinking “Man, I didn't attract all that debt/recent robbery/car accident”, sorry buddy, you actually did. The take-home message of the video – only send out positive nuclear bomb mind vibes – was brilliantly illustrated yesterday when some lady parked her twin babies in a stroller on the sidewalk and then went to get ice cream down the street. Clearly, she was emitting zero baby-stealing mind vibes. A-plus for parenting!]

But, as of this week, I’m now in the oldest group of volunteers here. The 23rd group of Kaz volunteers has arrived! Soon I’ll be going to help train them, which probably will make me feel old. The first thing that volunteers do upon arrival in Almaty is choose between studying either Russian or Kazakh. Rumor has it that staff is increasing the ratio of Kazakh to Russian learners. At our training, staff had to force people into the Kazakh learning group, which was about a quarter the size of the Russian group. Our Kazakh group was mostly women and two total dorkosaurus guys (Jon, you know I love ya, please don’t punch a tree). People cited all sorts of reasons for wanting to learn Russian over Kazakh, such as its broader usefulness and world-language status, but I don’t buy it. How many RPCVs read Pushkin in bed at night? Probably the same number that reads Abai. I think our group was more attracted to Russian because it’s perceived as more powerful and sexier (same thing, really).

I’m not referring to the economic power of Russia, I mean the power that a language is endowed with the more it’s spoken or written. I think that consciously or subconsciously, people are aware of other peoples’ use of a particular language, and that this affects their own feeling toward it. For example, when I say “thank you very much” in Kazakh, I see a mental litany of Kazakh village people saying it after receiving a gift or seeing off a guest. When I say the same phrase in Russian, I see sexy cosmopolitan models saying it after being told they’re gorgeous. I see Stalin saying it after learning of Hitler’s retreat (haha, okay so maybe not that exact phrase, but you get the idea).

Maybe you’re thinking: doesn’t she just mean economic power makes a language powerful? But English serves as a great example of how that’s not true. English is, and will likely always be, the international language. This is not because England is powerful, but because English itself has become powerful. Everyone in Kazakhstan knows the phrase “I love you”, or at the very least, “HELLO!” My students who only get to bathe once a week still join Facebook. People still ask me if I know Schwarzenegger, “the Governator! Hahaha!” (how do people KNOW about that??). English is truly globalized; it has gone beyond its roots in any particular place.

And then within English, within everyone’s native tongue, there are phrases that are more powerful than others. When someone says “Will you marry me?” it’s powerful for the meaning, of course, but also because those are the exact words that your cousin Sammy said to his wife and Paul McCartney said to Linda, and your consciousness of that links the whole situation to a broader importance that has been established by countless people on bended knee. The same with “fuck you” – it doesn’t even really mean anything negative, in a way, but its actual meaning has nothing to do with the powerful negativity it has attained through extensive use.

Power in language has another interesting side to it: male vs female usage. Did you know that studies have shown women to use more proper and accurate language, as opposed to the more vernacular language of men? Apparently, this is because accurate language is a form of symbolic capital – a way to be perceived by others as valuable – and women count more on symbolic capital to define their social position than men, who are judged more by skills or activities.

But that’s not the only reason that women tend to be more accurate in language use. It’s been shown women in a position of economic or material disadvantage use more linguistic politenesses, and conversely that “coarse and nonstandard” language use in women is linked to increased economic empowerment. To which I say, hells to the yes, fo shizzle my feminizzle. Paycheck please!

Recently, to make up for lack of libraries, I’ve been reading JSTOR articles online (so dorkosaurus). I found some really interesting information about the status of women and language in post-Soviet countries. In Ukraine, a broad-reaching study found that subjects listening to the same woman speaking Ukrainian and, later, Russian, judged her to be more honest, intelligent, trustworthy, and a slew of other qualities (all except hard-working, hah!) when she was speaking Russian.

Those results certainly resonate with the linguistic climate here. The Russian language embodies all things chic and important. Again, you could say it’s because Russia is an economic power, but I think the relationship between languages in Kazakhstan has taken on its own direction, irrespective of the former USSR. I see my Uzbek/Tatar intern belittle Uzbek students by berating and condescending to them in Russian. How else can she make them respect her? She’s just a year older than they are. And here in the south, it’s a war of tongues between Kazakh and Uzbek (teehee, tongue war). Uzbeks are elated to hear me speaking their language, rather than that ugly guttural abomination that is Kazakh, and Kazakhs are disgusted to hear my Kazakh dirtied by an Uzbek word or accent.

In any case, I’m beyond excited to go to Uzbekistan in ONE WEEK!!! Since 2009 I’ve been living in one country and speaking primarily the language of another (you know, the one where people are nosy and have bone in their brain). I finally get to go to Uzbekistan, the fascinating land of Silk Road legend, beautiful textiles, and polow… and shock people with my Kazakh accent! Although apparently in Samarkand, Tajik is the language of the streets. Better dust off my two semesters of Persian. Oops, shouldn’t have spent them flirting with the teacher.