SGP's African, Afro-American and Caribbean English Log

langmon
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SGP's African, Afro-American and Caribbean English Log

Postby langmon » 2018-11-08, 5:14

This log is about all of African, Afro-American and Caribbean English.
As it is no secret, those three flavors aren't that entirely different.

Not restricting myself to any particular country.
I am interested in the purely language-related aspects of all of these types of English.

Looking forward to getting to know more about all three of them. But I am not learning more about them like someone who puts all of them into the same category. I partially compare it to learning Swedish/Norwegian/Danish. While they all are rather similar, one needs to know which language is which, otherwise there can be some confusion.

Also, knowing a certain variant doesn't automatically mean that one would always speak it as well. I am mentioning this because some people told me that both Caribbean and African people can find it offensive at times if a non-native intentionally chooses to speak their way, instead of Standard Western English that they also are very familiar with. This log is being done because of learning purposes, and I do not intend at all to speak that way to anyone unless knowing that he both understands and likes my motivation for doing so, which is my appreciation for Many Things Africa and Many Things Caribbean.

Having said that, what still remains is a question that I haven't found its answer yet. This is about the forum activities. If I would be dropping some (easily understandable) elements of African/Afro-American/Caribbean English sometimes, just as I already have been doing it in the past sometimes before I realized that some could get me wrong, is this something that can be misunderstood even on a language forum?

This question only is about posts outside of this log. And it also only is about posts where I wouldn't include a short "disclaimer" of some type mentioning my motivation for speaking that way.
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linguoboy
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Re: SGP's African, Afro-American and Caribbean English Log

Postby linguoboy » 2018-11-08, 16:50

SomehowGeekyPolyglot wrote:Having said that, what still remains is a question that I haven't found its answer yet. This is about the forum activities. If I would be dropping some (easily understandable) elements of African/Afro-American/Caribbean English sometimes, just as I already have been doing it in the past sometimes before I realized that some could get me wrong, is this something that can be misunderstood even on a language forum?

It is. You can't assume everyone will have read your explanation here (or accept it at face value).
"Richmond is a real scholar; Owen just learns languages because he can't bear not to know what other people are saying."--Margaret Lattimore on her two sons

langmon
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Re: SGP's African, Afro-American and Caribbean English Log

Postby langmon » 2018-11-08, 17:01

linguoboy wrote:
SomehowGeekyPolyglot wrote:Having said that, what still remains is a question that I haven't found its answer yet. This is about the forum activities. If I would be dropping some (easily understandable) elements of African/Afro-American/Caribbean English sometimes, just as I already have been doing it in the past sometimes before I realized that some could get me wrong, is this something that can be misunderstood even on a language forum?

It is. You can't assume everyone will have read your explanation here (or accept it at face value).


Of course I don't assume everyone to read the explanation here.
And as for dropping some words of these variants from time to time here, I haven't decided for or against it yet.
But there is something I have been thinking about right now.

It is my intention to do what I can to avoid possible misunderstandings.
On the other hand, there is a certain upper limit of what I am "able to do" (using quotation marks because it isn't entirely meant literally, some of it could also be about what I am willing to do). I have a middle course point of view on misunderstandings, neither fully blaming the recipient, nor fully blaming the sender of communication.

Generally speaking, there are some people who tend to get "everything" wrong from time to time. Because it is sort of a personal habit of themselves.

What's more, especially when it comes to this kind of people it is rather difficult to even make them think of the fact that not everything is what it seems. They consider things at what they seem at first glance, without even being aware of the fact that there just might be something below the surface of the iceberg.

And this "upper limit" I just mentioned is about myself of course not avoiding everything that can be misunderstood by anyone, otherwise I would "need" to fully quit both writing and speaking, but of course, this is nothing I even could consider accepting...
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linguoboy
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Re: SGP's African, Afro-American and Caribbean English Log

Postby linguoboy » 2018-11-08, 17:10

SomehowGeekyPolyglot wrote:What's more, especially when it comes to this kind of people it is rather difficult to even make them think of the fact that not everything is what it seems. They consider things at what they seem at first glance, without even being aware of the fact that there just might be something below the surface of the iceberg.

It's hard to tell exactly what you're saying here when you're being so vague ("this kind of people") but something else to consider is that your own understanding of the dynamics of the situation may be imperfect and your motives may not be as straightforward as you consider them to be. Where does your "appreciation for Many Things Africa and Many Things Caribbean" and what feeds into your desire to speak it here?
"Richmond is a real scholar; Owen just learns languages because he can't bear not to know what other people are saying."--Margaret Lattimore on her two sons

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Re: SGP's African, Afro-American and Caribbean English Log

Postby langmon » 2018-11-08, 18:23

linguoboy wrote:
SomehowGeekyPolyglot wrote:What's more, especially when it comes to this kind of people it is rather difficult to even make them think of the fact that not everything is what it seems. They consider things at what they seem at first glance, without even being aware of the fact that there just might be something below the surface of the iceberg.

It's hard to tell exactly what you're saying here when you're being so vague ("this kind of people") but something else to consider is that your own understanding of the dynamics of the situation may be imperfect and your motives may not be as straightforward as you consider them to be.


"This kind of people", because I am referring to people having a certain mindset. And those people aren't all the same at all. Instead, there are several sub-sets. But I wanted to refer to all of them using some brevity in this case, so I selected something that is "vague", yes.

"Desire to speak it here": What I said is that I haven't decided yet whether I want to use it outside of this thread or not. But within this thread, it should go without saying that I possibly would use it here, just as everyone else would be doing it with his/her learning language/s.


linguoboy wrote:Where does your "appreciation for Many Things Africa and Many Things Caribbean" and what feeds into your desire to speak it here?


You possibly forgot to write an additional word, I'm only saying it because of not being sure of the question's meaning (before "and").

In case you ask about those things I appreciate, they are very many, but only mentioning a few of them right now:

- (not necessarily applying to all of Africa, but) not even needing to ask if one can eat something when it already is on the table. This isn't about "eating together" situations. It is about something else. One day I visited an African at his home (in Europe), then later I asked him, "can I eat something?". He told me, "in Africa you don't ask, you simply eat". Because the fruits already were on the table.

- some aspects of the "no stress man" idea, i.e. not rushing in, but doing things at their required speed

- related to it: the Swahili proverb "there is no blessing in haraka haraka", i.e. "fast fast"

- Sugarcane juice
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langmon
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Re: SGP's African, Afro-American and Caribbean English Log

Postby langmon » 2018-11-24, 22:35

This log now has been re-merged with the main multi-language log.

https://forum.unilang.org/viewtopic.php?f=119&t=56093
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