Let's Get Multilingual

I've just finished watching the fifth episode of the excellent Norwegian-American co-production Lilyhammer, which is currently airing on BBC4. Steve Van Zandt (famous for being part of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band) stars as New York mafia underboss Frank Tagliano who, after testifying, chooses to go into witness protection in Lillehammer, Norway, because he enjoyed what he saw of the town in coverage of the 1994 Winter Olympics. It has an odd, Norwegian sense of humour which appeals to me, but one of my favourite aspects of the show is how Frank (or Johnny as he becomes) speaks English and everyone else speaks Norwegian and they all understand each other perfectly. 

If only the rest of the world was like Lillehammer! (Or maybe not, the people there seem quite strange on the programme....) I love the idea of mutual understanding without the need for English linguistic hegemony. Yes, Johnny expects people to understand his English, but they expect him to understand their Norwegian too. I think it would be amazing if we could all just speak our own languages and everyone understand. It would take a lot of effort of course - and effort not many would be willing to put in given how relatively few people learn languages in England - but understanding a language is far easier than learning to speak it. You would never have to worry if your grammar or pronunciation is correct, plus it is far easier to express yourself fully in your own language.

It's an idea explored in more depth in Un Filme Falado (A Talking Picture), a 2003 film by Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira, who amazingly is still working at 103! One of my students told me about the film one night during the Social Programme - between the group of us we spoke English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Greek, but no-one spoke all of those languages, though we wished we did. In the film, Catherine Deneuve (French), Stefani Strandelli (Italian), Irene Papas (Greek) and John Malkovich have a prolonged conversation, all speaking their own languages.

One day I hope to be able to hold a conversation like this, only less melodramatic! (By the way, if Malkovich sounds incredibly insincere, it's apparently intentional, as all the characters are supposed to highlight stereotypical 'flaws' of each culture, insincerity being the American example).

PS: While we're enjoying all things multilingual, I recommend David Garza's very catchy mash-up of many languages, Dead French Dudes. Annoyingly embedding the video has been disabled, but you can listen here.