Have you ever had those times when you come across what you know is a hilarious video because of all the cry-laughing emojis in the comments section but can’t understand a lick of what’s going on in it? Yeah, me too. It’s one of the most frustrating things that’ll ever happen to you on social media. You can ask a fellow twitterer (or is it tweeter?) what it means, but there’s something about asking someone else what’s going on in a video that just takes a whole lot of the comedy out of it. Here’s a list of some other social media moments when you may have wished you could speak another language.
When you see a tweet that Twitter’s translation feature thinks is Indonesian but is really Yoruba. That’s just disrespectful.
When you would like to make a friend feel a little special on Facebook
During my time in the U.S., I gained friends from different places across the world. Some are Chinese, some Japanese, French, Spanish, and some German. I know that if one of them took the time to learn how to say “Happy Birthday” in my native language (Igbo), I’d feel a little extra loved. Even if they can’t learn it (even I don’t know what it is), I want to be able to make them feel extra good on their special day.
When I come across a song I like that’s in a different language.
Trust me. I can appreciate music with lyrics I don’t understand. I was a choirboy and there were tons of songs in Italian, Latin, French, German and even Balinese. (Janger was a really fun song to sing). The choir director would give us an overview of the meaning to get us to capture the emotions we needed to express but for most of them that was about it. That said, sometimes I just want to get the deeper meaning held in a song and that can only be done through the lyrics.
When I see a controversial tweet in English but all of the comments are in isiXhosa. Seriously people. The original tweet is in English (Side-eyeing you people heavily).
During the Soccer (Real Football) transfer season: The Italians are some of the best when it comes to football transfer news. I kid you not. You have absolute magicians like Gianluca Di Marzio, who seem to have every piece of transfer news spot on. Especially when it comes to my club Manchester United. But sometimes the posts are in Italian [insert sad face].
When sports fans from other countries post about my team in their mother tongue: Manchester United has a lot of Malaysian fans. A quick search of “#mufc” on Twitter is evidence enough. I wish I understood their posts. I want to be able to share in the camaraderie of supporting the same soccer team. I’d like to be able to post back in Malay.
While these seem like insignificant moments, I often imagine how much more open my world could become if I spoke several languages. There’s a beauty in being able to connect with people on such a level. My girlfriend learned to speak Italian before she learned to speak English and despite her high level of fluency and proficiency in the latter, she still has moments where she struggles and gets frustrated with herself for not being better at the language. Obviously, she’s more frustrated about the little errors and blank spaces than I am. I feel a lot less worried about my Italian mistakes than she does about her English ones so I tend to sneak in an Italian word or phrase here and there. Imagine having access to 160 languages. I might not learn every single one but it unlocks a new level of bonding.
Ginika
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