LANGUAGE COMPETITION!
I’ve always found a problem when learning a foreign language. I like to call it “language competition.” Basically, language competition occurs when two people are both trying to learn each other’s native language, and results in a subtle disagreement about which language to use when communicating. Other linguaphiles have discussed this concept, most notably Mark Manson (markmanson.net). As a simple example, you, a native speaker of English, are trying to learn Chinese. You meet a Chinese person who seems friendly and is trying to learn English. She starts the conversation with an English “hello!”, and you decide to answer with a Chinese “Ni hao!” (you’re trying to practice your Chinese, after all). The conversation progresses steadily in Chinese for a few sentences, when your interlocutor suddenly decides to switch to English. Her English is quite good, and she continues to reply in nothing but English, regardless if your utterances are in your L1 or L2. The relentless attempt to dominate the conversation with one language (the one you already speak and don’t need to learn) becomes a nuisance, and it’s a classic example of language competition.
I’ve found language competition to be ubiquitous in places like China where people are focused on personal success, yet less common in places like Japan, where shyness, humility about one’s language ability, and willingness to make sacrifices for others prevail.
Although language competition is common, I have yet to discover it in any sociolinguistic research. The question is: would the results of any such research be useful?
What do you think? Please post comments.
Competitiveness is a commonplace behavior in many materialist, capitalist cultures. There is much research into the correlations between fun and learning, why my friend has just finished an essay in the sociology of fun in relation to online multiplayer gaming. Czechzentmihalyi is a leading figure in psychology who developed the concept of 'flow', which entails the highest capacity for learning. Flow happens when the level of difficulty in an activity remains perfectly balanced to the level of skill the participant has. I would imagine that researching the language competition phenomenon would be very influential in these areas and not to mention profitable information for language schools. The next question would be... who is going to do it first?
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