It is very interesting to see how people who speak different languages interact without actually understanding each other. An article in The New York Times, "U.S. Reviews New York Police Dealings With People Who Don’t Speak English," made me think about this strange way of interaction again.
As we have talked in class before, there is an unquestionable barrier between people who do not speak the same language, because there are not many common grounds that they can communicate. Interestingly enough though, there is also an element of aloofness, sometimes even disregard and dislike. In the article, for instance, the reporter talks about a striking example: Non-English speakers in New York, when they are victims of a certain crime, are reported by officers as "uncooperative" or "refused." Of course, there may be times where the victim refuses to talk to the officer, but what about the other times where the English-speaking officer just cannot talk to, let's say, the Chinese-speaking victim?
In this case, the first question that comes up to my mind is this: Why does the officer document the victim as "uncooperative" or "refused"? Do people who speak different languages find each other guilty of not speaking their own language? In the above example, to me it almost seems like the officer is putting the blame on the victim, because they are being "uncooperative" and refuse to talk to the authorities simply by not knowing English. Not speaking the language of the officer seems like defying his authority. I think in a way this example shows how deeply entrenched the notions of language and identity are. The language of the officer, in this case, is a symbol of his hierarchical power in the society, and anyone who does not help him by speaking in his own language is being uncooperative.
I never came across a situation where I could not talk to a person because of language barriers, so I cannot really guess how I would react in a case where the person and I could not interact because we don't speak the same language. Still, I would not think that they are being "uncooperative." I think that is a strong judgment of someone's personality, and language is not the only factor that shapes our personality or the way we think even though it plays an important role. However, I think that I would feel "aloof" from that person as we do not have any common grounds to communicate.
How would you feel in such a case? Do you think there may be other reasons behind the English-speaking officer reporting the non-English speaking victim as "uncooperative" or "refused?"
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/10/nyregion/10police.html
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Begum, I am also interested in how the police interacts with non-English speakers. The police probably deem the victim "uncooperative" due to stereotypes as well as the language barrier. It would be interesting to survey the overlap between racial stereotypes/profiling and language barriers.
ReplyDeleteI read this article as well, and thought it brought up a very important, yet not talked about issue. My first thought would be that if a language barrier exists between a police officer and another person, that might give the police officer more room (both intentionally and unintentionally) to treat the person with less respect. This could come from their inability to communicate with one another which simply leads to misunderstanding about that person's intent and backstory.
ReplyDeleteI also read a scientific article that showed how police-other person interactions are inherently threatening, simply due to the relative role and power of the police officer versus the person who is being questioned/arrested. If this interaction is threatening and troublesome even using a common language, I would hypothesize that a language barrier would make the interaction even more threatening and unproductive.