Instead of treating language as the fluid and beautiful thing that it is, certain people want to confine language to a strict set of spelling and grammar rules. Then to get everyone to conform to their rules, they create a stigma around people who don’t spell or conjugate the way they do, labeling them as “uneducated” or even “unintelligent.”
This is why people get super embarrassed whenever they realize that they accidentally wrote “there” instead of “they’re,” or answered the phone “this is her” instead of “this is she.”
Seriously, who cares?
The point gets across either way, so don’t ever think for a second that you’re better than someone because you know the difference.
I find spelling and grammar nazis irritating enough, but what’s most insidious about our society’s obsession with rules is its negative effects on our ability to learn second languages as adults. Since all “educated” adults have been socialized to value “familiarity with rules” over “ability to communicate,” second language education focus has always been on stupid, and ultimately arbitrary things, like the difference between “they’re” and “their”.
If you obsess over such insignificant things, you inhibit yourself from “feeling the flow” and learning to communicate fluently.
That’s why there’s nothing more refreshing to a Flow-Junkie like me than languages with no rules, like Montreal Joual…
Of course, the grammar and spelling nazis can’t stand to see a language running free in its natural habitat, so traditionally people have looked down on joual as being a “fake language” that should never exist outside the street. French purists look down on Joual speakers for their heavy use of English words and grammar, English purists look down on Joual speakers for never spelling things correctly.Fortunately, Joual speakers just don’t give a shit.Since there is no governing body of wrinkled academics to cram spelling and grammar edicts down everyone’s throats, people just focus on the only things that matters – communication and Flow.That being the case, Joual Hip Hop is the richest hip hop cultures I’ve gotten to know in my travels. As I will write about soon, rapping is about playing around with meaning and Flow, so when you have two languages intertwining with one another, the potential for rhythmic wordplay doubles.In the Dead Obies song I sing in this post’s video – “D’lautre Bord” (“From the other side”), the artists mix French and English so fluidly that your brain doesn’t even notice the switch. I can think of no better example of the universality of Flow than this song.
Check out the transcription of the lyrics below. So you can see how mixed it is, I highlighted the English text in red. In the right column, I include an English translation of the entire song.
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Since Montreal, I’ve really gotten into mixing languages – it’s just so much more fun than speaking with just one language. For example, if I meet a Brazilian who speaks good English, then I’ll purposely speak Portunglish to him. If I meet an Argentine who speaks portuguese, then I’ll purposely speak Portañol to her.
I even met a Taiwanese-Brazilian the other day whom I spoke for an hour in Mandarguese! It was amazing!
It takes a bit of practice to be able to switch back and forth between language flows, and you have to make a bit of unnatural effort at first, but when you get the hang of it, you create a new ultra-flow that is so magnetic that the other person won’t be able to resist the urge to speak that way too.
More on my language-mixing experiments to come. In the meantime, be sure to check out Dead Obies at deadobies.bandcamp.com, and of course check out my courses too if you’re interested in honing your own flow.
Keep on Flowin!
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