Comments on: Avatar’s Mother Tongue

By: dandellion

dandellion — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 00:29:48 +0000

English is easy to learn. At least basics of it, so it enables communication quickly. It’s not a surprise that it is common language all over the Internet. And it somehow goes with tech stuff. I keep both my desktop and my phone in English, it just feels weird if they are localized.

By: Raul Crimson

Raul Crimson — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:35:51 +0000

Well, dande, you know for sure i’m a bit bilingual (i speak good spanish and a crappy english). My SLme speaks mainly in english, just becuase most of my friends are english speakers or we decided to have that common language. Also i blog in English (or something like that).
Actually didn’t planned it, just though English would be a better language in order to communicate myself better in the SLenviroment.

By: dandellion

dandellion — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:43:41 +0000

More and more I am glad I wrote this post. I am not alone :) It is the similar kind of relief when I found out that others dream SL too.
I need to rethink all this… it turns out that foreign language helps us immerse into environment and feel more natural. Any psychologists around?

By: Raindrop Drinkwater

Raindrop Drinkwater — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 11:49:04 +0000

Ha, I feel the same way. I avoid the company of French avatars, as I find that I don’t chat in French (my RL mother language) as smoothly as I do in English.

By: Tenth Life : On language in SL and RL

Tenth Life : On language in SL and RL — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 14:35:01 +0000

[...] came across an interesting new (to me) blog, with a fascinating post, Avatar’s Mother Tongue, that also has a good comment thread. The premise? As you probably concluded from all the missing [...]

By: A.T.

A.T. — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:38:41 +0000

sorry for delay, this kind of things not always stay in top priorities of life… I have “first” language which I learned first and it was first till 3yrs old, then I was “switched” to second one which is main at the moment… and there were other languages attached to me less (mean less knowledge of them, still I know them as “better quit smething than nothing”), and was English coming somewhere in the school. Actually, nowadays I use first one only in emotional bursts and when talk to (remote) relatives, and second one is used in non-work environment (home, close friends, blogging), and at wok it is mostly English (tho sometimes i do switch back to second language when think on serious topics). Actually, barrier between second and English is quit soft – once (we were guests at friends place) I was watching satellite TV feed where poor channel had Discovery channels semi-translated (one feature program in second language, one in English), and i haven’t noticed those switches AT ALL, only my wife was giggling of me because on here question I had replied in English instead of second language as usual ;) And in SL, the very second language community is rather minor enough to ignore them ;)

By: dandellion

dandellion — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 11:00:34 +0000

The situation of bilinguality is one that is of interest. I understand that switching is natural, but are there situations or things you prefer to “do” in one and not in the second language, both in RL an SL?
And about sims that are mainly in non-familiar language… I love that Okinawa sim, where nipponese is dominant. If I really need it, I can use that great invention named Babbler, but most of the time I enjoy the flow of kanjis which I don’t understand and that strange feeling of being not in the conversation. Strange mix of solitude in the middle of the crowd.

By: A.T.

A.T. — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 19:03:55 +0000

well, for bilinguals (like me;) that doesn’t much matter – they learned to switch context like natural way of life, like breathing… but then it is fun for us to observe situations where anglo-saxons come to place where e.g german group (german, dutch, etc) prevailing and they have to cope somehow: they ask e.g. for help, got it in English and then helper turns back to talk to his own company e.g. in Dutch, and… voila, they got lost and go somewhere else ;)

By: Laetizia Coronet

Laetizia Coronet — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 00:49:06 +0000

Interesting topic. I am a translator in RL and English comes naturally, as natually almost as my native Dutch. But Laetizia can speak both, because Laetizia is not really a role I play, apart from the difference in gender. She reacts like I would react and even does typically male things like building an armoured car.
But I can relate to how a different language makes some things easier. It creates a distance between yourself and the words. Your own language relates directly to childhood memories. You can tell a girl ‘I love you’ – it’s just a song (any of countless millions of songs actually). But when you tell that to her in your own language, it is so much more – it’s what you’d tell your mother as well.

By: Daedalus Young

Daedalus Young — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:10:22 +0000

Well, same here, I am Dutch and of course speak mostly English in SL. I do talk to other Dutch people once in a while, and that is weird. It feels like I’m exposed and my Dutch writing looks so stupid. As said before, talking in another language makes me think differently. Then switching back to Dutch, I can’t easily find the same ‘flow’.
While I can chat and switch just fine when I’m on a separate Dutch chat room and in SL at the same time, suddenly switching to Dutch -in- SL is problematic.
It must be a psychological thing. From day one, even second one on SL, I associate it with bein mainly English. The entire SL client is English, the SL site is and the very first notecard you receive is. From then on, all people I met, I started talking English to. So for me, Sl = English. Then to suddenly forget all that and talk in my native language feels unnatural.