Hello everyone!
Today we would like to talk about the topic
“English kills the other languages”.
The truth is that we have for some time now began
to replace some of our Portuguese words with English ones and we are not aware
that it is happening. English is becoming more and more present in our lives.
Kids learn English in school at the same time that they learn their own
language - Portuguese, and they grow up with the Internet and social networks
where the main language is English. The same thing happens with movies, series,
music and games. Everything comes from English-speaking countries and we have
to deal with it, being forced to learn their language.
An area where this happens a lot is in Technology.
Most of the expressions that we learn (in this area) are in English. Software,
Hardware, CDs, etc. are some examples of words that we don’t have in
Portuguese, so we use the English ones.
But there are some concepts for which we have the
Portuguese word and we prefer to use the English ones. So, in our opinion, we
are killing our language when we do that.
Some examples are:
- Dia das bruxas (Portuguese)/ Halloween (English)
- Rosquinha (Portuguese)/ Doughnuts (English)
- Correio Eletronico (Portuguese)/ Email (English)
- Entrada (Portuguese)/ Hall (English)
- Conjunto (Portuguese)/ Kit (English)
And why do we do that?
We asked some people this question and
the reactions we got were mostly the same. Firstly, they didn’t know why they
do that, because they never really thought about it. Then they said that they
use the English words instead of the Portuguese ones because it’s easier and
everyone does that too.
To sum up, maybe English is really
killing our language or maybe we are the ones that are doing that, without a specific
reason.
Hey, I´m André Gomes. I would like to say that I get the point of the post but I think that is a little exaggerated to say that English is killing our language. We´re living in modern times and, as such, is inevitable don´t use the current universal language because it´s used in very aspects of our days. This doesn´t means that we are replacing the Portuguese language, but yes that the human being is systematically trying update his knowledge as citizen of a great multicultural society because learning English or knowing some basic English expressions (like the ones on the post) is also very important to a common Portuguese citizen.
ReplyDeleteTo make my point more clearly I suggest that you open this link of a video that is, in my opinion, interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc72pgfL7Q
When we say that it kills (of course metaphorically) our language, we don't mean that our language will disappear. We are trying to say that, in some cases, we use the English words and we don't even create a Portuguese one. Like the word marketing or software. We are simply too lazy to make up one.
DeleteWe appreciate your comment and your opinion and we kinda understand your point.
Thank you so much ;)
Hello (: I agre with André (previous comment) maybe 'kill' is not the right word, we say those english words because it's easier for us to say and also everybody do that; it started on social media an now it's normal for us, I can't imagine myself saying some words in portuguese.. Did you talked with people to get that conclusion or it's just your opinion? Maybe you can do another video with the people's opinion..
ReplyDeleteHello! I have read the post and maybe its true english is starting to "kill" other languanges. But what would actually happen if every languange in the world was replaced by english? Wouldn't it be better to have 1 global languange?
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ReplyDeleteIn my opinian English is really important nowadays. So if this "kills our language" I have to say yes, beacuse since we are children we have to learn English as we learn our language. I think this is important beacuse nowadays everything is about English, but on the other hand, this is bad for the other languages. Carolina
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