(no subject)
I keep thinking about languages today, for some reason (when I am not trying to sleep off my cold). How the choice of languages seems political at times even to me, living in Russia and speaking Russian.
Maybe it's to do with my grandmothers. It certainly was political enough for both of them, from my maternal grandmother's desire for me not to learn German (a bit outdated: such attitude was common 50 or 60 years ago, but she kept it through her life) to my paternal grandmother's refusal to teach me even a word in Yiddish, because "you do not need to know that language!". She was better even about teaching me Ukrainian words (though she seemed not to like Ukrainians as a whole). Maybe Ukrainian had more pleasant memories associated with it? I know she only spoke Yiddish and Ukrainian until she was about 12, but I am not sure if those were equally familiar to her, or if she had primary and secondary language (and certainly it was a bit noticeable that she was not a native Russian speaker even in her old age).
Maybe it's to do with my grandmothers. It certainly was political enough for both of them, from my maternal grandmother's desire for me not to learn German (a bit outdated: such attitude was common 50 or 60 years ago, but she kept it through her life) to my paternal grandmother's refusal to teach me even a word in Yiddish, because "you do not need to know that language!". She was better even about teaching me Ukrainian words (though she seemed not to like Ukrainians as a whole). Maybe Ukrainian had more pleasant memories associated with it? I know she only spoke Yiddish and Ukrainian until she was about 12, but I am not sure if those were equally familiar to her, or if she had primary and secondary language (and certainly it was a bit noticeable that she was not a native Russian speaker even in her old age).