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Twitter and the French Language  (Tomás)

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Twitter and the French Language  (Tomás)

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There has been a change in the way people address each other on Twitter. In the English language, there is no formal/informal distinction between the use of the word "you". However, in the French language, "tu" is informal whereas "vous" is formal. Twitter seems to have taken a toll on the French language online as the informal version is taking over on social media. Many believe that this will have a detrimental effect on the use of the language overall. It is also being described as being a "tool for breaking down social barriers from its very beginning, resulting in a distinctively "egalitarian political discourse"". "Vous" implies that there is some sort of hierarchy, which goes against the very essence of anonymous forums.This would seem to be hardly anything negative, until we see its effect on the French language.

The use of the word "vous" is a sign of respect, but even that seems to be getting lost in translation of the word "you". French speakers may be directly translating from the English word (which is the most used language in the social network) and therefore missing out on the more informal version of the word "you". "Tu" is also used as it "looks strange" to address someone with such respect, especially when most people "tweet" people they have met (and maybe never will meet).

What's most surprising is the speed at which it is occurring. Twitter was founded in 2006, yet 9 years later, it is already causing changes in languages that have existed for hundreds of years. Changes in languages also tend to take many years to actually take place, whereas this change is perhaps more significant and yet, it is happening at a much faster rate.

This change is so apparent, that it has spread to other languages like Spanish. The familiar "tu" dominates, with the formal "usted" a rarity. As in France, the normal writing style on Twitter in Spanish is "informal, direct and very personal". It is a common trend in many languages and if these changes continue, it is likely that the informal versions of "you" in many languages will be effectively dropped.

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McDonaldization is the term invented by George Ritzer to describe a sociological phenomenom that is happening in our society.

In essence, McDonaldization is the process of rationalization

Rationalization is a sociological term that simply means the substitution of logically consistent rules for traditional (or illogical) rules. One of the fundamental aspects of McDonaldization is that almost any task can (and should) be rationalized.

The process of McDonaldization takes a task and breaks it down into smaller tasks. This is repeated until all tasks have been broken down to the smallest possible level. The resulting tasks are then rationalized to find the single most efficient method for completing each task.

It turns out that over-rationalizing a process in this manner has an unexpected side effect. It's called irrationality. In a sociological context that simply means that a rationalized system may result in events or outcomes that were neither anticipated or desired, and in fact, may not be so good.

According to Ritzer, the four main dimensions of McDonaldization are:

·  Efficiency- The optimum method of completing a task.

·  Calculability- Assessment of outcomes based on quantifiable rather than subjective criteria. In other words, quantity over quality.

·  Predictability -The production process is organized to guarantee uniformity of product and standardized outcomes. All shopping malls begin to look the same

·  Control - The substitution of more predictable non-human labor for human labor, either through automation or the deskilling of the work force.

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Global spread of McDonalds

http://www.mcdonaldization.com/whatisit.shtml

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McDonaldization - The process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more sectors of our society.

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Internet and China.

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Observations and meditations: cultural diffusion through Internet -- china.org.cn

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Chinese digital museum construction started in the 1990s and is now experiencing fast development. At present, 145 cultural institutions and museums have established departments to help apply information technology advancements to their collections. Some digital museums collect and manage the cultural relic information through digital means and share the museum information online.

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English Music in France

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He argued that French record companies were not producing nearly enough music that appealed to Fun Radio's target audience of men and women aged 15 to 25.

"We have to play the same artists over and over; it's a nightmare for programmers," said a disc jockey at another national French station, who asked not to be identified. "There is not 40 percent of quality French music in a rock 'n' roll format."

Not surprisingly, French music industry professionals disagreed. "There is enough quantity," said Antonie Cartier, director of statistics and economic applications at Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique, an industry organization. "As for quality, it's a question of taste, so this is not a valid argument."

Nevertheless, Manuel Bamberger, head of the music industry office at the French Ministry of Culture, said the government had asked French record companies to "increase French-language output over the next two years."

While respecting the letter of the law, some rock stations have found ways to minimize its impact on listeners. "During school vacations we will play less French music and make up for it during school days," said Genie Godula, a disc jockey at Fun Radio. "The CSA allows this."

Despite the fear among French station managers that the quota would drive away listeners, an audience poll released this week by Médiametrie, a market research company, indicated that the three largest national music stations and most smaller ones all gained market share in the first quarter, compared with the like period last year.

Any drop-off in listeners would affect station advertising revenues, though so far "the law hasn't touched advertisers very much," said Renaud Vieljeux, an executive at IP France, an advertising sales company.

But one rock-station disc jockey called the results into question, saying the poll had been conducted too soon to "take the consequences of the law into account."

French radio executives also are worried that foreign stations, which would not be subject to the 40 percent quota, could eventually compete for listeners in France via cable or satellite.

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Daniel Tilles and International Herald Tribune

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French Radio Quota Hasn't Alienated Fans : Listeners Stick With 'le Rock'

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He argued that French record companies were not producing nearly enough music that appealed to Fun Radio's target audience of men and women aged 15 to 25. "We have to play the same artists over and over; it's a nightmare for programmers," said a disc jockey at another national French station, who asked not to be identified.

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Case studies from around the world.

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For the past 30 years Egypt has witnessed the decline of the galabeya.

Peasants in the fields still wear it, but western-leaning businessmen wear suits.

One independent politician, however, is pushing for its return.

Christian Fraser reports from Cairo.

Story Tools

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The decline of Egypt's traditional galabeya

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For the past 30 years Egypt has witnessed the decline of the galabeya. Peasants in the fields still wear it, but western-leaning businessmen wear suits. One independent politician, however, is pushing for its return. Christian Fraser reports from Cairo. Story Tools

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Customs - Case study - St Patrick's Day (Joao C)

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Customs - Case study - St Patrick's Day (Joao C)

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St Patrick's Day

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March 17th is St. Patrick's Day - time to honor Ireland's popular saint who is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. Every March 17th, the Irish pay homage to St. Patrick by feasting on traditional Irish dishes, drinking green beer and holding parades, don't forget your "Kiss me I'm Irish" button. The Chinese just don't seem to want to play nice though, in Shanghai their parade has been cancelled.

Irish in China, Who Knew? There are many thousands of Irish expatriates living in China right now and they have a number of social and business organizations to represent them and help them in their activities in China.

Now there's an unexpected party even if it doesn't take place, a St Patrick's Day parade in Shanghai has been deemed a threat to political stability in China. There has been an anonymous internet campaign to replicate the recent uprisings and revolutions in the Middle East in China and China wants nothing of the sort taking place in Shanghai.

Shanghai authorities objected to the prominent route, on a major street near a movie house, for the annual St. Patrick's Day parade planned for March 12. China is still an autocratic regime, tightly controlled from the top down and apparently the leaders are still afraid of the people. With a population exceeding 1.3 billion people they have a lot to be worried about. China has in recent years been something of a GDP miracle, lifting 600 million of her own people out of poverty while controlling inflation and keeping a lid on political expression.

So, what does that have to do with the Irish and St Patrick's Day? The parade attracts thousands of visitors every year and is part of a four-day event. The parade would have marched move along Nanjing Donglu, Shanghai's most famous street, which runs past People's Square a spot mentioned in the internet campaign. The internet campaign asked people to take a stroll there as a sign of passive resistance. That was enough to make Chinese officials nervous. State authorities have begun restricting activities by foreigners in China and the St Patrick's Day parade was caught in this clampdown. When Shanghai authorities objected to the parade route they told the organizers of the parade that it could go forward if they would use a "more modest" route. The organizers couldn't rearrange at the last minute so the parade was cancelled. Meanwhile the Beijing St Patrick's Day parade, due to be held on Sunday, March 20th, in Chaoyang Park, a few kilometers from the city centre, will go ahead as planned. It seems that the party congress is going on in Beijing at the same time, they will have lots of security forces on hand to deal with any dissension and it might be good to have dissidents a few miles away.

China has a small but vibrant Irish community and before the current clamp down the Irish had been the only international group allowed to parade in China. So what are the Irish doing in China? China started opening to the west in 1978 as Deng Xiaoping oversaw the radical reformation of the basis of the Chinese economy. Deng was recognized in the West as a great leader for moving China away from its Maoist past to a more capitalist system. When you match the new economy of China with the Chinese taking back sovereignty of Hong Kong from the British in 1997 you have all of the ingredients needed for the Irish businesses in China. The Irish are in China for the opportunity to make money but this time they're not escaping a potato famine, they're in China to sell and buy.

The Irish are not ones to leave their identity behind when in a new country so they brought their holidays with them and have formed cultural and business groups in China. Le Cheile in Shanghai, a group for Irish expatriates "is a nonprofit, multicultural organization that provides an opportunity for Irish and non-Irish people to make friends, learn about Irish culture, and develop a comfort zone in this big, bustling city."

Irish businesses in China, first there is the Ireland China Association, " a voluntary organization dedicated to the promotion of greater trade, economic and cultural links between Ireland and China." Of course Cork and Shanghai have chosen to be twin cities with many cultural and business ties. "On May 19, 2005 the Shanghai People's Municipal Government and Cork City Council concluded a Sister City Agreement in Cork City Hall which provides a framework for co-operation projects between Cork and Shanghai to develop deep and long-lasting ties between the citizens and organizations of both cities" Then there's always The Irish Network China (INC) is an Not-For-Profit organization whose aim is to promote and encourage exchange and understanding of business. There is also Internations connecting Irish and other expats living in China.

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March 17th is St. Patrick's Day - time to honor Ireland's popular saint who is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. Every March 17th, the Irish pay homage to St. Patrick by feasting on traditional Irish dishes, drinking green beer and holding parades, don't forget your "Kiss me I'm Irish" button.

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The informal version of "you" in the French language - "tu" - seems to be taking over on social media, at the expense of the formal "vous". As in many countries, online modes of address in French are more relaxed than in face-to-face encounters. But will this have a permanent effect on the French language?

Anthony Besson calls most people "vous". As a young man, it is a sign of respect to those older than him, and he's often meeting new people through his work in PR in Paris.

Yet this all changes on social media. "I always use 'tu' on Twitter," Besson says. "And not just because it takes up fewer of the 140 characters!"

Lots of other French people do exactly the same.

"Tu" is normally for family and friends, but when you're communicating through @ symbols, joining networks and tweeting under a pseudonym, a formal "vous" can seem out of place, even to someone you've never met.

Antonio Casilli, professor of Digital Humanities at Telecom ParisTech engineering school, says the web has been used as a tool for breaking down social barriers from its very beginning, resulting in a distinctively "egalitarian political discourse".

In the philosophy of the internet, we are among peers, equal, without social distinction, whatever your age, gender, income or status in real life
Anthony Besson

The pervasive pattern of speech on the web in the 1990s, he says, was "cyber-utopian California-style libertarian discourse, inherited from 1960s counter-culture".

And the egalitarian spirit remained when the "participatory web" came of age in the mid-2000s, he suggests.

Social networking sites such as Twitter take this one step further, adopting codes "characterised by a heightened sense of emotional proximity", such as friending on Facebook, he says.

Twitter, meanwhile, follows on from a long line of internet forums where users could be anonymous.

"In the philosophy of the internet, we are among peers, equal, without social distinction, whatever your age, gender, income or status in real life," Besson says.

Addressing someone as "vous" - or expecting to be addressed as "vous" - on the other hand, implies hierarchy.

It is, as Casilli puts it, "a major break in the code of communication... an attempt to reaffirm asymmetric social roles... a manifestation of distance that compromises social cohesion".

Forget this at your peril.

Last year, Laurent Joffrin, director of left-leaning news magazine Nouvel Observateur, turned on a follower, asking who authorised him to use "tu" - "Qui vous autorise a me tutoyer?" (Joffrin, of course, used "vous".)

A storm erupted. Joffrin the accuser was himself accused of being rude and condescending.

People on Twitter would never dare to go up to someone in the street and call them 'tu' because it's a form of violence
Laurent Joffrin

"The fact that he was a public figure who was part of an elite probably didn't help as he expected some respect and viewed 'tu' as an insult," Besson says.

He likens knowledge of the online social codes to a form of cultural capital - you either have it or you don't. And while younger people may be more likely to have it, there is no guarantee.

"Just because you're young doesn't mean you're better at using the internet than your grandmother," Besson says.

A year later, Joffrin has stopped using Twitter - his last tweet was in October - though he says this is nothing to do with the "tu" drama.

"It was unpleasant," he says of that episode. "There's a group of people who think they are superior because they know a way of talking [on Twitter] that others don't. I don't like the hierarchy. They want to impose their codes.

"It doesn't bring people together, it heightens tensions. It's an appalling culture. People on Twitter would never dare to go up to someone in the street and call them 'tu' because it's a form of violence - you see drivers insulting each other using 'tu'.

In other languages

In German there's a tendency to use the informal "du" rather than the formal "Sie" on social media

In Russian the formal "vy" remains standard between strangers online

Language is liable to be even more formal than in face-to-face contact on the Japanese social networking site, Mixi

The informal "to" is more common than the formal "shoma" on social networks in Persian

The formal "nin" is rarely used in Chinese anyway but online language is often very informal and has generated a new lexicon of web slang

In the UK emails are now far more likely to begin with "Hi" than letters were in the era of snail mail

"In big cities especially, you need respect and courtesy. And on Twitter, there isn't respect."

In Spain, the same thing is happening to modes of address online. The familiar "tu" dominates, with the formal "usted" a rarity.

As in France, the normal style of writing on Twitter in Spanish is "informal, direct and very personal", says Prof Jose Luis Orihuela of Navarra University, author of a book called Mundo Twitter (Twitter World).

Melchor Miralles Sangro, host of the Cada manana morning programme on ABC Punto Radio in Spain, who has more than 50,000 followers on Twitter says he usually uses "tu" online but is quite relaxed about forms of address. "I don't mind which form of 'you' people use to address me," he says. "I have no problem with either."

In Italian, meanwhile, the move towards "tu" was under way long before the arrival of the internet and social media. They merely reinforce an existing trend.

"In Italian, even among strangers or among people belonging to different generations, the informal 'tu' is much more frequent than the formal 'lei'," Casilli says.

If people's first contact is on social media and they start using 'tu', it would be awkward to use 'vous' in a different context
Prof Bert Peeters, Macquarie University, Australia

"The shift in the use of informal language online is... less dramatic than in French."

It's too early to say whether Twitter will change how French people talk in everyday life.

Historically, the biggest shifts towards "tu" occurred at the time of the French Revolution and during the social upheavals of May 1968.

"People who played an active role in May '68 pleaded in favour of getting rid of the distance created by 'vous' and doing away with hierarchy," says Prof Bert Peeters, of the French and Francophone Studies department at Macquarie University in Australia, co-editor, of Tu ou vous: l'embarras du choix - Tu or vous: an awkward choice.

"However, as they grew up and became mature adults, they realised that having just 'tu' in French was not adequate, or not part of being French, and 'vous' started coming back."

Although "tu" is more common than it was pre-68, strict rules still govern its use.

"You would offend a lot of people if you used 'tu' and they didn't know you. It is difficult to say whether social media will change this," Peeters says.

"However, if people's first contact is on social media and they start using 'tu', it would be awkward to use 'vous' in a different context. Once you start with 'tu', it is very hard and very rare to abandon it."

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The informal version of "you" in the French language - "tu" - seems to be taking over on social media, at the expense of the formal "vous". As in many countries, online modes of address in French are more relaxed than in face-to-face encounters. But will this have a permanent effect on the French language?

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Produce notes on the diffusion of one of the selected cultural traits by the international movement of workers, tourists and commodities. Summarise the diffusions occurring for your selected cultural trait by completing the post on padlet.