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Italian government seeks to penalize the use of English words

cnn.com

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Re: Italian government seeks to penalize the use of English words

#21

Post by linhns »

borroka wrote: post #13
alex_suzuki wrote: post #2

Italy really knows how to focus on what’s really important to address challenges like high unemployment and weak economy.

It is a very poor argument and ignores the fact that the lives of people, institutions and countries are not just about (the very important) jobs and economics. I, who have lived in the United States for decades, cringe when English words are used instead of those of my native language to give a sense of respectability to those words. A global culture and a world homogenized in ways of living is a much less interesti…

Yes, and if you actually read the bill (I'm not Italian, just trying to translate it online), it just bans other languages in official documentation, which every country does. I'm surprised Italy has not done it until now.

Re: Italian government seeks to penalize the use of English words

#23

Post by sschueller »

hunglee2 wrote: post #14

I think we (Americans and Europeans alike) wholly underestimate how Americanised European culture is becoming. This is an observation rather than a criticism as I don't know whether this is 'good' or 'bad' but it is noticeable phenomena manifest through language, and probably an unintended consequence of the dependency of Europe on US communication technology, leading to the import of US communication styles, politic…

I think Rammstein put it in perspective how it feels sometimes. [1]

[1] https://youtu.be/Rr8ljRgcJNM

Re: Italian government seeks to penalize the use of English words

#24

Post by aniforprez »

borroka wrote: post #13
alex_suzuki wrote: post #2

Italy really knows how to focus on what’s really important to address challenges like high unemployment and weak economy.

It is a very poor argument and ignores the fact that the lives of people, institutions and countries are not just about (the very important) jobs and economics. I, who have lived in the United States for decades, cringe when English words are used instead of those of my native language to give a sense of respectability to those words. A global culture and a world homogenized in ways of living is a much less interesti…

I'm sure it is very important that the government make it a punishable offense to say "bru-shetta" instead of "brus-ketta" for the word bruschetta. This is the kind of important government regulation that makes for a productive use of parliament time and the votes of the people

Re: Italian government seeks to penalize the use of English words

#26

Post by borroka »

tacone wrote: post #8
alex_suzuki wrote: post #2

Italy really knows how to focus on what’s really important to address challenges like high unemployment and weak economy.

Italians lose wars as if they were football matches, and football matches as if they were wars - Winston Churchill

Like many of the things that were said ironically in the past, this one has aged badly. Yes, Italians could be very passionate about the results of football matches.

However, Churchill did not have to see how the English interpreted soccer matches in the 1970s and 1980s. Hooligans, for those too young, interpreted football games as wars. But not in the sense of passion for the sport, as they were killing fans of other teams in ways similar to wars.

Fortunately, things change over time.

It is also interesting how some ethnic groups or nations can be the object of ridicule without anyone protesting (all of Southern Europe, for example), while for other ethnic groups or nations there would be protests all over the world at the slightest hint of an attempt to ridicule them.

Re: Italian government seeks to penalize the use of English words

#27

Post by beebeepka »

tacone wrote: post #8
alex_suzuki wrote: post #2

Italy really knows how to focus on what’s really important to address challenges like high unemployment and weak economy.

Italians lose wars as if they were football matches, and football matches as if they were wars - Winston Churchill

[flagged]

Re: Italian government seeks to penalize the use of English words

#30

Post by adventured »

hunglee2 wrote: post #14

I think we (Americans and Europeans alike) wholly underestimate how Americanised European culture is becoming. This is an observation rather than a criticism as I don't know whether this is 'good' or 'bad' but it is noticeable phenomena manifest through language, and probably an unintended consequence of the dependency of Europe on US communication technology, leading to the import of US communication styles, politic…

Well you'd need a lot more than an Internet independent of the US. The same US cultural influence was prominent before the Internet became popular. You'd either need a new super popular language apart from the globally popular English, and or you'd need English to decline substantially (this would decimate the US cultural output/reach/influence).

It's worth noting that a variation of language collapse may be occurring. The English speaking part of the US is imploding (aging demographics, fentynal, Covid, mediocre healthcare for the bottom 1/2, etc), the Spanish speaking part of the US is rapidly taking marketshare (immigration being the only thing keeping the US population afloat). You can expect some decline in US cultural power accordingly, as Spanish is less popular globally than English (and far less potent as an entertainment, media force).

The EU will indeed end up more or less making their own Internet. That's happening gradually. Their own rules, laws, beliefs are increasingly governing their slice of cyberspace (and anything in tech broadly). That separation will only get wider. Over time, the laws governing the EU Internet end up making it quite distinct from the US Internet, from the Chinese Internet, from the Russian Internet, and so on (as different as the physical spaces are today, at least).

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