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i also find myself in a dilemma. i don't like to write in english. but it is the language of communication between different people. today.
but that's today. is the end of history here?
don't get me wrong, i am not someone who watches russian state channels. (: well, maybe you are, but then probably we are not friends.
and i am not someone who wants to write texts that are very abstract and are important without a context, are timeless. i believe in 'medium is the message'. i believe 'context is the message', i embrace context. i feel it, i understand it, it is close to my heart.
i have this post imperial traumas. and i only write in armenian. i tried to keep english language streams on diaspora and activity pub nodes. i wanted people to understand what is going on here. i wanted to share my pain, and pain of people around me. i felt like it is not fair that some regions get more media exposure because those are the regions, but not ours. i didn't like that i live in one of the most militarized regions in the world. i didn't like the corruption and i didn't like how press is manipulated by the government.
if i would share this with a foreign person, westerner probably, they would not understand me. i could say 'our president is corrupted' and he would say 'ours too!'. i would say something about freedom of press, and they would say 'it's all same in america!'. and i sort of got tired of meeting such people and i gave up the idea that my pain will find understanding. it was so obvious to me that our president 'serge sargsian' could not compare to let's say 'donald trump', because trump was not able to do whatever he wanted. that more or less, the system in usa works better than it works in armenia. yes, he stepped away of paris agreements and did some things, but he also was not able to do other things.
what is also very important, he was elected. some active people made efforts and gave him voices. the system worked both during the elections, and also after. in our case system itself was corrupted, the people started to not believe in elections long ago, because they knew - whatever they do, those who count voices may count according to their needs.
this is changed now. here. after the revolution of 2018. many are disappointed, but not me. well, maybe because i did not have much hope. and maybe because i am grateful for the important things. i am so happy to notice that the press, which is still controlled by the former oligarchic forces, i would say robbers, is free and is pouring dirt on the head of the main political figures in the country. this means nobody opresses them. i am so happy when they have rallies, though i don't support these rallies, i see nobody beats the demonstrants anymore. nobody threatens them. the police is there only to make sure there will no problems. also to defend protesters.
this is so cool.
but back to english. i sort of stopped to write in english because i gave up the thought to be understood by foreigners who don't share same context.
and i think i don't like that english should be the language of the international communication, because it is known for some exact historical reasons. i would like to live in the world where some artificial language like esperanto is de facto language for communication between different people from different places.
now, i live in armenia. and since russia started the invasion of ukraine, many people from russia came to armenia. i always wanted anyone to come to armenia. we need people. armenia needs love and participation. let's say there is this old building, ruins. someone has to buy it, restore it, take care of it. and use it, enjoy it. share it with some or many. so i am glad some people came, though i am not glad that the war happened and forced them to come.
but this is my post imperial trauma - there is this assumption, that everyone in armenia should speak russian, so it is very often, when russian person aproaches you, they will speak to you in russian. no way they would think of learning a new language. well, it's not that i am one of those 'one language one nation' folks. no, i like how in switzerland people don't really care and they speak several languages to some extent. but the assumption that everyone in armenia knows russian is wrong. majority of my friends don't speak russian. for different reasons. yes, we have russian as second language in schools. but one of my friends was from family that emigrated to europe, and then came back. other is from syria. and other is from iran. and we have our common language: armenian. i speak russian, other friend speaks dutch, other friend speaks french, other fried speaks farsi, and other friend speaks arabic. but we all know armenian. and then the russian person approaches them and says something and gets confused when they meet anyone that does not understand them. i would be proud if my friends knew more languages than they know, but the problem is not knowing or not knowing, the problem is the assumption.
and the friend from iran, she said once, she had to answer to the question 'why don't you speak russian?'. like why should it be considered weird? and she didn't say 'i'm from iran', because that's not the primary reason. she said 'i live in armenia, i speak armenian, and this is normal'.
so i write in armenian. first of all, because i know i don't need to explain what kind of guy am i, do i watch russian propaganda or not, and how do i think of this or that issue. i don't need to explain that i am not pro war. i don't need to explain that i have no problems, but only wish for people from different places to come here. i don't need to explain many obvious things.
secondly, because i think, today those who are interested, can read any language. and it is a technical problem. i believe, by writing down thoughts about freedom, politics, and freedom and politics in the internet in english, i make a statement that armenian is not a language to write about freedom and politics and freedom and politics in the internet. so by writing in armenian i make a statement that it is a normal language and it is normal to write in it about politics.
some of my friends don't do that. they keep english language blogs, because they have more exposure and more likes, and more attention. they write about tech in english, and they are well known far outside our small country. i don't have strength to write in english, to show off, and to make more friends. i think if i write, that's my effort, and i choose to not have a wide auditory and to not make useful connections.
well. if i chose to have connections i would be on facebook. i wouldn't self isolate in fediverse. and i would not use gemini, because the effort, the investment one puts doesn't pay back. you don't get tens of likes.
so i am still almost sure i may be understood wrongly and so i have a temptation to not publish this post, and maybe to delete it in future.
i don't know.
2023-07-14 · 10 months ago · 👍 Addison, murdock, StanStani, Ruby_Witch, totroptof, bzh · ❤ 1
I'm sorry you've had trouble being understood in English but I found your post worth reading!
I have to admit, I’m absolutely the stereotype of an ignorant Westerner here: the extent of my knowledge of Armenia is that I’m vaguely aware of its rough location, the Armenian genocide and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This is embarrassing for me to say, but your post made me think about Armenia not just as some abstract geopolitical entity but as a community of human beings.
Yes, this is an indication of the extent to which our contexts differ, but I think it also shows that communication can bridge that gap. Obviously you should write in whatever language suits your taste and values, but I know I’d be interested in reading more.
Although I do slightly resent having to remember another red/blue/yellow tricolour 😁
I spent some time in Yerevan before the revolution, and it was both depressing and inspirational at the same time. I'll stick with the inspirational part: I remember in the mornings people walking out of those ruins which you mentioned, which were obviously difficult living conditions, dressed in their finest suits and ties to head to work. I think that's a good representation of the Armenian people, trying as hard as they can to live a good life despite whatever situation they may find themselves in at the moment.
I don't think you need to worry about writing in English. Write in Armenian or Esperanto if you please. Perhaps for you the audience isn't the important part, it's getting the words out.
heh, i certainly prefer this rainbow flag version, proposed for the first republic of armenia by artist martiros sarian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Armenia#/media/File:Saryan_-_Flag_Rainbow.svg
alas the first armenian republic gov in 1918 didn't appreciate it and chose the tricolor. maybe that was also a logistical question (i guess?) and they decreased poor state expenses with that? or maybe they wanted to be like any new nation state, with the three colour flag?
we, the decentralization/freedom oriented community like this sarian's rainbow version to the extent it is used in many places, as a logo of թութ.հայ mastodon instance, or as logo of sarian@conference.jabber.am xmpp group or as favicon of link sharing lobsters based site https://սարեան.ցանցառներ.հայ. this correlates with the revival of the dark and not popular sarian street, which is full of cafeterias now and became people's number one destination to walk or socialize. i guess that's because the street is of course narrow, plus it is not straight, it is part of the circle, which makes it interesting.
well if i write on bubble, i'll write in english. maybe it'll become the place i keep a gemlog. maybe i'll create a separate gemlog as i always like doing.
maybe i'll try to install tootik and will try to socialize from there via activity pub. let's see.
currently i am using socialhome, and this software is barely maintained and has many problems. plus it causes the main load on my server. neither diaspora nor mastodon do that. i chose it because i wanted to write in one place, instead of two - mastodon and diaspora. i ran a diaspora node since september 28, 2012.needed to keep my diaspora connections, mostly foreign, and write once for all networks.
Thanks for your post. I've seen many dual / multiple language capsules here... I assume it was whatever language the author felt like writing in at the time. I'm glad this place can be diverse in language and expression but I do understand your points about exposure and reach of the messages.
I appreciate hearing your perspective on this. We all could stand to have more context in our lives.
thank you!
i guess it is better to keep bbs.geminispace.org to be mainly english language community.
i think someone can self host the esperanto version. i would maybe try to host armenian version. just i guess those two capsules would not be populated, and not sure those will have content.
anyway for the future i think it'll be good if bubble gets some gettext or other support for translation. but today i guess esperanto community on gemini space is not strong enough to have own bubble instance.
same with armenian community.
but yes, seeing capsules in different languages on gemini space is what i also enjoy. i may run tootik one day.
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