Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Preface
- 1 Languages and emotions: What can a multilingual perspective contribute?
- 2 Emotions in the study of multilingualism: Framing the questions
- 3 Vocal level: Is the lady angry?
- 4 Semantic and conceptual levels: The bilingual mental lexicon
- 5 Discursive level: I feel zhalko tebia bednogo
- 6 Neurophysiological level: His coeur is where his feelings dwell
- 7 Social cognition: I no longer wanted to speak German
- 8 Emotions and multilingualism: An integrated perspective
- Appendix A Bilingualism and emotions webquestionnaire
- Appendix B Transcription conventions
- References
- Author Index
- Subject Index
7 - Social cognition: I no longer wanted to speak German
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Preface
- 1 Languages and emotions: What can a multilingual perspective contribute?
- 2 Emotions in the study of multilingualism: Framing the questions
- 3 Vocal level: Is the lady angry?
- 4 Semantic and conceptual levels: The bilingual mental lexicon
- 5 Discursive level: I feel zhalko tebia bednogo
- 6 Neurophysiological level: His coeur is where his feelings dwell
- 7 Social cognition: I no longer wanted to speak German
- 8 Emotions and multilingualism: An integrated perspective
- Appendix A Bilingualism and emotions webquestionnaire
- Appendix B Transcription conventions
- References
- Author Index
- Subject Index
Summary
The truth was, I no longer wanted to speak German; I was repelled by the sound of it; for me as for other Americans it had become the language of the enemy. … I ceased speaking German altogether.
(Lerner, 1997: 40)Gerda Lerner arrived in the United States in 1939 as a nineteen-year-old Jewish refugee from Vienna. Bent on reclaiming a life violently interrupted by the Nazi rise to power, she wanted to master English, yet she also felt that she had “a responsibility to uphold, treasure and keep intact the integrity of the German language” (Lerner, 1997: 33), appropriated and deformed by the Nazis. Unlike some of her European compatriots who were resentful of being transplanted and nostalgic for the lost world, Lerner embraced English with the same gratitude and fascination that she embraced America. Two years after her arrival she was married to an American man, had a steady job, and had made many American friends. When the United States went to war with Germany, she found herself repelled by the sound of German. She refused to use the language, to speak it to her children, or to read German books; eventually she experienced a profound language attrition.
When in 1948 Gerda met with her younger sister Nora, from whom she was separated by emigration, neither spoke German. Nora, who settled in England, spoke British English, Gerda spoke English with an American accent, and neither liked the persona presented by the other.
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- Emotions and Multilingualism , pp. 192 - 226Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006
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