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| Thanks to Warner: The Great Gatsby poster |
Our Paris-based fashionista Tina Antarakis, manages to get some time off from working for her own business, The Style Bar, and as a talented contributor for The Copy Collective.
I went to see the fabulously over-the-top The Great Gatsby
recently.
Loved every elaborate minute of it. Totally fantastical, yet
true to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel - at least in its portrayal of a
complicated era (extravagant living in the midst of Prohibition). And don’t get
me started on the stunning sets and costumes.
The film also left me with an interesting insight into the
use of words and language. It struck me each time Leonardo de Caprio, in his wonderfully
intense portrayal of Jay Gatsby, utters the words “old sport”. (And if you
haven’t seen the movie yet, he says it A LOT).
So what did I see? Well, when spending time in a foreign
country as I currently do, you usually want to do your best to blend in with
the locals. Part of this process is not only to improve your grasp of the
language but to make it sound less textbook, more natural and ‘vernacular’.
To do this, you can start by peppering your speech with
commonly used words and phrases. The idea being that you will sound more fluent,
demonstrating to native speakers that you have a deeper knowledge of their
lingo because you are conversing with them the way they actually speak on a
daily basis.
But therein lies the danger, of which Gatsby was apparently acutely
unaware.
For the more he bandied about his quaint old English term of
endearment, the more he drew attention to the fact that it sounded like an
affectation, something he had learnt rather than come by naturally; and it ended
up doing him much more harm than good.
And so it is with a foreign language. There you are,
standing around at a social gathering, quietly congratulating yourself because
you are using argot, or slang - and that
could mean the language of a country, a social class, or even an echelon, as in
Gatsby’s case. But in reality, your attempts to fit in are only setting you
apart.
So my advice? Be careful, and be aware. Take note of to whom
you are speaking and the social context. It’s far better to speak slowly and
correctly, using a few well-placed - but never vulgar - terms that show you
haven’t just learnt in a classroom but at the same time didn’t pick things up on
the street.
And be aware that the more familiar language you use, the
more your comprehension and fluency will be expected to match. Should you fall
short, you run the risk of sounding even more foreign than if you had just
stuck with the basics and kept your ‘bah
ouah’’s and ‘oh putain’’s to
yourself.
If not, you could end up like poor old Gatsby: with a
catch-phrase whose jarring presence in an otherwise smooth and seemingly well-bred
exterior brought attention and ridicule in the worst possible way. In short:
not great at all.
Tina Antarakis © 2013 The Copy Collective
