Natospeak, Communication, Culture & Cultural Literacy

Col. L. Chaloupský, Ph.D.

The Stranger within my gate, He may be true or kind,

But he does not talk my talk – I cannot feel his mind.

I see the face and the eyes and the mouth, but not the soul behind.

Rudyard Kipling (1908)

Kipling’s Stranger

Charge of the LB

Trooping of Battle Honours

CULTURAL COMPETENCE

Grammatical Competence

Functional Competence

Interactional Competence

Sociolinguistic Competence

Ambiguity

Elements of Cultural Communicative Competence and Possible Complications

Semantics/Pragmatics

Polysemy/ Homonymy

Syntax

Morphology

Synonymy/Antonymy

Lexicon

Phonology

COMPREHENSION

Speech Acts

PRODUCTION

ErrorsMistakesVagueness

Cultural Speech Area• Rukulíbám, milostivá paní.Czech

• Küs´die Hand, gnädige Frau!German

• I kiss your hand, gracious lady.English

TABLE

American English

British English

Australian English

N.Zealand English

CHARGE

Cultural Speech AreasNative to Non-Native

THE CHINESE PILOT TO ATC VIDEO

Components of Speech EventsS P E A K I N G

S SITUATION Physical, temporal, psychological setting defining the speech event

P PARTICIPANTS Speaker, hearer, addressee, audience

E ENDS Purposes, goals and outcomes

A ACT OF SEQUENCE Message form and content

K KEY Manner of speaking, tone (serious, tentative…)

I INSTRUMENTALITIES Spoken or written, use of dialects, register

N NORMS OF INTERACTION Turn -taking, interpretation (local conventions of understanding

G GENRE Casual speech, accademic essay, etc.

Different Englishes

Czenglish Deutschglish/Gerlish

Italglish/Italish

Frenglish/Franglais

glish / lish / ese

´Si vous êtes un first-time reader de Franglais, welcome! Franglais est comparativement painless et ne donne pas un hangover. En quantités judicieuses, il est mindblowing. Ayez fun.´

Non-native Englishes

Individuals

GroupsInstitutes, etc.

Johnsonese

Academese, bureaucratese

Brooklenese

Different Englishes

Unglish/UNese EUglish Natoglish Pentagonese/

MoDese

Institutionalized

De-conflict

“We don’t have time to talk about this crap – we’ve got a tight, intense battle rhythm and we’ve got to get through these slides if we want to stay on track.”

“Uh, sir, we’re not sure which of these is the latest version – we’ll de-conflict and have this fixed for the next meeting.”

Battle rhythm

Seaspeak Airspeak Natospeak

Seaspeak Examples

This is HMS ‘Dartmouth’

Seaspeak (English for Maritime Communications) is the English of merchant shipping, a restricted language adopted in 1988 by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) of the United Nations.

Airspeak Examples

Air Traffic Controller:

Pilot: "BA six zero six Alfa: squawk ident."

"Identing, BA six zero six Alfa."

(In the above: squawk means "reveal", ident means "identify," and identing means "identifying.")

Airspeak (Air Traffic Control English, Aviation English) is the English of international civil aviation, a restricted language established after the Second World War by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) of the United Nations.

NatospeakNATO - MILITARY

ARMY NAVY AIR FORCE

Special Forces

NCO´s Officers Generals

Seaspeak

Airspeak

Natospeak ESP ?

Plus other speaks ?

OR =

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is the English language taught for professional, vocational, and other specific purposes. ESP addresses learners with a common reason for learning, such as the English of air traffic control or Operational Mentor and Liaison Team (OMLT).

Misson Area

India, South Africa, East Africa …

C U L T U R E

Canada

New

Zealand

USA

Pronunciation, Dialects, Intonation, Speed of Speech, Vocabulary, Grammar, Spelling,Australia

Great Britain

30 Different Non Native English

Speakers

IMPACT

Ireland

Different CulturesAnd when people are entering upon a war they do things the wrong way around. Action comes first, and it is only when they have already suffered that they begin to think.

Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War

Culture and its Characteristics

• Culture is a system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another.

• Culture is learned, though a process called enculturation.

• Culture is shared by members of a society; there is no “culture of one.”

• Culture is patterned, meaning that people in a society live and think in ways that form definite, repeating patterns.

• Culture is changeable, meaning it is constantly changing through social interactions between people and groups.

• Culture is arbitrary, meaning that Soldiers and Marines should make no assumptions regarding what a society considers right and wrong, good and bad. • Culture is internalized, in the sense that is habitual, taken-for-granted, and perceived as “natural” by people within the society.

James Cook

Cultural Misunderstanding ?

Kipling’s StrangerThe Stranger within my gate,

He may be true or kind,But he does not talk my talk—

I cannot feel his mind.I see the face and the eyes and the

mouth,But not the soul behind.

The men of my own stock,They may do ill or well,

But they tell the lies I am wonted to,They are used to the lies I tell;

And we do not need interpretersWhen we go to buy or sell.

CONCLUSIONS

• While there are obvious sensitivities involved, the attitude that this cannot be looked at because it is "political" or "cultural" is not helpful needs to be overcome

• Any nonchalant attitude to the consequences of failing to address training and education requirements will reduce and negate the roles of individual members within the Alliance

• PURPOSE OF STANAG 6001 NEED TO BE UNDERSTOOD PROPERLY (proficiency type of test not an achievement type of test, not a university type of exam, etc.) • STANAG 6001 DESCRIPTORS NEED TO BE RIGOROUSLY ENFORCED

• Culture should be incorporated into language training at all levels

• A lack of Cultural Awareness, Cultural Recognition & Independent Research into the nuances of operating in English will endanger coalition missions

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

Questions Are Welcomed

BIBLIOGRAPHY• Hymes 1968 – Linguistic problems in defining the concept of ´tribe´• McArthur – The Oxford Companion to the English Language• Hall, Smith, Wicaksono - Mapping Apllied Linguistics• Chaloupský, McKeating – Theories in Practice, Military Language and

Culture, Zlín • Chaloupský - A Sociolinguistic Interpretation of Military Slang and

Vernacular Expressions, Brno• Holmes – An Introduction to Sociolinguistics• http://www.jftc.nato.int/JFTC%20Magazine3/index.html• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan• http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/pentagonese-a-primer/• http://www.un.org/en/events/englishlanguageday/translators.shtml• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaspeak• http://punch.photoshelter.com/image/I0000a9.bKUAOPPQ• http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/australia/anzac-day• http://www.staff.amu.edu.pl/~inveling/pdf/liu_quingxue_inve9.pdf