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thelinguist.uberflip.com APRIL/MAY The Linguist 23 FEATURES expands on this theme: 'I choose a language depending on the audience I am trying to reach. If it is a public in Ivory Coast I will use French but if it is my European friends I tend to use English.' So, French has become a language for African connections, while with French friends in the UK he adopts English. He continues, 'I have a company that wants to build social housing in Ivory Coast and I am promoting the project. In this case I will use French because the market I am to sell the ideas to is in Ivory Coast.' When considering the languages used by his friends, he comments, 'When an African is the author of the post, he/she tends to use the language that translates culturally how they feel and sometimes European languages are short in creativity. Africans use a lot of metaphors.' Interestingly, the way in which Facebook is used is changing. Among young people, it is increasingly a communication tool for their workplace, as opposed to a personal space. When asked whether their primary content was 'humour', 'personal', 'cultural', 'political' or 'work-related', 16% of respondents selected 'work-related'. Humour came in at first place with 27%, while, perhaps surprisingly, personal content was last – the first choice of only 13% of respondents. Cultural and political content tied at 22% each. Translating posts When asked whether they ever translate posts on their home page, more than a third (38 people) responded positively, and went on to explain when and why. Inclusion was important: 'When I want my international friends to understand my post.' Then there is the need to maximise the audience: 'If it's a "public announcement/question" (like a recommendation or looking for a flat) for which I want to get more people to read/ respond.' A different script can create an additional barrier that is resolved by translation: 'If my English friends are curious about those "mystic" words in Slavic letters… Or if my parents ask me what something is (they don't speak English).' There was one work-related response where Facebook provided an extension to the language classroom: 'I teach Greek to Turkish language speakers, so I use both languages when I post sth [something] at the Facebook group of my beginners' class.' Finally, language activists are operating across national frontiers, promoting minority European languages in their discussion of common interests: 'From Basque into Welsh or English and vice versa because of common interests in cultural and political matters. Lately a lot more from Catalan to any of the above-mentioned or vice versa, due to recent developments in the area.' Some users change the language of the settings, giving diverse reasons for this decision. One language teacher was keen to familiarise herself with the vocabulary of social media in German and French, while an English-born speaker of Cantonese in the youngest age category changed her settings to German when her boyfriend switched his to French: 'Haha, so that I can kid myself that going on Facebook is "educational"… I guess it's nice to read a bit of German every now and again since I went to the trouble of getting an A-level in it!' Translanguaging However, perhaps the most surprising outcome of this small-scale study is the extent to which these Facebook users opt to 'translanguage' within a status post – i.e, to mix up two or more languages – 56% of the female respondents and 39% of males. As far as age was concerned, my assumption was that young people might be more likely to post messages in a mix of languages, due to the strict separation of languages in classrooms of the past. When we compare those aged 20-29 with those aged 30-39, this is indeed borne out, with 59% of the younger age group mixing languages and only 39% of the older group. However, the 50-59 demographic (albeit based on only nine respondents, compared to more than 30 in the other two age groups) strongly contradicts this trend, with 78% replying positively. This short conversation about freshly- baked flatbread illustrates the phenomenon (formerly known as 'code-switching'): My tasty Matlouh ( Algerian bread) mmmmm Mon Bon Matlouh! Je vais me regaler Bon Appetit! Looks yummy! Saha ftorek Mehlabak alyk Viens a la maison ! Je me suis bien gave le ventre Bsahtèk fréro... it's delicious! !!! Tu devrais ouvrir un resto. Je ne connais pas beaucoup d'hommes sachant faire du khobz… Chapeau l'artiste. In the spirit of inclusion, the male baker, who is an education professional, has helpfully explained the Arabic name for this bread in English. This is not just a multilingual exchange, it is also richly multicultural. In an Plurilinguals can redefine themselves, creating multi- identities for a range of different audiences English 213,217,080 Spanish 61,209,600 French 23,504,300 Turkish 21,911,000 Indonesian 20,481,260 Italian 16,222,700 German 11,265,320 Chinese 9,645,140 Portuguese 6,119,680 Arabic 3,457,160 2010 figures Facebook's Top 10 languages IMAGES: © SHUTTERSTOCK