Post 156: Marked and Unmarked Cultures: Which culture has more prestige over the other?

Part 156: The Effect of Marked and Unmarked Cultures  (Culture Prestige) on Culture Identity

The  terms marked and unmarked culture distinguish the different degrees of status assigned to a particular cultural group. In the context of bilingual education, Fishman, a linguist (1976) defined a marked language as one which would most likely not be used instructionally were not it be for bilingual education.  In other words, marked languages are the ones associated with less social status and political power. In the United States, the unmarked language is Standard American English. (Ovando, 176)

In the US, then, the marked languages are those languages other than English like Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Hmong, etc..If you are a native speaker of these languages when you come to school, you are expected to drop these languages while you are at school in an English only curriculum. The purpose of bilingual education is to allow language minority students to experience learning their native languages without the stigma of it being a marked language.

Taking the concepts further, unmarked culture, that is the dominant culture in the U.S. is white, middle class, nonethnic English speaking group.  "It is unmarked in the sense that it reflects the mystical generalization of the way the 'typical' American is supposed to be" That is according to this view, whiteness, while holding a privileged normative position in society. (Ovando, 176)

To be considered normal, you need to be European American. All norms such as intelligence, academic achievement, how much somebody makes are all measured against how much white people make or achieve. In statistics, you often hear, 'Asian Americans are achieving better than white people by 50%" while ethnic group X is achieving less than white people. The normative measurement or the concept of being a 'normal' American is that of being a white European American.

Many language minority students prefer speaking English over their own language because they view their own language as being stigmatized. Many Asian Americans become ashamed of speaking their L1 and prefer to speak L2 in public. You even have some Asian Americans ashamed of their own parents' inability to fully assimilate to American culture because of their Asian accents, Asian ways of behavior, Asian ways of dress and Asian food.  In order to gain more status or look 'American', language minority students start losing their L1 in favor of the L2 and when they are in front of English speaking Americans like at work or at school, they prefer to speak English because some are ashamed of their L1 heritage.

For many Asian Americans, especially in this COVID19 crisis where Asian Americans are now associated with dirt, filth and disease, some are even ashamed to be Asian. I read an article that for the first time in his life, Andrew Yang, who tried to run for US President, announced, "Because of COVID19, I am ashamed of being Asian." I think it is a shame that people of other cultures are being made to feel small no matter who they are. I think educators need to start early to instill a sense of pride in one's heritage and maintaining one's heritage and language does not make him any less American.