SPEAKING YOUR LANGUAGE ON THE INTERNET

Some days ago I was surfing on the Internet and, I can't remember if it was on Facebook or on Youtube, but I saw a comment that made me kind of upset. Well, it wasn't just a comment, actually some people were having an argument through the comments.

The first intervention was from a girl, comenting something about the video or the post. You could see that the girl was catalan because of her name and surnames, but she commented in Spanish because it was Spanish content. Then, there was a reply to that comment from a boy, asking the girl if she was catalan. The girl replied and said yes, and they started a conversation through the comments in Catalan.

Then, another guy replied to those comments calling them rude for speaking Catalan in a comment section in which everyone speaks Spanish. After this, some people joined the “conversation”, some of them in favour of that guy and some of them against him. The guy defended himself saying that it was a lack of respect to start speaking Catalan in the middle of a conversation in Spanish,- when actually a conversation in Spanish hadn't even started, because the catalan boy relplied to the first comment in Catalan, and the conversation started in Catalan- but anyways, what upset me the most weren't those things, it was a comment from a girl who joined the conversation which said something like this: “They think they are cool by speaking Catalan on the comments. But one thing is true: you are never going to see any comment in Basque or Galician. I also think this is a lack of respect, but hey, they are Catalan people. Don't ask for more.”

That comment made me angry because, firstly, I have sometimes seen comments in Basque or Galician in Spanish-speaking sites, and it doesn't bother me at all. But apart from that, the worst thing, is the way the girl talked about us, the Catalan people, as people who are rude or impolite by definition. And well, I don't think I need to give reasons against that, because I think it is too obvious that it isn't true. There is people impolite all around the world, even if they speak Catalan, Spanish or Russian. And the same happens with polite people.

All this comments thing made me remember about one time that me and a friend, were called impolite by a random guy, just because we talked with each other in Catalan on a Facebook's comment section.

About this, I think some people are just so grumpy about this kind of things. I mean, you're on the Internet where people from all around the world and who speak a ton of different languages is connected; there something called freedom of expression, which we all have; and the people who are talking in another language are not even talking to you. So just let it go. Let them talk with who they want to talk using the language they want to use.

I could accept if that people felt upset if someone talked to them in a language they don't understand, but if it doesn't concern you, why should you be that grumpy and take some of your time writing a comment to call them rude? As the saying says, “Some men just want to see the world burn”. And actually, in my opinion, the roles are backwards, the rude ones are them by insulting for no reason someone who is just having a conversation using his or her language.