Foreign language and our dignity

Last weekend, Galatasaray defeated Fenerbahçe, and on their own home turf at that, with a clear score. I believe I have mentioned this before. I am a die-hard Fenerbahçe fan, and a good part of my childhood was spent in that stadium. However, there was another reason that compounded my sadness over this latest defeat.   

I was stunned. English slogans, most of them in large print, were hung in the stands. The one that annoyed me the most was the slogan "ATTACK". What kind of mindset, affectation, globalization madness, or, to put it bluntly, ridiculous inferiority complex was making us do this? Come on, the opposing team wasn't Manchester United that we would need such a banner.                                                                                                                                 Years ago, I was invited to give a scientific talk at the Bakırköy Mental Hospital, and while touring this famous hospital before the talk, I observed something with astonishment. On the doors of some buildings, there were signs that were clearly newly installed, or in the garden, there were descriptive directional arrows pointing to the same buildings. On them, there were Turkish and English words explaining the functions of the buildings, such as library, cafeteria, etc. I asked the chief physician, "I suppose the number of foreigners admitted here has increased quite a bit lately, so you needed these signs with English translations?" The late doctor got angry and gave me a stern look.

This obsession with foreign languages that I am touching upon is a rather serious fixation of ours. For years, we have been saying "Renaissance and Reformation." This is incorrect. The correct order is "Reformation and Renaissance." Throughout the Middle Ages, humanity struggled with a religious clergy clustered in the Papacy that wanted to keep them under their thumb with Latin, which the majority did not understand. In the 14th century, movements for worship in the mother tongue began to gain strength first in England and later in the kingdoms of northern Italy. The Divine Comedy, which Dante wrote in Italian and which describes the ways in which the religious clergy deceived humanity, was followed in the 16th century by the famous manifesto of the German priest Martin Luther. The Renaissance began with the fruition of centuries-long efforts for worship in the mother tongue, followed by the Enlightenment. In short, human beings first understand, learn, and think in their mother tongue.  

I hope you do not infer from all that I have said that I am an enemy of foreign languages. Knowing a foreign language is naturally very useful. However, it is definitely not an end, but only and solely a means. And this means is primarily for understanding and gaining knowledge. On the other hand, the development of our thinking abilities begins in childhood. This is where the essential importance of the mother tongue lies. Besides this, there is data showing that those who know their mother tongue well also learn foreign languages more easily. Another function of the mother tongue is to enable us to communicate more easily with our environment from childhood. And finally, a function of the mother tongue that is not often mentioned is to keep our sense of dignity high. It is known that societies that can keep their dignity high also have increased self-confidence and can be more productive in every field. 

I never forget. It was the early days when I was trying to write scientific papers. My professor had taken me aside and insistently explained to me that I should avoid using Latin words in my writing as much as possible. "As is often and incorrectly done, saying 'supra' instead of 'above' and 'infra' instead of 'below' does not make your writing more scientific, as is often thought. Do not try to pull the wool over people's eyes with Latin. The Enlightenment is, in a way, the defeat of Latin." I just learned something new. It turns out that the famous positivist thinker F. Bacon used to say about the English universities of the 17th century that could not get rid of scholasticism: "They study words, not facts."   

English is the Latin of our day. I can give many examples from the field of medicine. We are so eager to imitate here that even while talking, we can describe changing a patient's medication and starting another, while making a switching gesture with our hands, by saying, "We switched the patient's medication." Our scientific publications are also invariably full of similar plagiarisms. On the other hand, instead of using the Turkish word for conditions, we consider it a skill to twist our mouths and say "conjuncture," while at the same time, in the place where we should be most honest with ourselves, that is, when praying to God, we struggle to say things by straining our throats with Arabic-sounding gutturals. All of these are perhaps the inevitable indicators of us being a society that has not undergone a Reformation and Renaissance, has missed the Enlightenment, and has tried to squeeze this entire historical process into 100-150 years with the Republic.  

I know there will be those among you who will get angry at me, saying, "You've blown this out of proportion; what do a few English slogans at a football match have to do with the Reformation and Renaissance?" Let me answer briefly. I stated at the beginning that the mother tongue is closely related to dignity. Watching the foreign football players who make up the majority of the Fenerbahçe team chew gum in the Fenerbahçe stadium during our National Anthem, and watching the spectators recklessly unfurl English banners, wounded my dignity.