This is not a post about language learning. I'm not well... and I'm angry. I started writing this blog post on March 2020, at the beginning of the quarantine, because I knew it would be a problem in this community. Of course I was too overwhelmed to ever finish it. But given this subject keeps popping back up, I decided to give it another shot.
The most recent ressurgence of this discussion was when Steve Kaufman, founder of a language learning app, called students of "pampered" and saying they should be studying languages like he does instead. It's important to note the article he quoted was not about students who are bursting quarantine and partying, it was about people struggling with life, failing to cope with the current state of affairs and falling into bad habits like less exercising, eating less and increased alcohol intake. All signs of poor mental health.
It may sound hypocritical of me, as I am still learning languages and I also make a language learning app. But there's myriad of things that I'm struggling with right now which is not necessarily visible through social media. There are many people, language learners included, struggling with life at the moment, so naturally a lot of us got enraged. This is not the first time someone tries to convey this sort of message before. I caught the same sort of predatory discourse all over the internet, some even looked like specifically sponsored by other language companies. I find it disgusting.
The message is clear, in the eyes of some folks, quarantine is an OPPORTUNITY to be more productive, to carry on self-improvement, to learn a new skill, to upgrade your skills, a lucky chance to do something useful with all that time you have left now. So, first, to them I say fuck you, secondly, what time?? Oh, do they mean the time that I am spending doomscrolling and freaking out, the time I can't rest my head on the pillow, the time I was job hunting and interviewing, the time I am staring at the window and crying, or the time I'm doing more house chores because we are inside and cooking at home 100% of the time? These are not normal times, these are not business-as-usual times, and please for the love of God let's stop pretending that business-as-usual was even ever healthy to begin with unless you come from some extremely privileged situation.
I work in the tech field where business-as-usual is hustle porn. It's a pervasive awful mindset in the industry (and in many other industries) where all of your free time must be engaged in some career-improvement or other money-making activity, otherwise it is a time wasted. There's a constant demand to be 100% productive, something that is not possible for any prolongued period of time, and people are always burning out. In my last two jobs in tech, all I had energy for was working and resting from work so I could work again. The industry preys on young people with lots of disposable energy and few family responsibilities, and then discards them when they are old enough and not enough "passionate about their job". This is not sustainable or noble in any way. Being passionate about your job is the biggest bullshit ever. The other subproduct of this is that tech excludes people with disabilities, people with more caring responsibilities, and people with more interests or worries in life than just work. I firmly believe that this is a huge point hindering society because it leaves people too tired and ill for civic engagement.
Repeat with me: the time you are not producing anything is not a time wasted.
Where does the idea that work is so noble come from anyway? I wrote a little bit about this topic on my personal blog, where I describe work as a fascist tool of control, but I would like to expand a little bit more on this topic today.