Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #TW1615
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“I would really like to speak a little more like a German”—weird way to refer to your way of speaking if you’re already German, isn’t it? Well, for the German-Turkish women aged 16-23 we interviewed in Berlin-Kreuzberg, it is, in fact, quite usual. ⬇️ #linguistweets #TW1615 
Speaking/sounding ‘German’ is an ethnic categorization constructed as desirable & socially valued, but also as non-belonging to the unmarked monoglossic people. Yet being classified in an imaginary homogenous group of people ‘with a migration background’ is also problematic. ⬇️
Because of their ethnicity, Turkish-German women get compliments about their German—an apparently positive stance othering them as the “good migrant student” (Bartlett 2007: 217). Refusing to perform this role does not prevent them from experiencing linguistic insecurity. ⬇️
