A concern of mine for some time now has been deciding what language, specifically the terminology that I should be using for my project. What terms am I currently using? What is appropriate within a Tamil context? Is someone elderly, old, aged, older person, grey generation, over 60, over 70, old-old, young-old? What do all of these terms mean? What is there context? If I ask an informant to describe someone for me that is Old what is the response going to be? What about if I ask for them to describe someone over the age of 60 (determined year from the Indian government that someone is considered old), what if I ask them all the things that describe someone who is aging, who is a grandparent? I can’t for the life of me come up with one term that should be used. It gets even more confusing when I think of having that term translated from English to Tamil.
In the book No Aging in India, the author brought up the following point. “Most of the literature in English and Hindi on old age in contemporary India is organized around an imminent “problem of aging”… the language of gerontology is alarmist, almost apocalyptic.” (Cohen, pg. 89, 1989) This is something that I have noticed since I originally started looking up literature on Aging. Most of the articles and books start out with this negative approach. This is especially true about many of the introductions and the terms that gerontologist use. It is often brought to attention that an aging population is a problem. The terms that are used may be saying one thing, but mean another. I say I am studying the aged, but really what does that mean?
I do not want to add to the negative approach, language, and stereotype. I do not want to approach my research as a problem, because, I do not believe an aging population is an inherent problem. I think it is a unique population set that is growing worldwide. I am interested in how others perceive of the aging population and how they perceive of themselves. I am going to continue to research and think of ways to describe the individuals I am focusing on. This unfortunately will probably take me the entire time I am in the field and beyond to discover. In the mean time being aware of the language I am currently using will be a great place to start.
It is interesting how many different words we can use to describe different things, and yet how similar they can merge in our head, but not translate right. Good luck with that! I am sure you will figure something out.
ReplyDeleteI though that the negative stereotype "the problem of aging" is also an interesting thought. Is it just within this context that they use it, because I feel like aging is just what it is, and it is not inherently good or bad like you said. We all get old! Anyways, I like your take on it.