ILoveGay.NET

Many groups have developed their own language, at least words and expressions. But what about the rainbow and language?

It is known that a specific language develops within certain groups: a GenZ member will use different words than a senior fellow countryman, and someone with a migration background uses words that are sometimes ‘quite different’ from that of a farmer from Wisconsin. The LGBT community also has a vocabulary that is not always understandable to outsiders. Not to mention those personal pronouns: confused about that? Don’t be ashamed, it is also quite a challenge for the community itself. See also my article from last week: Playing with pronouns.

Sometimes you are not allowed to simply use the words of an ‘other group’: for example, it is strictly forbidden to use the N-word if you are not Black yourself (while in series such as Insecure, First Wives Club and Power the average is 50 per episode – also when addressing white ‘mates’, by the way, but not the other way around). You can’t just call a gay person ‘girl’ if you are not LGBT yourself. In fact, I think you are only allowed to do that as a ‘G’. Language and use of language: very important in marketing. And I took a quick look at two major language course providers, both of which do Marketing the Rainbow ‘casually’, and a few smaller ones.

Babbel

Babbel is Germany subscription-based e-learning platform for language learning, available since January 2008. They have matter-of-factly featured LGBT people a few times in their advertisements.

In 2017 this was in The Scandinavian Challenge: “We challenged six people to learn Danish, Swedish or Norwegian in just seven days – only with the Babbel app. Will they be able to do it? Watch and find out!” One of the duos turns out to be a gay couple.

The same thing happened the following year, in Babbel Dates London. And in 2021 we saw ‘Into Languages’, a clip featuring an effeminate poodle lover (who can be of any denomination). “A man starts learning French and doesn’t realize how much he would like it. Soon he starts speaking the language to three poodles.” There is also a male dance duo. “With live online Spanish classes, Zeek started taking flamenco dance lessons.” With a man, that is.

Also interesting is Babbel’s use of same-sex marriage in Russian: in that language there is another word for marrying a man (выйти замуж: ‘exiting with a man’) or marrying a woman (жениться: ‘becoming a wife’) ‘). They applied these words to same-sex couples: unfortunately, far from realistic in Russia.

The great thing about these ‘appearances’ is that they are casual. It was not created for Pride – neither that month nor the event – but clearly expresses the openness and diversity that this provider apparently embraces. Babbel: “Rather than offering a specific selection of lessons on LGBT topics, our learning content integrates same-sex couples and diverse gender and sexual identities into all our courses in a natural, matter-of-fact way.” Bonus points!

Duolingo

Duolingo is an American app that allows users to learn languages for free mainly through self-study. The website was created in 2011 and was initially intended to translate texts through crowdsourcing. It was designed so that as users progressed through the lessons, they helped translate websites and other documents. It has a strong ‘gamification’ element.

If you use English as a basic language, you can learn about 40 languages. The freemium model is used by 500 million people, while almost 5 million students use the ad-free paid version Super Duolingo. In 2013, Apple named Duolingo iPhone App of the Year, the first time this honor was awarded to an educational application.

My husband recently started learning Spanish through this app, and because I already speak it, I chose Italian – and we immediately took a family package (to which you can also add 3 random friends). I came across a number of situations in the course that ‘simply’ indicate LGBT-friendliness.

It turned out that ‘he’ has an American husband (with a ‘!’ after it), Mario and Arturo have a daughter together who lives in Australia (but – surprise – Arturo’s birthday is suddenly around the corner) and that Amanda has a difficult wife, Pina, whom she loves and tells her so.

Duolingo themselves said in 2021: “We firmly believes in diversity and representation. This made it a good idea to have all types of characters of different ages and, to include ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientations. We introduced three queer characters: Lin, Bea and Oscar. Lin is attracted to women, Bea dates both men and women, and Oscar is attracted to men (though he is as picky about men as he is about his cheeses and pretty much everything else).” They also post extensively on social media, with successful puns such as “why do I have to work 8 hours straight instead of 8 hours gay?”

And then there was that cool leatherman with his pink shirt.

Duolingo also agrees with me on the casualness: “Allowing an LGBT character to exist without specifically drawing attention to that identity is something we think should be a best practice in storytelling. To normalize something, you simply present it as normal, which means you don’t draw attention to it when portraying it.” This fits exactly into the ‘customer journey’ that I have defined: Representation -> visibility -> normalization -> tolerance -> acceptance -> respect.

Fun fact: In 2019, Saturday Night Live parodied Duolingo in a skit in which adults learn to communicate with children using a fictional course on the app titled “Duolingo for Talking to Children.”

The others

Then there is Rosetta Stone, which occasionally posts something on social media and sometimes covers its logo in a rainbow.

Preply goes a little further and says: “Our language plays a major role in inclusivity. Here are some LGBT+ terms you need to know 📖🌈” and “Gender-inclusive languages: a (linguistic) journey around the world through gender-inclusive languages: learn the basics for non-sexist and inclusive communication.”

Lingoda explains the importance of Pride Month. It adds: “Every Pride Month, conversations at Lingoda revolve around one word: community. As an organization dedicated to language learning, the power of connection is clear to us. It’s even in our mission statement: We believe that learning languages can build bridges between different cultures and communities, foster a world of inclusion and be a first step in addressing humanity’s challenges.”

They also introduced more gender-inclusive and balanced language into their learning materials, citing as an example the “generic masculine form” in Spanish:

• “Todos” (everyone; male) – in Spanish, the masculine form traditionally replaced the need to refer to female people, even if the group consists of 99 women and one man
• They changed this into “todos y todas” (if the group consists of men and women) – more inclusive

Coursera’s LGBT group Queersera offers free courses specifically designed to help allies understand and support LGBT+ students, patients, and the broader transgender community.

Finally, there are platforms such as My Gay Spanish: “A podcast that helps you learn Spanish like it’s last call at the gay bar.”

Speak to you soon, in 40 languages!

Alfred Verhoeven is a marketer and is in the final phase of his PhD research Marketing the Rainbow. He previously wrote for ILOVEGAY about Playing with Pronouns, Abercrombie & Fitch : The Rise & The Fall, Play the gayme: about SIMS and Candy Crush, Diversity in Toys, LEGO does the rainbow, Barbiemania, Bud Light and the 4 bln dollar woman, Dutch retailer HEMA loves everybody, Pronouns, About those rainbows, Alphabet soup, M&M’s and the lesbian invasion, Magnum and the lesbian wedding,  Marketing the Rainbow: the process and all that came before it, Sport and (un)sportmanship,  Why you need a supplier diversity program, BeNeLux LGBTIQ+ Business Chamber (BGLBC), From B2C and B2B to B2G and G2G (oh, and G2C), The Men from Atlantis, The other kind of cruising, Booking.com, Home Deco, Haters and trolls: the ‘letter to the editor’ of the 21st century, 5 Bizarre LGBT Videos, TRANSparency, Transgender persons as a target group, Matchmaking, 5 videos that went viral, From Representation To Respect, Cultural sensitivities and social involvement in marketing, 4 reasons to practice diversity and The Rules of Market Segmentation.