During my fieldwork in Tehran in July and August 2015 to investigate the characteristics of the new middle classes through the lens of specialty coffee consumption, I have faced a lot of codes that consumers were constantly employing in order to symbolically communicate with each other. It was really interesting to observe and talk to them and to try to understand and decode their applied symbolism. It provided a window through which a range of relationships and social transformations could be perceived. For instance, their in-group conversations about houses, furniture, paintings, hobbies, traveling, books, as well as their choices of coffee, cigarettes, perfume, clothes, sports, and entertainments have been a mechanism to manifest their distinction, class hierarchy, and subcultural capital.
Practicing English, German and French in Coffee Houses
Probably one the most fascinating means of distinction which I found was the practice of foreign languages within coffeehouses. I have seen young Tehranians having conversations in English, German, or French. Even more surprisingly, I was told that they, while sipping their coffees, sometimes write down some pieces of their own poetry and/or thoughts in those languages to practice their linguistic competences. Obviously, coffee consumers as identity seekers/makers, and interpretive agents with meaning-creating activities, use foreign languages as a cultural symbol to creatively reflect their authentic, ‘cool’ self and to embody their cultivated/learned cultural capital.
I have also noticed that the frequency of conversations in English was way more than in German or in French. Astonishingly, those who could speak German or French described themselves as having more skills or competencies than English-speaking people frequenting coffeehouses. For them, German or French is way more difficult than English and therefore require more efforts to master it. Here, again, a foreign language reflects aspects of hierarchical and competitive social classification systems, which turn consumption into social markers. In this sense, the Tehranian new middle classes which because of their high cultural and economic resources have the ability and are willing to spend time and money, consume different languages as a symbolic vocabulary, a form of communication, to hierarchically differentiate themselves. Put differently, widely used by other social classes, the English language seems to be losing its ‘distinction’ power; therefore, a need for new languages has been generated. It should not be forgotten though that there are associations between the choice of language and the social structure and distribution of economic resources. Those able to speak other languages besides English embody their linguistic capabilities as a distinct form of subcultural capital through which they not only display their taste an identity but also socio-culturally distance themselves from the less affluent.
Cosmopolitan Consumption
Last but not least, an interesting point on the consumption of foreign languages within coffeehouses is the commodification of cosmopolitanism. Here, cosmopolitanism, as a slight sense of orientation and openness towards foreign others and cultures, becomes a commodity by language institutions. In return, a language as a cultural commodity is being consumed by a class through its purchasing power. These upper-middle classes practice cosmopolitan consumption to identify themselves as cosmopolitan. Having a globalized mind, however, they remain rooted in their local urban environments, where they belong to dense networks of friends and family, and manifest a glocalised culture.
An example of a coffee society in Tehran (Photo: Reza Shaker Ardekani)
Consumption as the real Language
Overall, what has fascinated me more is that although these young Tehranians are trying to differentiate themselves through speaking different languages, in nature, they are still using one single but simple language: consumption. Their identities and lifestyles are highly influenced by consumption, from the kind of clothes they wear, the food they eat, the coffee they drink, the language they speak, to where they live and what they buy. They are just constantly using grammars and vocabularies of the new middle class lifestyles. It is not about the consumption of language but the language of consumption.
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