Language at risk of dying out – the last two speakers aren't talking
I think its horrible when governments refuse to allow children to lean and speak their indigenous language. It's a form of forced acculturation that is unnecessary and cruel. The damage done is so far reaching both into the past and the future. It cuts people off from their heritage and their ancestors, and once gone a language is almost impossible to regain unless it has been written down. Thankfully Dr. Daniel Suslak is trying to save this language from diapering for ever.
Sometimes I think if everyone went about speaking "his" or "her" language, communication would go down the drain.
ReplyDeleteI'm not in favour of intentionally killing indigenous languages but then the question arises what are you trying to achieve by forcing people to speak in a language they themselves don't want to use?
A Tibetan wants to speaking in Chinese or Russian or English because he/she is no longer interested in the esoteric part of life. He/she wants to know about the modern world. It would be cruel for us to force that person to speak his/her traditional language only because he/she is the "other" and remain that way.
What do you think?
Hi There so sorry this has taken me almost a year to respond. I was drowning in thesis land.
ReplyDeleteI don't think people should be forces to choose just one language. Here I believe they are saying you must learn English and not your native language, when really they should be learning both.
It's great for a native speaker to want to learn to speak more broadly spoken languages. The problem arises when all they learn to speak is the broader language and their own language is left to die out.
There needs to be a happy medium.