Languages

Tonight was eventful. I think that is the best way to describe it.

Guest Speaker:
I loved what Joyce shared with us. I think the best way to learn a new language is through immersion. I think it is great how many words we learned in a short time. It would be interesting to see how many we remember now. I know Vinny was walking through the hall and asking me questions in Mandarin and I hard a hard time remembering (and that was only a couple hours later). I found out some interesting details from her presentation as well. When I taught at DSU I always wondered why my students sounded so excited (almost like they were yelling at each other) when they spoke in their native language. Now understanding the different tones in Mandarin, I finally understand. The tone of their voice wasn't necessarily their emotion like I had always thought. I also enjoyed Joyce saying that just because they are speaking another language does not mean they are talking about you. In my previous classes this was always a concern that was brought up. I think everyone always thought that the other students were talking about them because they were talking in their native tongue. However, I want you to consider this scenario: You are with 2 friends and you are studying abroad for one year in Japan. When you are with those other two people, would you speak Japanese or English?

Movie:
I like this movie because it shows a wide variety of what languages (spoken and unspoken) are available in the world. For instance, we learned about the head roll which means yes in India. In the US it means maybe. The Aborigines in Australia don't speak for months after a tribes man dues because it is their way of mourning. We use gestures instead of speech and to accompany speech. We use facial expressions like the evil eye. The movie even talked about tattoos. This is a conversation that is always interesting to me. Do you think tattoos say something about the people who have them? The clown in the hospital were using a natural remedy to help reduce pain. There are many gestures that we use. However, I think we need to remember that gestures are not universal. They have different meanings depending on where you go. Bit of information for you: The football huddle was created by deaf individuals so that the other team could not see what plays they were going to make. Now, every football team has a huddle!

Articles and Discussion:

Bishop article:
The statistics in the Bishop article were interesting. I didn't realize that many people were immigrants. However, there are language barriers that were cross. Do we make these immigrants learn a particular language? Is it safe for them to not know the language? Can not having a clear understanding of the language hinder the worker? Should we make language classes mandatory? Why or why not? Do you think this would compromise other cultures?

Languishing Languages article:
What makes languages disappear? How can we preserve languages? The article stated that by the end of the centuryy half of the 6700 languages will be gone and 90% will be in the terminal stages. No one under 50 speaks the Cheyenne language. 473 languages are classified as nearly extinct which means that only a few elderly speakers that are alive know the language and children are not learning the language. Aborigines languages are lost due to forced assimilation (back to the boarding schools for Native Americans that we talked about last week). Loss of language means loss of identity. Without language, culture and history who are we?

This is where the conversation got a little heated. We must know where we came from before we can truly understand who we are. This is why one of your first assignments was to interview a member of your family and dig into the past. We can not expect that everyone just follow the crowd. I am going to make a bold comparison here which might make some of you angry. Expecting everyone to follow the crowd and  conform takes us back to WWII. Hitler wanted the Aryan race. He did whatever was necessary to achieve the perfect race. Are we heading back there if we expect everyone else to conform? Are we going back to the time of the Boarding Schools for Native Americans and taking away their language again? Are we putting the Japanese in internment camps? Are you telling me this has no part in who our society has become?

You MUST know your history before you can make advancements. We have to understand that we need a foundation. Yes, the foundation is constantly changing, but that doesn't mean that we don't need a foundation!! We all have a culture. Even if we came from the slums and didn't have a blood-family, we still have a culture. Have you heard of Colin Powell? Have you heard of Bill Clinton? Have you heard of Barack Obama? They all had tough childhoods. They still had a culture. I would also argue that their culture helped form who they are today. They decided to make something of themselves. Yes, it does matter who lived and died for our country. It does matter--please revisit the conversation that Loren Yellowbird had with you last week. The burial ground for Native Americans is just as sacred as Arlington National Cemetery or even our North Dakota Veteran Cemetery. This comes back to our values. We value what we value because of our culture! All of our values, beliefs, morals, ideals, etc. come from our culture. I am not saying we follow the same things our parents taught us but we shape who we are from what we are taught (culture included).

King article:
Should we have an official language for the United States of America? Why or why not? What do you think of Former Presidents Franklin and Roosevelt's ideas? Language is always a problem. India has 19 official languages in its constitution, Switzerland has 4. Most of the immigrants in the US won't see their native language survive into the second generation. I know that is why I learned German. I knew I would never use it for my career (only if I decide to travel to Germany one day) but it meant something to me culturally. It helped me understand who I am on a deeper level. It helped me understand my ancestors and learn about them. Yes, a different language may have been used more (like Spanish). However, German helped me figure out who I am! I wouldn't trade that for anything.

Okay, please discuss! You need to cover the bold questions in your blog!