Hi. Welcome to the blog for my IB English B class at Jur Hronec High School in Bratislava, Slovakia. Below you will find links to other websites and discussion questions. My students are required to comment on one of these postings every month and also respond to each other's comments. Feel free to add your two bits, but be aware that all comments are monitored before being posted.
Would a job
like Karina Lester's appeal to you? How important is it to preserve minority
languages?What about dialects?How much is language connected to
geography?Is globalization and
migration destroying local languages?
I could imagine myself doing a job like Karina Lester’s. It’s active, she can travel, meet new people and preserve their culture. I think it’s important to travel and experience the cultures of the communities and tribes who’s languages they are studying. For example, when they were looking at the Arabana language, they met with the aborigines, talked with them, saw how they lived and experienced their whole culture. I think that you can only fully understand something once you experience it, which is exactly what Karina Lester is trying to do.
I think it’s important to preserve minority languages but they should be allowed to develop. They are part of our history and history should be preserved and remembered, but language is also a living thing which grows and develops with the way the people using it grow and develop. This is why I think it should be preserved, but shouldn’t be forced onto people. New terms, phrases and dialects will keep appearing and disappearing just like history, and they should be noted down and recorded so that they will be remembered, but also be allowed to come and go as is natural.
With increasing globalization and daily usage of the internet, people use English more than they used to in past. Communication between people is easier today as more and more people learn fluent English. Theoretically, the most convenient way would be if all the people speak the same language, so we would be able to talk with anyone no matter where we go. On the other hand, we would lose the diversity between different manners and habits of the cultures around different places in the world. There are about seven thousand languages spoken around the world, which creates not just differences in cultures but also in the ways people from different places think. I have seen a TED talk about how the language we speak changes our thinking. Considering that we spread our thoughts through language, it is clear that the way we say something affects the way other people might perceive it. In reality, if we all used the same language, we would shape only one way of thinking which could affect the creative and cognitive processes of humankind at all.
I must admit that I totally love this idea. As we don’t have such a problem as losing our native language in Slovakia yet, I have never thought about it in this way. Of course, we have different dialects, but I don’t think that they are as different as the Aboriginal languages and English language are. As I wrote in the previous paragraph, I completely agree with the idea of maintaining different languages. Of course, it is harder with these last generations of people that travel a lot and adopt elements of foreign cultures – including languages. The more important it is then, that we support the work of people like the Mobile Language Team.
I absolutely see eye to eye with you about the importance of preservation of different cultures. Indeed, in a way, the Mobile Language Team is not only preserving the concerned languages as such, but also inspiring to preserve the related cultures. If everyone spoke the same language and, based on that TED talk, consequently shaped their thinking the same, the world would really lose something spectacular. For example, notice how many people love to listen to different genres of music. What's interesting is that the variety of these genres is a result of the variety of different cultures, or some form of interaction between different cultures. It is the art and inventions, which surround us everywhere, that are the proof of this.
Language is a very important part of our life. We use it every day and it helps us connect with other people on a deeper level - to understand each other better. In my opinion, you can’t develop a true, meaningful relationship with a person if you don’t speak the same language. The misunderstandings or wrong interpretations of expressions can lead to redundant tension and that creates unsurpassable distance between humans. Pantomime is useful to some extent; however, words which you can understand are what make the connection. Globalization helps us with this better understanding since more and more people can speak the same language. Due to previous historical development the most widespread language is English and therefore it has been selected as the universal tool of communication. By 1920, the British Empire covered almost one fourth of the Earth’s total land area. Their colonization power has influenced many languages in different ways - some of them disappeared forever with oppressed nations or others were shaped by their vocabulary and pronunciation. Today, almost every language contains a few words taken from English. Even though this connection through the same language is an advantage in the world’s overall progression, the maintenance of our native language or dialect should be important as well since it reminds us who we are and where we come from. It’s our heritage after our ancestors and we should be proud of this part of our identity. That’s what makes us unique and special even if we see a useless language like Slovak as a burden. I’m not claiming that we should stick to euphonious words which our great-great grandmothers used in the past millennium and not try to adapt to the new world. As @Barbora said, language is a living thing which grows and develops and we shouldn’t try to keep the old words and archaic phrases in our vocabulary unnaturally. However, we should appreciate it and try to pass it on further to other children. I know a girl who lives in Canada and her parents are from Slovakia. She is 14 years old and she can already fluently speak English, French, Spanish and Slovak since her parents don’t want to neglect this part of her life. She has no English or French accent when she speaks Slovak and no one would say she has been in Slovakia just a few times. I really admire her parents how they could keep the national feeling for Slovakia and continue traditions even miles away from their motherland. I think this is a nice example of how we should nurture our descendants in the future.
I could imagine myself doing a job like Karina Lester’s. It’s active, she can travel, meet new people and preserve their culture. I think it’s important to travel and experience the cultures of the communities and tribes who’s languages they are studying. For example, when they were looking at the Arabana language, they met with the aborigines, talked with them, saw how they lived and experienced their whole culture. I think that you can only fully understand something once you experience it, which is exactly what Karina Lester is trying to do.
ReplyDeleteI think it’s important to preserve minority languages but they should be allowed to develop. They are part of our history and history should be preserved and remembered, but language is also a living thing which grows and develops with the way the people using it grow and develop. This is why I think it should be preserved, but shouldn’t be forced onto people. New terms, phrases and dialects will keep appearing and disappearing just like history, and they should be noted down and recorded so that they will be remembered, but also be allowed to come and go as is natural.
With increasing globalization and daily usage of the internet, people use English more than they used to in past. Communication between people is easier today as more and more people learn fluent English. Theoretically, the most convenient way would be if all the people speak the same language, so we would be able to talk with anyone no matter where we go. On the other hand, we would lose the diversity between different manners and habits of the cultures around different places in the world. There are about seven thousand languages spoken around the world, which creates not just differences in cultures but also in the ways people from different places think. I have seen a TED talk about how the language we speak changes our thinking. Considering that we spread our thoughts through language, it is clear that the way we say something affects the way other people might perceive it. In reality, if we all used the same language, we would shape only one way of thinking which could affect the creative and cognitive processes of humankind at all.
ReplyDeleteI must admit that I totally love this idea. As we don’t have such a problem as losing our native language in Slovakia yet, I have never thought about it in this way. Of course, we have different dialects, but I don’t think that they are as different as the Aboriginal languages and English language are. As I wrote in the previous paragraph, I completely agree with the idea of maintaining different languages. Of course, it is harder with these last generations of people that travel a lot and adopt elements of foreign cultures – including languages. The more important it is then, that we support the work of people like the Mobile Language Team.
Kornélia,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely see eye to eye with you about the importance of preservation of different cultures. Indeed, in a way, the Mobile Language Team is not only preserving the concerned languages as such, but also inspiring to preserve the related cultures. If everyone spoke the same language and, based on that TED talk, consequently shaped their thinking the same, the world would really lose something spectacular. For example, notice how many people love to listen to different genres of music. What's interesting is that the variety of these genres is a result of the variety of different cultures, or some form of interaction between different cultures. It is the art and inventions, which surround us everywhere, that are the proof of this.
Language is a very important part of our life. We use it every day and it helps us connect with other people on a deeper level - to understand each other better. In my opinion, you can’t develop a true, meaningful relationship with a person if you don’t speak the same language. The misunderstandings or wrong interpretations of expressions can lead to redundant tension and that creates unsurpassable distance between humans. Pantomime is useful to some extent; however, words which you can understand are what make the connection.
ReplyDeleteGlobalization helps us with this better understanding since more and more people can speak the same language. Due to previous historical development the most widespread language is English and therefore it has been selected as the universal tool of communication. By 1920, the British Empire covered almost one fourth of the Earth’s total land area. Their colonization power has influenced many languages in different ways - some of them disappeared forever with oppressed nations or others were shaped by their vocabulary and pronunciation. Today, almost every language contains a few words taken from English.
Even though this connection through the same language is an advantage in the world’s overall progression, the maintenance of our native language or dialect should be important as well since it reminds us who we are and where we come from. It’s our heritage after our ancestors and we should be proud of this part of our identity. That’s what makes us unique and special even if we see a useless language like Slovak as a burden. I’m not claiming that we should stick to euphonious words which our great-great grandmothers used in the past millennium and not try to adapt to the new world. As @Barbora said, language is a living thing which grows and develops and we shouldn’t try to keep the old words and archaic phrases in our vocabulary unnaturally. However, we should appreciate it and try to pass it on further to other children.
I know a girl who lives in Canada and her parents are from Slovakia. She is 14 years old and she can already fluently speak English, French, Spanish and Slovak since her parents don’t want to neglect this part of her life. She has no English or French accent when she speaks Slovak and no one would say she has been in Slovakia just a few times. I really admire her parents how they could keep the national feeling for Slovakia and continue traditions even miles away from their motherland. I think this is a nice example of how we should nurture our descendants in the future.