ELL: Cultural production

deekonda narsingarao deekonda_nr at REDIFFMAIL.COM
Fri Nov 23 15:54:44 UTC 2001


thank 'u'
deekonda

On Fri, 23 Nov 2001 Inge Genee wrote :
> This reminds me of the situation here in Canada. I have
> only been here for a
> few years, but from the beginning I have been enraged
> by the official policy
> of "MULTIculturalism" but "BIlingualism". How can you
> have MULTIculturalism
> without MULTIlingualism? I have asked this question
> many times and never
> received a satisfying answer. I have to understand that
> French was very
> threatened in the 70s etc., I have to see it in the
> political context of the
> day, Trudeaumania and more such stuff, all very nice
> but not very helpful in
> the situation in 2001. Canadians compare themselves
> first and foremost with
> Americans, and tend to be very happy with themselves
> because since they
> officially protect French they are a lot better than
> the Americans, or so
> they think. They feel so virtuous about not forcing the
> great American
> "melting pot" that they don't see that their French
> policies are in fact
> hurting other, much more endangered languages, which
> include First Nations
> languages but also other immigrant languages (other
> than French, that is).
> Or maybe they don't WANT to see it. A good example is
> the special meaning
> the word "bilingual" has here: it means only: English
> and French, as if
> there are no other languages than those two. I now do
> not use the term any
> more to refer to my own children, who speak English and
> Dutch (and learn
> French at school). Even a native speaker of Blackfoot
> is not designated with
> the term "bilingual" here. It drives me crazy!
> However, to come back to the point raised by Mauro
> (which has interesting
> parallels with the rise of sub- and international
> regions within the
> European Union), I do NOT think that the way to promote
> small languages is
> to fight the middle sized (or national) ones. That
> would be throwing away
> the baby with the bathwater. In the case of Canada, I
> am t
aved from what I
> understand was the
> brink of extinction 30 or 40 years ago (although the
> same cannot be said of
> some of the varieties of French spoken in other areas
> of the country,
> including on the northern prairies). The more variation
> the better. Instead,
> we need to work on the premise that a rising tide
> should raise all ships:
> more attention to one minority language should help
> increase interest for
> others. Canadian French, however, seems to help
> stifling attention for
> languages other than itself. Of course, they don't like
> having it pointed
> out to them that there are languages that are MUCH more
> endangered than
> their own. While they fight the "good fight" for
> monolingual French signage
> in Quebec they don't want to hear about what is
> happening to First Nations
> languages right in their own province, or in the rest
> of the country for
> that matter, or how more recent immigrant feel about
> not having the free
> choice to learn French or English.
> Nevertheless, fighting against Canadian French in my
> case, or against
> European French in the case of Breton, or against Dutch
> and German in the
> case of Frisian, or what have you, is not what we
> should be doing, in my
> opinion. We should try not to fight "against" other
> languages but "for" our
> own. Widespread bilingualism (in the non-Canadian
> meaning of the word) is
> the way to go.
> -Inge Genee
>
> "mauro.tosco at libero.it" wrote:
>
> > Dear ELLers,
> >
> > I agree, of course, with most Julia says about the
> inescapable link
> > between language and culture. Just one point:
> > in the case of Guernsey you have to fight against
> English influence,
> > and this makes everything much more difficult. But in
> most other cases,
> > minority languages are NOT fighting against the
> "juggernaut of global
> > culture": they are fighting against so-called
> "national languages".
> > Minority languages in France are being replaced by
iticians who want to fight the
> influence of English -
> > it's part of their job. But it is not in the direct
> interest of
> > minority-language speakers. One could even argue that
> the decline of
> > French and other national languages vis-a-vis English
> is actually
> > HELPING the minority languages: if French (Italian,
> Spanish, whatever)
> > is becoming more and more just kind of a "big
> dialect" in many contexts
> > (international trade, computer industry, etc.) the gap
> > between "national languages" and "local dialects" is
> narrowing. What I
> > have in mind here is a picture with three actors:
> English is pushing
> > DOWN national languges, and local languages can take
> advantage of this
> > by starting pushing UP their respective "national"
> languages, whose
> > space (role) therefore narrows.
> > Any comment?
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > mauro
> >
> > > Dear everyone
> > >
> > > I take Mauro's point, and I am ambivalent myself
> about the link betwee
> > n
> > > language and culture -
> >  I've spent a lot of my life trying to escape from
> > > some of the narrower strictures of traditional
> culture, but am still
> > > committed to the language. But given a choice
> between McDonald's and
> > > Guernsey culture, I know which one I would choose!
> The juggernaut of
> > > "global" (plastic and unsustainable) "culture" is
> itself part of the
> > > problem, and it's not only minority language
> speakers who object to it
> >  (and
> > > not all of them do object anyway, which is one
> reason for language shi
> > ft).
> > > I'll take modern comforts such as indoor bathrooms
> but not the plastic
> >  food
> > > thanks. But this may be rather hypocritical given
> the reliance on
> > > international banking in Guernsey's economy (yes,
> we are trying to get
> > > sponsorship from them).
> > >
> > > Diversity in language, culture, politics, religion,
> etc. is a good thi
> > ng to
> > > uphold. On the one hand, people have
brate traditional
> > > culture - but on the other hand, I agree that
> minority languages need
> > > modernising and to lose the image (often forced on
> them by outsiders)
> > of
> > > being 'only for peasants' and looking backwards at
> the 'good old days'
> >  (so
> > > good that people shifted language to escape from
> them).
> > >
> > > The advantages of diversity (including
> multilingualism) need to be
> > > promoted -
> >  a lot of people abandoned the old language because
> they thought
> > > that it would hold back their children in education
> (which was/is in E
> > nglish
> > > of course). The concept of 'new culture in old
> language' is also diffi
> > cult
> > > to put over.
> > >
> > > In fact, there were Guinness adverts in Guernsey
> French in the 1950's
> > - at a
> > > time when more people used the language, but
> attitudes towards it were
> >  more
> > > negative than nowadays. Adverts in the language are
> just as symbolic a
> > s folk
> > > festivals -
> >  they won't do anything in themselves to make parents
> speak the
> > > language with their children, but they raise its
> profile.
> > >
> > > Another point is that in the absence of any mass
> media in Guernesiais,
> > > cultual festivals are the only chance for many
> people to hear any of t
> > he
> > > language. And it's by no means only traditional
> culture that is presen
> > ted at
> > > them - e.g. new plays and sketches are also
> produced.
> > >
> > > Best wishes
> > >
> > > Julia
> > >
> > ----
> > Endangered-Languages-L Forum:
> endangered-languages-l at cleo.murdoch.edu.au
> > Web pages http://cleo.murdoch.edu.au/lists/endangered--
> languages-l/
> > Subscribe/unsubscribe and other commands:
> majordomo at cleo.murdoch.edu.au
> > ----
>
> ----
> Endangered-Languages-L Forum:
> endangered-languages-l at cleo.murdoch.edu.au
> Web pages http://cleo.murdoch.edu.au/lists/endangered-la-
> nguages-l/
> Subscribe/unsubscribe and other commands:
> maj
----
Endangered-Languages-L Forum: endangered-languages-l at cleo.murdoch.edu.au
Web pages http://cleo.murdoch.edu.au/lists/endangered-languages-l/
Subscribe/unsubscribe and other commands: majordomo at cleo.murdoch.edu.au
----



More information about the Endangered-languages-l mailing list