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<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>Seems to me that this is an important
question. My comments based on my experience are that expanding the cultural
view to include Native languages is going to be very difficult, but is
worthwhile in its own way for those willing to stand outside the commonly
recognized circle of acceptance. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>I have just completed my first year
in the Computer Science PhD program at New Mexico State. I have just finished
the first 5 computer courses that I have ever taken, and have a fresh
perspective on what it's like to try to learn in an environment where other
students have vastly different, and more topically focused, understandings and
knowledge. In other words, this year for me has been very similar to the
experience that many Native students have when they come from the reservation to
school. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>That said, I can tell you what I
encountered in a discipline where "languages" are a topic of primary concern.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>1. There is no support on the most
basic technical level for Native languages. That is, there are no language codes
and no country codes that are available to specify any of the the North American
Native languages. There are 3 for South American Native languages, but ONLY
because they are the languages of specific countries. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>2. There is no recognition,
understanding, or awareness that compilers can/should/must be available in
something besides English. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>3. On the Open Software platforms,
which are primarily Linux, translation efforts are in progress, but these occur
based on groups volunteering, and more staggeringly painful is that each
message, screen and line of text is translated manually, by groups of
translators. Clearly this limits software availability in non-English languages.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>There is more, but this covers the
difficulties of starting. . . since there is nothing, a comprehensive
understanding of how hard it is simply to Start is perhaps in this case most
valuable. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>People don't generally think of
technical resources in the context of Heritage Language revitalization. They
think of nests and elders and opportunities to speak in "common, everyday"
terms. They think of physical immersion. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>But from what I have seen, if people
don't have places to use their languages in ways besides asking for the butter
or buying gasoline, they will not go through the struggle to learn them. I knew
a man once, he was very depressed because he couldn't tell his grandmother about
his life's work. They are both Navajo, he is a chemist, completing his PhD. He
constructed words from his own understandings of Navajo, wrote his paper in
Navajo, and read it to his grandmother. She understood the language, but had a
difficult time with the concepts, as one might imagine would also happen for
English speakers outside the discipline. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>Which leads me to the real point: a
language is a language certainly in terms of its physical characteristcs, but a
language is also a language in terms of its Meanings, meanings bound to culture.
Understandings common in a culture are abstracted to single words, and one can
only "understand" these words correctly if one is immersed in the culture. I'll
give you one example ... . consider the noun "object". Everyone knows what
this means, yes? Okay, how about this definition: An instantiation of the Class.
How many still know what it means? Not many, I'll bet. But this is a real case,
can be seen in English, and is exactly what happens with our Native languages
and Native students. You go into school thinking that you know what the words
and ideas mean because you have been using them all your life. And, if you are
in Computer Science, you learn a new definition: an instantiation of the Class.
It's a bit metphorical, too, for those who wish to ponder along the lines of how
those who are members of different classes (substitute "races") become
objectified. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>Pre-PS: For those who are waiting,
with or without realizing that they are still waiting, for our CD: we are
finished with the coding, we just have to test the distribution. It has been a
particularly challenging semester: I have a 20-hour per week job on campus,
drive in 5 days a week, 100 miles each way. And, since I had to learn 5
languages this semester (Flex, Lex, Bison, Rigal, and Java) and strengthen my C
coding skills for my compiler class, my nearly-non-existent life has been.
. . well, let's just say "challenging". </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>CD will be out soon. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>Mia Kalish</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=Rrlapier@AOL.COM href="mailto:Rrlapier@AOL.COM">Rr Lapier</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=ILAT@listserv.arizona.edu
href="mailto:ILAT@listserv.arizona.edu">ILAT@listserv.arizona.edu</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, May 09, 2003 7:37 PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Where do Native Languages
Fit In?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2
FAMILY="SANSSERIF">From S. 575:<BR>"Native American -- The term 'Native
American' means an Indian, Native Hawaiian,or Native American Pacific
Islander.<BR>Native American Language -- The term 'Native American language'
means the historical, traditional languages spoken by Native
Americans."<BR><BR><BR>Rosalyn LaPier<BR>Piegan Institute<BR><A
href="http://www.pieganinstitute.org">www.pieganinstitute.org</A></FONT>
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