LL-L "Diversity" 2006.03.01 (07) [A/E]

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01 March 2006 * Volume 07
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From: Mark Dreyer <mrdreyer at lantic.net>
Subject: LL-L "Diversity" 2006.02.27 (05) [E]

Hi All:

Subject: Language Diversity.

Cheers & Seconded to Tom, Helge, Ingmar & Ron!

Quite apart from the manifest intellectual merits & enviable social
advantages of being polyglottal there are the economic opportunities, both
in the personal context & in the community.

A man has economic access to those whose language he speaks. It is the major
drawcard to English & other economically dominant tongues, naturally, but so
also to minority languages because it gives the same advantage whatever the
speech. This is my plea & appeal, sugered with self-interest, to Irishmen &
residents of Eire who don't have the Erse. It gives you a foot in the door
that others don't have. Learn it!

Bear in mind the same advantage accrues to having a polyglot neighbour, in
your business or your economic community. It's all a matter of networking, &
these guys bring business! Tom made the point laterally: Eire is booming
thanks to the country opening to (skilled) strangers. They brought their
skills, but also their access to the market 'back Home'. It is the better
thing, & more enriching to the community both immediately & in the long
term, than establishing colonies. There you have to establish a market, &
wait until it is established. In Ireland's case the market was there &
ready, & the immigrants brought it with them.

Y'know, Ron, when I was little I thought "autochthonous" was some kind of
dinosaur. On mature reflection, that guess was not too far out, the usage,
that is, not the entity so designated.

Coms are tardy from my side: Apologies. I'm not so much lurking as being
cautious. This Southern Hemisphere is going off the main sequence,
weatherwise. We're having the wettest rainy season here in over a decade,
after another bad season of bush-fires. But the trouble is it causes
lightning. We have on average a million-&-a-half strikes countrywide in
December, which is about ten times that of the continental USA in a year (or
so we are told). Some American boffin has come to study it here. Mind you,
I've only had my modem burned out once, but my father's telephone out on the
farm actually burst into flames last month.

And there are frequent power-cuts. Our infrastructure is fraying at the
edges - rolling mass power-outages, & this in High Summer. This Winter will
be a bad joke for the poor.

Hou die blink kant bo!
Mark

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Diversity

Dag, liewe Mark, en baie dankie vir die boostaande opiniestukkie.  Jammer 
genoeg lyk dit, soos vroeëre berigte over hierdie onderwerp, hier 'n geval 
van "preaching to the choir" te wees.  Maar 'n mens kan die boodskap nie te 
dikwels bring, en dit verduidelik die saak ook vir almal in die koor, glo 
ek.

One thing I'd like to add to the commercial aspect is that in a largely 
globalized market it may actually turn out to be beneficial to cater to 
specific regional and minority niche markets, assuming that this adds 
specific, seemingly personalized touches.  I can imagine that this would 
appeal to people in a world dominated by global media and market monopolies 
and thus uniformity.  Even if/when everyone on earth knows enough English 
(or whatever other lingua franca) to understand globalized commercial 
advertising and news, there will always be a need for the "special touch."

Now, take care, and don't get hit by lightning! Remember:

Vor Eichen sollst du weichen.  (You must keep away from oaks.)
Buchen sollst du suchen.  (You must seek out beeches.)

Groete,
Reinhard/Ron 

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