<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">L O W L A N D S - L - 10 January 2008 - Volume 06
</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">=========================================================================</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe"><span class="EP8xU" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28);">
<a href="mailto:foga0301@stcloudstate.edu">foga0301@stcloudstate.edu</a></span></span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Subject: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe">LL-L "Language education"<br></span><p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><u><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">
Elsie</span></u></i><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"> wrote</span></i></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Thanks, Gael, for your interesting
comments. I am well informed about the US educational system through my
extended family… </span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Yes, I was hoping to extract
comments/information from Lowlanders about the educational role of public broadcasters
in poor, yet super diverse multi-lingual countries, where television, for
example, as popular public broadcasting tool, has been used successfully to
teach correct language usage, amongst other things.</span></span><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"><br>
</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><u><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Marcel</span></u></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"> <i>wrote to Elsie</i></span>
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Can you tell me if Kid's Newsroom also broadcasts in Afrikaans?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><u><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(79, 129, 189);">Heather</span></u></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(79, 129, 189);"> <i>wrote to Gael</i> </span>
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(79, 129, 189);">…teaching standard language in whatever country allows
those who do have mutually unintelligible dialects of the same language to
communicate. And that surely is a good thing? It allows access to all walks of
life to everyone. If there was no attempt at a standard language, young people
would be restricted to working in the (small) area where they were intelligible…</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><u><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(79, 129, 189);">Jonny</span></u></i><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(79, 129, 189);"> wrote to Heather</span></i>
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(79, 129, 189);">…I fully agree with all you wrote in your mail. Let me add
just one thought more: isn't it dangerous for a language to lose its
preciseness, the possibilities of dealing with small but important differences
in e.g. sciences e.a.? We have seen this kind of development in Low Saxon,
and it led (and still leads) to the fact that it became a very
unimportant minority language with only a certain neat social background. Maybe
American (English) will escape this fate, but NOT by being simplified- quite
the opposite: for my opinion it should continue to gather the best of the
immigrant's languages as it has done in the past.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">To
all [I hope this is not too long],</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
My original intent in opening the topic of education was to help us focus on
local contexts and to seek ways to share these with outsiders, so that we can shape
a better future for our children—one locality at a time. However, it is
easy to interpret another's "difference" within our home
context and to universalize this prematurely. Being embedded in a local culture
is normal and precious—I don't wish to interfere with such
loyalties to place. Home is a great place to "be"…but it's
dangerous to generalize too quickly across borders. It might seem logical to
say, Jonny, that Low Saxon speakers desire a tighter, more uniform usage (to be
a single nation of people)—but I'm wondering if this relates more to
your own situation (is the UK your home)? I need more information to
contextualize your comments. Certainly, as large numbers of non-native
speaking immigrants migrate to the first world, local populations of "White
folks" struggle with the challenge of integrating them. To be expected. It
is a time of massive changes for everyone.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
In the midst of this, it feels like local languages (English especially) are
exploding with unwanted levels of diversity. But language-tightening prescriptions
have never worked—the <span style="color: black;">Royal Academy of French
Language and Literature</span> being the test case. Language is too tightly
linked with identity issues; and native-speakers of privileged languages have never
been able to separate controlling (colonial) motives from well-meaning visions
of a clean-cut, neutrally-functional, unifying "national" language.
This is well documented. We are willing to see it in the German case vis-à-vis
Low Saxon [or with Tibet under the thumb of the Chinese], but it's harder
for native E-speakers to see how language politics operate when English is the 'ruling
tongue'. A common language is only going to be mutually beneficial when
it's speakers are able to share a common concern for each other's
welfare. Racial discrimination is a very real barrier still which must be
addressed before the sharing of a common (colonial) language can have a
positive effect for all. Only non-coercive social unity can bring about
linguistic unity. It doesn't work in reverse. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
That's way I'm so curious to hear from Elsie, Marcel, and others
about public broadcasting in Europe, and the notion that <b><i>multilingual</i></b>
social welfare networks might provide us a place to start building a common (non-exploitative)
way of life. Our efforts to educate everyone depend on our abilities to move gracefully
and candidly <i>in between</i> languages. It is impractical and dangerous to
think that just one (national) language is enough. I fear that the US is
quickly losing its place in the world due to this need to control and contain language
diversity. This tends to go hand-in-hand with the shift from public education serving
all to private-pay systems tied to commercial market interests. I'm very
impressed with the TV programming that Marcel speaks of (and with her
commitment to improving it). Likewise, Elsie's engagement in the issues gives
me hope. In the US, Elsie is right, the radio has the best public programming
(NPR- <a href="http://www.npr.org/audiohelp/progstream.html" target="_blank">http://www.npr.org/audiohelp/progstream.html</a>
). I don't even own a TV. Of course, the internet is another source that
offers hope to those who can gain access (such as you all demonstrate so
nicely). </span></p>
<p style="margin-right: 0in; text-align: left; line-height: normal; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" align="left"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-AU"> I believe people everywhere
still have healthy options, but it's true that the youngest suffer the
most from the materialist ethos broadcasted by commercial markets. Elsie, I think
the future will belong to those who have been lucky enough to have grandparents
to guide them. We do the best we can</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" lang="EN-AU">. [I'm sending 2 document-links from India on TV below]</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-AU">. For sure, I share Heather's desire
to experience an overarching, comprehensible way of communicating across
differences. It seems Jonny wants this too, but I just don't think that <b><i>English
alone</i></b> is adequate for achieving this goal. We need input from
everyone. I pray for the day that I too can speak my mother tongue as well as
English and hopefully others too (even German). Our lives will be comprehendible
only when the diversity within us is greater than the diversity beyond us.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Wishing
you all peace,</span><span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span><i><span style="font-size: 9pt; text-decoration: none;">For Elsie </span></i></span><span><span style="font-size: 8pt; text-decoration: none;">[India is moving beyond the problem you're
describing… perhaps]</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span><span style="font-size: 9pt;">1. <a href="http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=neTLI2lvdBYC&oi=fnd&pg=RA1-PA45&dq=STAR+%22Transnational+television,+cultural+identity%22&ots=W6RbFNKMys&sig=xRZ0lyuXcgrdryy2piaaclZkZdk" target="_blank">
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 204);">Transnational Television, Cultural Identity and Change:
When Star Came to India</span></a> (2003)</span></span><span><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: windowtext;">-by</span></span><span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"> </span></span><span><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: windowtext;">
Melissa Butcher—google-book</span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"></span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span><span style="font-size: 9pt;">2. [DOC] <a href="http://www-edit.usyd.edu.au/riap/documents/publications/upocc_jisjuly04_final.doc" target="_blank">Cultural
Change: Reflections on the Identity Strategies of Indian</a> and Australian
youth (2006)…-</span></span><span><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: windowtext;">by</span></span><span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"> </span></span><span><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: black;">Melissa Butcher- </span>
</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: black;"><a href="http://66.102.1.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:cDeIXMryTPYJ:www-edit.usyd.edu.au/riap/documents/research/tcc/upocc_jisjuly04_final.doc+" target="_blank">View
as HTML</a> -</span></p><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">----------</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
From: R. F. Hahn <</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">> </span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: Language education<br><br>Hi, Gael!<br><br>Thanks for another great one!<br><br>You wrote:<br><br></span><div style="margin-left: 40px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);" lang="EN-AU">Our lives will be comprehensible
only when the diversity within us is greater than the diversity beyond us.</span><br><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-AU"></span></div><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" lang="EN-AU">
<br>Wow! That's one for the books, or for cross-stitching and hanging above the mantle-piece!<br><br>Since you are new on board, let me just clarify that this discussion is not limited to Europe and North America. Elsie is in South Africa, Heather in England, Jonny in Northern Germany, and Marcel in the Netherlands with much South African experience.
<br><br>And this is just a small selection. Besides the mentioned countries, in Europe we have members in the Nordic Countries, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Greece, Cyprus, Slovenia, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Russia, Estonia and Turkey, and there may be others. In Asia we have members in Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India, China, Japan, Korea, Kazakhstan, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and possibly others, in Africa members in Egypt, Lybia, Morocco, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia and possibly others. Most Latin American members are in Brazil, followed by Mexico, and there are members in Peru, Argentina and maybe others. We also have a good number of Canadians and Australians, and a couple of New Zealanders as well. And the pot has been stirred quite a bit in that many members live in countries other than those in which they were raised, and others belong to minorities within their native countries.
<br></span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br>It looks as though you've hired on to the most suitable ship.<br><br>As for the actual discussion, let me just interject that we mustn't ignore that quite a few of the languages we are talking about here have a history of oppression and suppression, from which some of them (
e.g., Low Saxon and Scots) are reemerging only now. Not too long ago children were physically and mentally punished for using their languages in schools. So there are the factors of low prestige and vestiges of the forbidden. Many of the speakers themselves have come to internalize this, and some of them even came to believe that their ancestral languages
<b>should</b> go extinct. This makes (re-)assertion efforts doubly difficult, and not only because it provides "the enemy" with ammunition when native speakers complain about the efforts of "rebel-rousing whippersnappers."
<br><br>Regards,<br>Reinhard/Ron<br><br></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">