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<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">=========================================================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 13 February 2008 - Volume 02<br style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
<span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">-------------------------------------------------------------------------</span><br style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Please set the encoding mode to Unicode (UTF-8).</span><br style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
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========================================================================<br></div><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);">Luc Hellinckx</span> <span class="lDACoc"><<a href="mailto:luc.hellinckx@gmail.com">luc.hellinckx@gmail.com</a>></span></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">L-L "Media"<br><br></span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Beste Ron,</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;">
You wrote:</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<blockquote style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" type="cite">At
any rate, this is a very interesting documentary about everyday life of
a rural Mennonite community on the steppes of Siberia. Some of the
people interviewed had visited Germany, usually because relatives had
emigrated there. However, they make it clear that they are content with
life in Siberia and consider.<br>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Consider what?</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;">
Sounds very interesting. Would love to know if these guys in the Altai
are able to speak the local language as well. Any idea?</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;">
Kind greetings,</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;">
Luc Hellinckx</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;">
PS: Will ride my motorbike to Tajikistan this summer. So I'm eager to
know where and how these pockets of German(ic)s are living/surviving.
The north of Kazakhstan used to harbour a lot of them. Don't know if
that's still the case.</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;">----------</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br>From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: Media<br><br>Luc,<br><br>The "and consider" is a remnant of an erased phrase to the effect that those people consider that area their homeland.<br>
<br>Sure, the number of speakers of Germanic languages (including Yiddish) has been dramatically reduced during the last two decades. However, I'm told that there are still communities of them. Not everyone wants to emigrate to the "West." Many have visited there and have decided that they feel more at home in Siberia or Central Asia where they know life and have communities and networks. There are also quite a few that emigrated to Germany, decided it was not for them (also didn't always feel welcome) and decided to go back. Much of it has to do with rural life versus urban life as well. In the Siberia program one rather eloquent lady explained (in <i>Plautdietsch</i>) that women tend to favor emigration because they would no longer have to work as hard, and men tend to favor staying because of their properties, modest though most cottages and plots of lands may be.<br>
<br>There must still be some urban communities as well, such as in Kazakhstan's Almuty (Alma-Ata) and Qaraghanda (Karaganda), and also around Tashkent, Bukhara and Samarkand (Uzbekistan), Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), and Dushanbe (Tajikistan). Locating them may require searching for and contacting associations.<br>
<br>As far as I know, the average speaker of Low Saxon and/or German in that region did not traditionally learn the indigenous languages but have been limited to Russian as a lingua franca, and many older people in rural communities know little or no Russian. I assume that in the Central Asian countries this is changing now that Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek and Tajik have become mandatory school subjects in the respective countries.<br>
<br>Regards,<br>Reinhard/Ron<br><br></span>
•
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