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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">===============================================<br>
L O W L A N D S - L - 29 December 2009 - Volume 04<br>
<span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><a href="mailto:lowlands.list@gmail.com">lowlands.list@gmail.com</a> - <a href="http://lowlands-l.net/">http://lowlands-l.net/</a><br>
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From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>><br>
Subject: Language promotion<br>
<br>
Folks,<br>
<br>
Mostly in Low Saxon (Low German), our Marcus and Marlou (and to a certain
extent Hannelore and I) have been brainstorming about more prominent media
presence of Low Saxon, utilizing up-to-date multimedia technology, such as
web-logging, including video blogging. If I understood him correctly, Marcus
seems to fantasize about a type of media presence that needs not be
specifically and laboriously sought out by the public and by virtue of this
attracts or recruits potential users of the language or at least makes the
language acceptable and interesting to a larger section of the public. (I'm not
sure if this is realistic since everyone must make some sort of effort to
access any type of media outlet, but perhaps Marcus meant something that
quickly turns into a household name, something that even people that are not
language activists would want to tune into because it's a place to be.) Our
Hanne cautioned the two M's, saying that an undertaking of this type and
magnitude requires a lot of careful planning, that it can't be put together
overnight, and that especially maintenance of momentum and quality is an aspect
that requires serious consideration.<br>
<br>
Honestly and personally speaking, I agree with all of them to some degree. I
feel that such possibilities ought to be looked into but that at the same time
any type of venture ought to be extremely well planned so as to prevent what in
Australia is called a "fizzogh" (as in a fireworks rocket heading for
the sky with "Fzzzzz ..." and then the disappointed public calling
"Ogh ..." because the promising rocket just fizzled out without the
expected bang).<br>
<br>
As usual, it pays to look across our Lowlands
fence to see what is being done on behalf of minority languages similarly
endangered.<br>
<br>
For one thing, I recommend taking a look at the new video section within the
Web presence of <i>Forverts</i> (</span><span dir="RTL" style="font-size: 11pt;" lang="HE">פֿאָרווערטס</span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span dir="LTR"></span>), the Yiddish
counterpart of the newer English-language <i>Forward</i>, an American Jewish
weekly that has been around, first as a daily, since 1897, based mostly on the
then German Social Democratic newspaper <i>Vorwärts</i>.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://yiddish.forward.com/forverts/video">http://yiddish.forward.com/forverts/video</a><br>
<br>
Since all of it is in Yiddish, most of you will understand little to nothing
(though more experienced German speakers will at least catch the general
drift). But you will probably understand the format used here. It consists
mostly of a mixture of documentary reports and video-taped interviews. For
instance, at the moment the first video is about the 100th anniversary Yiddish
Congress in Jerusalem, the second one is about Yiddish-inclined visitors from Paris,
the third is about an assassinated Jewish Soviet writer, the fourth </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">about </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">the inauguration
of the <i>Forverts</i> Association, the fifth about a Yiddish book fair, the sixth
about a meeting of a Yiddish authors’ association in New York City, the seventh
a conversation with Shmuel Atzmon, the current director of YidiSHpil (a Yiddish
theater in Tel Aviv), the eighth a talk by Alex Dufner from Australia, and the ninth
about a Yiddish theater festival.<br>
<br>
Anyway, this is one of the efforts put forth on behalf of Yiddish. Perhaps it inspires.<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
Reinhard/Ron<br>
Seattle, USA</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"></span></p>
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