<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">===============================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 30 December 2009 - Volume 03<br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><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></span><br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">
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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="gI"><span class="gD" style="color: rgb(91, 16, 148);">Ed Alexander</span> <span class="go"><<a href="mailto:edsells@cogeco.ca">edsells@cogeco.ca</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="gI">LL-L "Language promotion" 2009.12.29 (04) [EN]<br><br></span><div style="margin-left: 40px; color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
From: R. F. Hahn
<<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">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></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Well, I view it from a very far distance, but noted two things during the
holidays that I wouldn't have seen when I first studied German some fifty
years ago. One: my wife bought me a Christmas CD called
Weihnachts Schlager, and one of the "hits" on it was Wedder Mol
Wiehnacht. Two: we attended the German service Christmas
morning at St. Johannes Ev. Luth. Kirche in Hamilton, and since I found
the Predigt a bit boring, thumbed through the hymnal which was new since
the last time I had been there. Out of some 700 offerings, four
were in what they called "Platt."Â Too little, too
late?</span><br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Ed Alexander, Ontario, Canada</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;">
<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="gI"><span class="gD" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25);">Marcus Buck</span> <span class="go"><<a href="mailto:list@marcusbuck.org">list@marcusbuck.org</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="gI">LL-L "Language promotion" 2009.12.29 (04) [EN]<br><br></span><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;"> <mailto:</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><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="im">
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<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>
</blockquote></div><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
That's true, but I didn't just fantasize ("fantasieren" in German has a
ring of "sillyness" or even an unhealthy mental state, I hope that
submeaning wasn't intended here ;-) I'd rather call it "musings", "food
for thought" or something like that) about some "type of media
presence", but very specifically about a TV station.</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;">
The theoreticist Marshall McLuhan has coined the term Gutenberg galaxy (<</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutenberg_Galaxy" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutenberg_Galaxy</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">>).
The Gutenberg galaxy is a world in which 'print' is the most
influential, the key medium. McLuhan proposed (in 1962), that the
Gutenberg galaxy was at its end. Modern electronic mass media would
become the new key medium of a new age. This new age was later named
McLuhan galaxy (a world in which TV is the key medium) or Turing galaxy
(a world in which computers/the internet are the key medium). We are
going towards the Turing galaxy but the McLuhan galaxy has not yet
ended (and TV will stay to be very influential even after the end of
the McLuhan galaxy). While the Gutenberg galaxy was never able to do
much harm to mainly unprinted languages like Low Saxon, the McLuhan
galaxy immediately was able to replace Low Saxon with German, cause TV
unlike print is spoken word.</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;">
Therefore, so I believe, a TV station is an absolute must-have, if we
want to maintain a language. At the moment Low Saxon develops
centrifugal. Low Saxon in the Netherlands develops towards Dutch, Low
Saxon in Germany develops towards German, Mennonite Low Saxon develops
towards whatever is the national language of their place of living. A
common TV station would establish a new common public and would change
the development to a more centripetal one. A development where Low
Saxon dialects take other Low Saxon dialects as a model and not foreign
languages.</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;">
A TV station would be a place to advertise or to inform the interested
public about Low Saxon publications, music etc. No artist, writer or
whatever can be successful without people knowing about him. I can
easily name dozens of modern American musicians and every other German
can do so too. I doubt that most Americans can name many modern German
musicians. Is that cause Americans make better music? No, it's cause
the information flow from America to Germany is better than vice versa.
Stars are never born by word of mouth, they are made by enduring media
attention. So the whole Low Saxon cultural scene would benefit from a
TV station.</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;">
And most importantly: You don't have to pay for watching TV and TV is
easy! You switch it on and lean back on your couch. For books you have
to pay and books don't "work" any more, if you are tired out after a
long day and stop to pay attention to all the squiggly little symbols.
TV is still perfectly enjoyable without having to exert your brain too
much. Internet too is very complicated to everybody not using it every
day. And the computer too stops doing anything without constant user
input.</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;">
That may sound like I overemphasize the complicatedness of books or
computers, but many people are like that. I guess, most people on this
list are quite confident to use books and computers, but there are
millions out there who are not. Many people just want to push a button
and passively consume some show.</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;">
I am fully aware that a useful TV station has costs in the magnitude of
over 100 Million Euro. This is, so my estimation, about 100-fold the
sum of _all_ state spending in aid of Low Saxon at the moment. So we
won't get a TV station anytime soon. That's not realistic without major
changes. But it's still _necessary_ if we want Low Saxon to prosper.
And it's not an undue demand. Germany and the Netherlands both
officially recognized Low Saxon as a language and as worth of
preservation. If that is not seen as "some piece of paper we signed to
appease some people", but if they _mean_ it, then they have to invest
more money.</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;">
It's sad to say, but politicians _never_ just do the things that are
"right", Â they do how they please and just ask "can I get through with
it?" If they sign an international treaty that aims at protecting a
language and then do nothing to fulfil the requirements of the treaty,
that's obviously not "right". But as long as no protesters march to the
town halls or parliaments, as long as there are no trials for violating
treaties, they can get through with it.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" color="#888888">
<br>
Marcus Buck</font><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;">
<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 promotion</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;">Marcus, "fantasize" does not necessarily connote the idea of "delusional" German </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">fantasieren</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> has. I meant it more in the sense of "dreaming" or "imagining".</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;">Regards,</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Reinhard/Ron</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Seattle, USA</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
•
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