Lukashenka stages New attacks on our language!

[Yoshimasa Tsuji]

I wrote
  >  I don't know the right term for those people in English, but most of the
  >language teachers are there to inculcate nationalism coded in the official
  >language they teach.
And Georges asked me
  Do you really think so ?

Yes, I do. Language is distinguished from dialects by having
a standing army behind it. I admit there are cases where a conquered
nation/tribe are allowed to go on using their now-to-be-annihilated
language, but the general tendency is towards extinction (the revival of
Welsh is happening in an exceptionally lenient environment. Nothing is
more entertaining than listening to Welsh speaking Welsh in Northern
Wales, isn't it).

Whether Belarusan is a different language from Russian or not is a purely
political matter. Linguists may find similarities/differences between
these two and may perhaps be able to establish a "distance", but
the distance is not the decisive factor for being an separate language.
(I recently have had an experience of reading "Novgorodskie skazki",
fables written in that fabulous dialect. I thought the dialect was
very broad, but my Russian friend said the language was perfectly
comprehensible. The distance may depend on the really deep knowledge
of languages. Needless to say, Novgorod was an independent State for
centuries but Belarus hasn't been).

What is happening in Belarus is a purely political strife about
what Belarusan language should be. All we could say is just, "give
citizens the freedom to use the language in whatever way a citizen
may wish to".

>>From the definition of the language it is clear what language
teachers are expected to do at schools, especially at free
government/community set up schools.
 Incidentally, teaching foreign languages is not outside the
evils' domain, either. The primary aim of teaching foreign language
is not so much helping children to acquire a second language as
teaching "the language" from a different perspective. Yes, it is
the teacher of English who teaches how to read/write Japanese while
teachers of Japanese are busy teaching ancient/mediaeval literature.
Nothing else can explain why Japanese children cannot speak English at all
after learning it intensively for six or eight years (they learn
Japanese, instead). The decline of teaching classical language in UK has
surely affected the command of the English language due to similar
reasons but in opposite direction.

Well, a good advice for French executives coming to Japan --- , well,
pick up some English speaking Japanese and get used to their notorious
accent (e.g. Japanese usually say they eat on lice). Learning a few
expressions like thank you, please, excuse me will help much more
than learning the art of tea ceremony, sushi, karate, geisha, etc.


Cheers,
Tsuji