"heritage seekers"?

[Wayles Browne]

At 1:09 PM -0800 2/6/01, Rebecca Matveyev wrote:
>Today for the first time I heard someone use the term "heritage
>seekers," in reference to students who are not native speakers of a
>language, and who have in fact had no exposure at any point to the
>language, but whose ancestors were native speakers ...
>Is this an actual established term that's in use, by analogy with
>"heritage speakers"?  Or was this just a neologism?

Beatrice Szekely, Associate Director of the Cornell Abroad program, confirms
that she has been using it since 1997 or so, and "people have always known
what I meant." From a 1997-98 text that she wrote:

'
               "SEEKING HERITAGE IN STUDY ABROAD
               Beatrice B.Szekely is the Associate Director of the
Cornell Abroad program.

               Study abroad is traditionally talked about as a sojourn
of immersion in difference, of immersion in another culture. By
spending
               time in a different way of life, students reinvent and
often transform themselves while they complete a semester or year of
               academic work. This notion of leaving the familiar and
traveling far away from home is challenged by the concept of heritage
               seeking: selecting a study abroad venue because of
family background‹national, religious, cultural or ethnic; this means
               choosing a venue because of some level of familiarity
or resonance with less emphasis on the difference.

               To what degree is the idea of leaving home for
something different challenged by heritage seeking? My only concern
is if a
               student is being stretched by study abroad, if she or
he has a great deal to learn and is truly challenged. A Cornell
student whose
               family immigrated to the United States from Ethiopia,
and who is going abroad with the Brown program next year still has a
               great deal to learn: Amharic language, Ethiopian
culture, the nature of socioeconomic development in northeastern
Africa,
               political change in her family¹s homeland. Amharic
language use and life in Ethiopia may be known to her from the family
               dinner table in Waterloo, Iowa, but have never been
confronted firsthand.
...."

Mrs. Szekely did a study:
"The six universities, chosen to get a geographic spread across the
               United States are: the University of California San
Diego (UCSD), Duke University, Georgetown University, Indiana
               University, University of Texas-Austin and University
of Washington. The six host countries are the Czech Republic, Egypt,
               Ireland, Israel, Korea and Mexico.

               Findings

               Study abroad in three of the countries exhibits
patterns of some heritage seeking with interesting twists; three
exhibit clear
               heritage seeking. For the Czech Republic, only a
minority of the 600 students going to this country are reportedly
heritage
               seeking from our university sample. Heritage seeking
was most pronounced for Georgetown and Cornell. (Applicants for the
               Council Program in Poland, however, are almost 100%
heritage seekers.) Egypt proves to be an interesting reminder that a
               student¹s assumption that he/she is heritage seeking
may be challenged in the host country. Mary Davidson, of the American
               University of Cairo (AUC) in New York, indicates that
students going to Cairo as heritage seekers may be either
               African-American, including black Muslims, or students
whose families are from Arabic-speaking countries all over the Middle
               East, who are Arab, possibly Coptic, in cultural background...."

Full text: http://www.opendoorsweb.org/Lib%20Pages/STAB/seeking_heritage.htm
Wayles Browne, Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics
Morrill Hall 220, Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A.

tel. 607-255-0712 (o), 607-273-3009 (h)
fax 607-255-2044 (write FOR W. BROWNE)
e-mail ewb2 at cornell.edu

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