ELL: Cultural production

[Inge Genee]

This reminds me of the situation here in Canada. I have only been here for a
few years, but from the beginning I have been enraged by the official policy
of "MULTIculturalism" but "BIlingualism". How can you have MULTIculturalism
without MULTIlingualism? I have asked this question many times and never
received a satisfying answer. I have to understand that French was very
threatened in the 70s etc., I have to see it in the political context of the
day, Trudeaumania and more such stuff, all very nice but not very helpful in
the situation in 2001. Canadians compare themselves first and foremost with
Americans, and tend to be very happy with themselves because since they
officially protect French they are a lot better than the Americans, or so
they think. They feel so virtuous about not forcing the great American
"melting pot" that they don't see that their French policies are in fact
hurting other, much more endangered languages, which include First Nations
languages but also other immigrant languages (other than French, that is).
Or maybe they don't WANT to see it. A good example is the special meaning
the word "bilingual" has here: it means only: English and French, as if
there are no other languages than those two. I now do not use the term any
more to refer to my own children, who speak English and Dutch (and learn
French at school). Even a native speaker of Blackfoot is not designated with
the term "bilingual" here. It drives me crazy!
However, to come back to the point raised by Mauro (which has interesting
parallels with the rise of sub- and international regions within the
European Union), I do NOT think that the way to promote small languages is
to fight the middle sized (or national) ones. That would be throwing away
the baby with the bathwater. In the case of Canada, I am truly and honestly
happy that Canadian French has been saved from what I understand was the
brink of extinction 30 or 40 years ago (although the same cannot be said of
some of the varieties of French spoken in other areas of the country,
including on the northern prairies). The more variation the better. Instead,
we need to work on the premise that a rising tide should raise all ships:
more attention to one minority language should help increase interest for
others. Canadian French, however, seems to help stifling attention for
languages other than itself. Of course, they don't like having it pointed
out to them that there are languages that are MUCH more endangered than
their own. While they fight the "good fight" for monolingual French signage
in Quebec they don't want to hear about what is happening to First Nations
languages right in their own province, or in the rest of the country for
that matter, or how more recent immigrant feel about not having the free
choice to learn French or English.
Nevertheless, fighting against Canadian French in my case, or against
European French in the case of Breton, or against Dutch and German in the
case of Frisian, or what have you, is not what we should be doing, in my
opinion. We should try not to fight "against" other languages but "for" our
own. Widespread bilingualism (in the non-Canadian meaning of the word) is
the way to go.
-Inge Genee

"mauro.tosco at libero.it" wrote:

> Dear ELLers,
>
> I agree, of course, with most Julia says about the inescapable link
> between language and culture. Just one point:
> in the case of Guernsey you have to fight against English influence,
> and this makes everything much more difficult. But in most other cases,
> minority languages are NOT fighting against the "juggernaut of global
> culture": they are fighting against so-called "national languages".
> Minority languages in France are being replaced by French, not English.
> It's French politicians who want to fight the influence of English -
> it's part of their job. But it is not in the direct interest of
> minority-language speakers. One could even argue that the decline of
> French and other national languages vis-a-vis English is actually
> HELPING the minority languages: if French (Italian, Spanish, whatever)
> is becoming more and more just kind of a "big dialect" in many contexts
> (international trade, computer industry, etc.) the gap
> between "national languages" and "local dialects" is narrowing. What I
> have in mind here is a picture with three actors: English is pushing
> DOWN national languges, and local languages can take advantage of this
> by starting pushing UP their respective "national" languages, whose
> space (role) therefore narrows.
> Any comment?
>
> Best,
>
> mauro
>
> > Dear everyone
> >
> > I take Mauro's point, and I am ambivalent myself about the link betwee
> n
> > language and culture -
>  I've spent a lot of my life trying to escape from
> > some of the narrower strictures of traditional culture, but am still
> > committed to the language. But given a choice between McDonald's and
> > Guernsey culture, I know which one I would choose!  The juggernaut of
> > "global" (plastic and unsustainable) "culture" is itself part of the
> > problem, and it's not only minority language speakers who object to it
>  (and
> > not all of them do object anyway, which is one reason for language shi
> ft).
> > I'll take modern comforts such as indoor bathrooms but not the plastic
>  food
> > thanks. But this may be rather hypocritical given the reliance on
> > international banking in Guernsey's economy (yes, we are trying to get
> > sponsorship from them).
> >
> > Diversity in language, culture, politics, religion, etc. is a good thi
> ng to
> > uphold. On the one hand, people have a right to celebrate traditional
> > culture - but on the other hand, I agree that minority languages need
> > modernising and to lose the image (often forced on them by outsiders)
> of
> > being 'only for peasants' and looking backwards at the 'good old days'
>  (so
> > good that people shifted language to escape from them).
> >
> > The advantages of diversity (including multilingualism) need to be
> > promoted -
>  a lot of people abandoned the old language because they thought
> > that it would hold back their children in education (which was/is in E
> nglish
> > of course). The concept of 'new culture in old language' is also diffi
> cult
> > to put over.
> >
> > In fact, there were Guinness adverts in Guernsey French in the 1950's
> - at a
> > time when more people used the language, but attitudes towards it were
>  more
> > negative than nowadays. Adverts in the language are just as symbolic a
> s folk
> > festivals -
>  they won't do anything in themselves to make parents speak the
> > language with their children, but they raise its profile.
> >
> > Another point is that in the absence of any mass media in Guernesiais,
> > cultual festivals are the only chance for many people to hear any of t
> he
> > language. And it's by no means only traditional culture that is presen
> ted at
> > them - e.g. new plays and sketches are also produced.
> >
> > Best wishes
> >
> > Julia
> >
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