LL-L "Language survival" 2005.09.05 (08) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 05.SEP.2005 (08) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Global Moose Translations <globalmoose at t-online.de>
Subject: LL-L "Language survival" 2005.09.05 (05) [E]

Heiko wrote:
> Yeah good idea. Why not just use English only from class 1. Then they will
> be
> really well-equipped for a globalized world. :)
>
> Or how comes that people on the Isle of Man teach their children Manx? And
> why
> do the 40.000 Sorbs have schools with Sorbian as main language? Simply
> because the parents think it is important to preserve the cultural
heritage
> of their language. My French teacher often told us "Sprache kommt von
> Sprechen". She was right. So having schools in the language you want to
> preserve, is of vital importance. And this can be shown very well in the
> language battles e.g. in France. They just forbid schools in the minority
> language and so they made sure that everyone was fluent in French, and
they
> also made sure that no one learned the grammar of their home language. If
> you
> want to preserve a language, you have to win the battleground of the
school.

Well, yes, of course. I would like to see it happen, too, but I am very
sceptical indeed that it will. Teaching an "indigenous" language in school
will only work, and be accepted by the children, if it is also spoken
outside of the school, in their home environment. Also, in the case of Lower
Saxon, where would they find enough teachers who truly speak the language?
It is bad enough that, in some German states, "English" is taught from grade
3 now by the same old teachers who teach everything else, and have some
rusty school English at best. What good is it to teach a language at an
early age if it is taught by people who do not even speak it and who, at the
very least, pronounce it with a fat German accent? In the same way, I
shudder to think what kind of "Lower Saxon" children would be taught in
school as a "foreign language".

Whether that would be "better than nothing" remains to be seen...

Gabriele Kahn

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