26th September: The European Day of Languages
I think that, since I'm an English teacher by profession, it is suitable that I post something for the European Day of Languages. I won't start writing about the history of the Day (you have the Wikipedia link for that), but I'll say a few words about my point of view on this Day.
I've always loved languages and learning new ones has been a hobby of mine ever since I can remember. I try to pick up as much as I can from as many different languages as I can from TV and the Internet (well, at least bits and pieces, phrases,...) and I think it's wonderful that we have the European Day of Languages. This way, people learn about the importance of learning new languages and about the diversity of languages around the world!
Nowadays there is a growing tendency around the world to learn the so called "little languages", i.e. langugages who have a relatively small number of native speakers. However, at the same time, exactly these native speakers often aren't aware of how precious their languages are... And I speak from experience here. Let me take Slovene as an example. It has about 2 million native speakers, who, instead of being proud of their language, try their hardest not to use our wonderful language! The names of shops, pubs, etc. are English, young people use wierd derivatives from English (I am fluent in English, but sometimes I have real problems understanding some of the words I hear in the street!!) and to top it all off, the language of the Internet chatrooms and SMS messages is taking over! Why is all this happening? Because it's "cooler" to use all those "LOLs", "BRBs" we're surrounded with in our everyday life than to use beautiful words we have in Slovene!
Another problem for such languages as Slovene is that there is usually a large number of immigrants among their speakers. Again, I speak from experience. I know Slovenes who moved to America. They speak Slovene, but don't teach their kids the language of their ancestors! Why? So that the kids would fit better into the new society! That is such a load of rubbish! In today's world, knowing a language such as Slovene could be a huge advantage, not a drawback!
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for learning new languages, but we should always be proud of our mother tongue and use it proudly and properly!
I've always loved languages and learning new ones has been a hobby of mine ever since I can remember. I try to pick up as much as I can from as many different languages as I can from TV and the Internet (well, at least bits and pieces, phrases,...) and I think it's wonderful that we have the European Day of Languages. This way, people learn about the importance of learning new languages and about the diversity of languages around the world!
Nowadays there is a growing tendency around the world to learn the so called "little languages", i.e. langugages who have a relatively small number of native speakers. However, at the same time, exactly these native speakers often aren't aware of how precious their languages are... And I speak from experience here. Let me take Slovene as an example. It has about 2 million native speakers, who, instead of being proud of their language, try their hardest not to use our wonderful language! The names of shops, pubs, etc. are English, young people use wierd derivatives from English (I am fluent in English, but sometimes I have real problems understanding some of the words I hear in the street!!) and to top it all off, the language of the Internet chatrooms and SMS messages is taking over! Why is all this happening? Because it's "cooler" to use all those "LOLs", "BRBs" we're surrounded with in our everyday life than to use beautiful words we have in Slovene!
Another problem for such languages as Slovene is that there is usually a large number of immigrants among their speakers. Again, I speak from experience. I know Slovenes who moved to America. They speak Slovene, but don't teach their kids the language of their ancestors! Why? So that the kids would fit better into the new society! That is such a load of rubbish! In today's world, knowing a language such as Slovene could be a huge advantage, not a drawback!
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for learning new languages, but we should always be proud of our mother tongue and use it proudly and properly!
posted by Wolf @ 9:49 AM
1 Comments:
At September 26, 2008 10:27 AM,
Anonymous said…
I hope that the "European Day of Languages" will encourage many people to learn a new language. Especially in the United Kingdom where the interest in learning languages seems to be declining.
You may know that four schools in Britain have introduced Esperanto, the neutral international language, in order to test its propaedeutic values?
The pilot project is being monitored by the University of Manchester. Why not extend this project to other countries as well? Further academic appraisal is essential.
An interesting video can be seen at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8837438938991452670
Otherwise http://www.lernu.net might help ?
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