It sounds wonderful, but I didn’t understand one word of the message. This is the problem of having hundreds of languages around the world, lack of communication. That leads to misunderstandings and strife, even wars, large and small. The push to promote indigenous languages isolates people when we really need the opposite. xoxoxoBruce
Gosh, I learnt Esperanto when I was a young fella ... well, I tried to, but couldn't turn my mano to it. Point of interest, here in New Zealand, the government, following United Nations advice, promotes the indigenous language quite forcefully, and over the last 3 to 4 years every government department has now a Maori name, good luck if you, like 95% of the people, have no idea what the words mean. Even the newspapers (partially funded by the government) use various indigenous words in their reporting, making it nigh impossible to figure out what is being reported sometimes. So I don't know, zozozoBruce (phonetically written !) me not being able to decipher the news, or not knowing if I am walking into the roading department or the health department, is that what you mean by a push to promote indigenous languages isolating people ? Sadly, there are no full blood Maori anymore, but making us use the Maori language when there are more Asians here than Maori seems a bit racist. My interaction with different spoken languages is mainly Mandarin, with some shop keepers, and German with most tourists. The Maori people I work with (and I hate calling them anything apart than co-workers) do not speak Maori. The government here in these 'shaky islands' might as well make us speak French, as useless here as is the Maori language.
It sounds wonderful, but I didn’t understand one word of the message. This is the problem of having hundreds of languages around the world, lack of communication. That leads to misunderstandings and strife, even wars, large and small. The push to promote indigenous languages isolates people when we really need the opposite.
ReplyDeletexoxoxoBruce
Maybe we should all reconsider Esperanto ?
DeleteGosh, I learnt Esperanto when I was a young fella ... well, I tried to, but couldn't turn my mano to it.
DeletePoint of interest, here in New Zealand, the government, following United Nations advice, promotes the indigenous language quite forcefully, and over the last 3 to 4 years every government department has now a Maori name, good luck if you, like 95% of the people, have no idea what the words mean. Even the newspapers (partially funded by the government) use various indigenous words in their reporting, making it nigh impossible to figure out what is being reported sometimes.
So I don't know, zozozoBruce (phonetically written !) me not being able to decipher the news, or not knowing if I am walking into the roading department or the health department, is that what you mean by a push to promote indigenous languages isolating people ?
Sadly, there are no full blood Maori anymore, but making us use the Maori language when there are more Asians here than Maori seems a bit racist.
My interaction with different spoken languages is mainly Mandarin, with some shop keepers, and German with most tourists.
The Maori people I work with (and I hate calling them anything apart than co-workers) do not speak Maori.
The government here in these 'shaky islands' might as well make us speak French, as useless here as is the Maori language.
wonderful!!!
ReplyDeleteSo sweet and soft. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteLanguae disparity does not cause wars. Illiterate politicians do.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. Thank you
ReplyDeleteI think we can agree that claiming an issue with not understanding a language is only dogwhistle racism doing its thing.
ReplyDelete