Rita Brown spoke words of knowledge when saying, “Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people came from and where they are going.” On average, there are some 6000 languages spoken in the world today, but some 500-1000 of those are only spoken by a select group of people and are considered endangered. At a rate of 25 mother tongues being lost per year, this alarmed many governments that have decided to take a stand again this grave loss for the world ("Are Dying Languages worth Saving?"). Even though the popular belief is that it is not important to continue to learn endangered languages because it causes a barrier between people, societies around the world should work to preserve endangered languages because without the ability to translate a language, we lose the ability for later generations to study their history and language is the culture of a country or group of people and should continue to be kept alive.
History is an important part of the education system around the world. It is in human nature and has become nearly a sign of respect to learn what...
For this summary I watched a video called Voices of the World: The Extinction of Language and Linguistic Diversity. The video starts off with how people believe that there are about 6, 000 languages. David Crystal talks about how with all these different languages half of them are endangered of becoming extinct. Each different language offers a different point of view of the world and culture. He said that if different languages are lost then “we lose the meaning what is it to be human.”
Between the authors Barber and Tannen, there exists a consensus that education today has been shaped by the events of history. The sources of history differ along with the conclusions they drawn from th...
What more is the point of learning and understanding human history than obtaining the knowledge and structure between what is right and what is wrong? We continuously believe that we as humans have the ability and intellect to learn from the lessons taught in our past in order to enrich our future. In comparison to the time frame that is human history the one hundred year period of time we discussed in the second halve of this semester is nothing but a slight blimp on the map that we have traversed. Yet, throughout our recent readings we can easily assimilate into the idea that although time may pass, and that we may attempt to learn from our history it is simply in human nature to repeat the mistakes that we have
Zinn, H. (2007). Why Students Should Study History. In W. e. Au, Rethinking Our Classrooms, Volume 1 (pp. 179-181). Milwaukee: Rethinking Schools.
Even though the dominance of a language can allow for the loss of a culture, it can also bring awareness. In schools, local community centers and other various places, foreign languages are taught, not only do non-native speakers take on these languages but native speakers do as well to keep their culture. By doing so it “revitalizes cultures and cultural artifacts through foreign influences, technologies, and markets.” (Gerdes
The influence of our inherited cultural and linguistic heritage is perhaps less influential than the cultural and linguistic characteristics of the society we live in. The societal forces of our personal micro-environments largely impact who we are, how we see ourselves, and how we speak.
As we know that there are thousands of language in the world, such as, English, Chinese, French and Spanish. But no one can do a better job in the second language. According to Amy Tan Mother Tongue, she emphasizes her idea that we speak different languages senselessly and classified by the way we speak our first language. She thinks that how powerful the language is used to communicate with others and shows us the different forms of English that she used in daily life. She thinks the power of language can affect people’s lives and change the way they think. We should adjust our language to our listeners when we are speaking. I am agreeing with her. I also think that language is very powerful and it is necessary to change our language to who we speak.
It is reported that every year, there are hundreds of minority languages have been vanishing. Although governments have pour money in preserving these languages from dying out, some people would argue that it is not a good idea to waste tax revenue in this protection.
Though our history may bring back horrible memories of the ?grimmest dimensions of human nature? (Limerick 472), it is necessary to have a good historical background. History gives us the ability to improve future outputs, satisfy our unending need for knowledge, and understand how many policies and regulations have come to be. Without history mankind would be very primitive and ununified. Our complete molding of the world today is almost completely dependent on the fact that we study our history. Without history present day humans would be nothing more than cavemen.
Protecting languages and cultures only spoken by a few may pose a threat to the economy but, the opposite is true. In various places endangered cultures have been a tourist attraction for Individuals as well as organisations such as the Global Heritage Fund. Language and culture are an identity and create diversity: what is man without identity? What is the world without variety and diversity? Who are we without language and
When most people think about history they remember a boring class they took in school a long time ago, they recall memorizing important dates, taking map tests, and falling asleep while listening to a lecture. The truth is that history really is an important subject to be teaching students. History is more than just some lecture you receive in class, history lets us look back, see the good things and the bad things, it allows us to learn from our mistakes and prevent such mistakes from happening in the future. Things that happened in the past are still changing things that are happening today. History is needed for everyone, from government leaders down to individuals; everyone has learned one thing or another from history at some point in their life.
It is a common fact that we are not only taught language itself but we are also taught culture of that nation. Language is the one which reflect all the characteristics of a nation’s culture. It also stores all the social lives and experience of a nation. When a child starts learning a language of a different nation, at the same time he is learning the culture of that nation too. Learning a culture of the language is very important because if a person is not familiar with the culture of a nation, he/she cannot learn the language of the nation well. “I did not believe that the world is made of quarks or electro-magnetic waves, or stars, or planets, or of any such things, the world is made of language” (Harms 21). This shows the importance of language in today’s society. Language is a part of one’s culture and every country gives preference to its own language. As one of the founding fathers of the Afrikaans language, Rev SJ du Toit, wrote in 1891, which ...
Some indigenous languages have died with the elimination of their speakers through genocide or any other calamity. Secondly, many lost their existence because they were not documented and described. Weinreich (1953:68) defines language shift as a "change from the habitual use of one language to that of another". It means the number of speakers comes down in a downward movement, the speakers lose their proficiency and the language use decreases in every sphere of life (Baker and Jones, 1998). In this way, the minority languages shift their sympathies to the majority languages. The process of shift is sometimes so intense that the speakers of the weaker languages relinquish their local language completely (Rasul, 2006). According to Baker (2011) in the forthcoming century around 50 to 90 percent languages of the world will either die or will be on the threshold of
History seen as study of the past is an integral part of many education systems across the world. Many countries spend huge amounts of money and resources to uncover their past. Every year new and new historical sites are uncovered, excavations on those sites are conducted and the result are studied by archeologists throughout the world.
If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language that goes to his heart.” ‒ Nelson Mandela. Since the 1960’s learning a second language has decreased by 30 percent in today’s society. People who wish to learn an additional language often do so to communicate with people who reside in different countries. With an increase in today’s globalization, it is forcing companies throughout the world to break the language barrier. However, with the advancement of technology, numerous citizens find it unnecessary to learn another language, as a translation is at the tip of their fingers. The methods of learning a foreign language can differentiate between people. Nevertheless it has been