BS: Minority languages

Subject: RE: BS: Minority languages
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 14 Jun 01 - 02:19 PM

Interesting thoughts on education, Sian. I can't speak through personal expericence but in Llandudno area, the Welsh secondary school always seemed to have the best reputation.

Jon

Subject: RE: BS: Minority languages
From: Charmion
Date: 14 Jun 01 - 02:06 PM

We Canadians could give lessons on the bad manners that can arise around minority languages -- especially when people start staking out rights entitlements in language territory. The truly bilingual are actually a small minority; the rest of us manage some degree of compromise between expression and comprehension. A few (probably about the same proportion as the truly bilingual) flat-out refuse to learn The Other Language or refuse to use what they know of it. For them, it's clearly a rear-guard action in an ideological war.

I live and work in Ottawa, a genuinely bilingual border city with a very ethnically mixed population. I'm not sure which is the minority language here, but there are days when I think it's the Queen's English.

Subject: RE: BS: Minority languages
From: Mountain Dog
Date: 14 Jun 01 - 01:52 PM

It strikes me that if the English language were suddenly forced to give back all of its "borrowed words" to the lands and cultures from which it acquired them, it would be a fairly sorry assortment of keenings, squawks and grunts rather than one of the richest linguistic stews imaginable...

Subject: RE: BS: Minority languages
From: MMario
Date: 14 Jun 01 - 12:06 PM

here! here! One of the big gripes my sibs and I have with my Dad is that he didn't teach us Italian when we were young. (He could have easily - it was his birth tongue - he spoke little to no english until he entered school)

A young friend of mine was tri-lingual from the cradle - english for public life, german with her dad and chinese with her mom.

Subject: RE: BS: Minority languages
From: Mountain Dog
Date: 14 Jun 01 - 11:55 AM

Nearly twenty years ago, I spent several evenings in a B&B in London run by a charming gentleman named Dyffd Llewellyn Thomas. At breakfast the first morning, his two children tumbled into the parlor and prattled on to him in a most musical way, he answering in fond parental tones. As quickly as they had entered, they whirled away, leaving their father with a kiss apiece and cheerful words of parting.

Dyffd looked at us with a smile and said:

"They speak English, too. With their Mum. She's a London girl. I've spoken to them in Welsh ever since they were born."

"Don't they find it confusing?" asked my companion.

He looked at her in surprise.

"Not at all," he said. "They know that Mum speaks English and Dad speaks Welsh. I think it's important for'em to know both their native languages.

"Besides," he said quietly, "There's not so many of us left, now, and I want someone to pass it along to the next generation."

I couldn't help but think, then and today, how rich a gift Dyffd Llewellyn was giving to his children and with what unassuming grace.

Subject: RE: BS: Minority languages
From: InOBU
Date: 14 Jun 01 - 11:43 AM

Good idea, and while we are at it, close every restauraunt that is not McDonnals and Burger King, and replace all the small mom and pop stores with a K-Mart, and while your at it, shoot all the folk musicians.... some people! Larry

Subject: RE: BS: Minority languages
From: sian, west wales
Date: 14 Jun 01 - 11:16 AM

yeh, he's a wind-up artist. Suspend all privileges. All languages add to the rich tapestry of creative thought. I value all opportunities to work with people who speak other languages - you get a far more divers response to problem solving. Minority language-speakers also have a greater grasp of the problems of struggling against the odds.

In Wales (as you know!) if I had kids, I'd send them to Welsh-language schools even if I didn't speak Welsh because the overall commitment of the teachers is greater because they're dedicated both to teaching and to preserving their culture. I'm saying this from experience: when I was a theatre marketing officer in Cardiff, Welsh medium schools were miles ahead of their English counterparts in bringing kids to theatre and all arts events.

Oh - here's an interesting bit: at the time of the French Revolution, only a third of the population of present day (geographical) France spoke French. Somewhere, too, I have another snippet scribble down ... something like, on average, there are three languages to be found in every European nation state.

Yeh, he's winding us up...

O bydded i'r Hen Iaith barhau!

sian

Subject: RE: BS: Minority languages
From: GUEST,Karen
Date: 14 Jun 01 - 11:04 AM

Dear Lyndi-loo, please slap your husband upside the head for me. He's obviously just trying to rile you and deserves a good thumping. :-)
Of course minorities languages should be kept alive as long as we are able to do so!
Come to think of it, just give me your address. I'll smack him myself!

Subject: Minority languages
From: Lyndi-loo
Date: 14 Jun 01 - 10:55 AM

My Scottish husband really loves to wind me up and we had a humdinger of an argument last night. He says that minority languages like Welsh (my language!), Gaelic, Breton etc. should all be allowed to die and should not be supported by the taxpayer in the form of bilingual signs, official forms, TV programmes and so on. Apart from the fact that so many good songs are written in these languages, I feel that they are still part of our heritage and deserve to be supported and encouraged. In fact I believe that the number of Welsh speakers in Wales has increased in recent years. What do you think? Should these languages go the way of Anglo-saxon and Old Norse. Or is there hope in this increasingly English-speaking world?