The Linguists Video Response

After viewing the video of Dr. David Harrison and Dr. Gregory Anderson and keeping in mind the information of our previous readings, I believe that the most important themes of language to be addressed are encouraging the use of languages despite criticism of society and recording the languages through out history. It seems that the death of many languages is the result of institutions and society suppressing the use of them because of new ideas that are adopted or globalization. In the article of From English to Chinglish, we learn how English has become many times the neutral language of choice between people. Also, our guest speaker from Pakistan spoke about the ideology behind teaching children English in hopes of a more successful future even if that meant their mother tongue would be neglected.

It is natural and human to have a desire for success, many of us are willing to do and work as hard as we can to strive and be accepted by society. In the film we see how it is evident through Vasya, their driver. Even though he was asked initially if he spoke Chulym, he denied it. As the film goes on and the first speaker of Chulym is interviewed, Vasya finally begins to speak Chulym with the older Chulym speaker. It was a surprise for the linguists since they didn’t expect him to speak the language after he had been asked and denied knowledge of it. Eventually, when Vasya opens up to them, he does tell them how embarrassed he felt of speaking his mother tongue because of society discouraging the use of it. Not wanting to feel as an outcast or judged by others he opted to accept the death of his language, Chulym.

In Pakistan, English and Urdu are the official languages. However, as our speaker explained through her studies and information gathered, English is the language preferred by many as the path to success. She explained to us that a child in Pakistan is usually exposed to at least four languages: their mother tongue, Urdu, English and Arabic (religion). The education in Pakistan is taught in two languages, Urdu and English. However, a person with superior information is educated only in English. Ironically, when she did a study through a survey among parents of different schools, many agreed that Urdu was a good language for moral and ethics but despite their beliefs English was still superior only as a path that would ensure their success and well being. Once again here we can see how society plays a major a role in setting pressures that eventually may lead to the death of languages as our society continues to advance.

Another important theme of language that would help in preventing the extinction of a language is recording it. According to the article From English to Chinglish “The disappearance of a language is tied directly to the death of a culture in some cases. Linguists have estimated that half of the world’s languages do not have a written form. For example, of the 231 endangered languages spoken in Australia, at least 50 of them have never been written down” (60-63).  In the film, Chulym faced the same problem, there was no written record of it. The speakers of Chulym just like many other ancestral languages are passed down orally. I believe that if we focus on encouraging the use of these languages in danger of extinction and also encourage the speakers of them to record them in writing or even better yet through the use of videos, many languages can be saved. We need to encourage and voice how important languages are to understand every culture and our ancestors. It should be encouraged to feel proud of knowing a language that might not be known by many but that was once the culture of our ancestors.

Works Cited

"From English to Chinglish: The Globalization of Languages." Globalization101.org. The State University of New York, 23 July 2008. Web. 14 Apr. 2012. <http://www.globalization101.org/from-english-to-chinglish-the-globalization-of-languages/>.

PBS. Dir. Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy S. Newberger. Perf. Dr. David Harrison and Dr. Gregory Anderson. PBS. PBS. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://www.pbs.org/thelinguists/For-Educators/>.