TASK 2 --THE ROLE OF LANGUAGES IN PRESERVING CULTURE.

1. How important is language to any culture? Explain.

Language is a fundamental part of any culture in the world, it can define us as a part of a community. Language is essential to communicate between each other , to make the other know how we feel, what we think, or what we want; it is important for everybody. And is not just about the spoken language, also include all the ways in which a person can communicate to another, such as written language and gestures. Language also can define how people understand the world around them. Language helps to describe how a culture is, it gives details of their behavior, costumes, traditions, and social rules. For example some languages, depending of their culture, have expressions and words that cannot be translated to another languages because they are part of their own culture and they may not be understand in another context. Also language is a really important part of us as human beings, we born with a mother tongue, but that does not mean we cannot learn other languages in some point of our lives. To learn a second language make us understand other cultures and know how they work. Through language we are able to see the world in a different and unique way.


2. In the age of globalization, which is more important to the users of small, ethnic languages: preserving the language of the culture, even if it is of limited use outside of the group, or developing fluency in a major language such as English, Spanish, or Mandarin?

I am absolutely convinced that users of small ethnic languages must preserve them. With this I am not telling they cannot develop fluency in major languages such as English, Spanish, or whatever language they want to learn. Both are important, when the last user of a small language dies, with them language and a part of their culture also die. All we know that in the age of globalization it is important to have a good communication with everybody around the world. In this case to know how to speak English, Spanish or Mandarin is very helpful. They are able to open doors to new knowledge and opportunities, and that is why probably people prefer to learn them instead to preserve their own languages. Users of small languages must be conscious about how fortunate they are in having something so important to protect and shared with the rest of us. They have such a valuable knowledge that we ignore. I think the main difficulty in to preserve a language is the young people. Usually users are adults and seniors, because young people do not want to inherent the language of their ancestors. No one has explained them how important is that into their culture and life. They are not realized that when they take the decision to refuse to learn they ancestors language, they are denying a part of their own story and traditions. All this because they are afraid of being rejected for speak a different language than the common one. For that reason I think new generations are the ones to preserve a language, as equal the users. They are the only ones that can and should be concerned about the preservation of their language. Also are important the government policies about that. For example in Peru you can learn ethnic languages, such as Quechua or Aymara at the university, they are so aware and proud about their culture and traditions that they make all they can do to preserve them. But even when governments do all they can do to preserve a language, that is not going to be effective if nobody wants to learn it. They must to shared the wealth of their culture and teach to the world that their language is as important as whatever of the major ones.


3. In the age of globalization, which is more important to the rest of the world, preserving ethnic languages, or enabling speakers of small ethnic languages to develop fluency in a major language such as English, Spanish, or Mandarin?

In this age, the most important thing to the people is enabling speakers of small ethnic languages to develop fluency in a major language. Because the world communication works around those languages. I think the position of the rest of the world about ethnic languages is selfish. The most of the rest of the world do not care about preserve a language they do not speak and if it is not functional for them they care less. Some of them, even having ancestors of a ethnic group, do not want to learn the ethnic language of their parents or grandparents, and reject it, just because they are ashamed of that. They are not able to see how important they are to keep a language alive. Personally, I absolutely disagree with this, they must be proud about their inheritance. Also the world must be aware about their importance and show respect for them. As I said, it is important to develop fluency in major languages in order to work in a globalized world. But it is not the most important thing to do. While we worry about speakers of small ethnic languages will be able to develop other languages, we must worry to preserve their original language. We know that language changes in order to adapt to a changing world, that usually happens with the major languages as some articles said. For that reason they are able to keep alive, changing all the time; even when some governments set very restrictive policies about foreign words that destroy the purity of their language. But small ethnic languages cannot survive by themselves, because they are spoken less and less. When I read the essay "Let them die", I felt bad about giving up into preserve any language. In to know that is going to be a moment when just the most spoken languages around the world are going to survive and a fundamental part of our inheritance is going to die with them. Despite of that I agree with the notion that a language needs a function to survive, we can give them a function if it does not exist a particular one. We can preserve a language in order to preserve our culture.

4. Writers like Chinua Achebe and R K Narayan are not native speakers of English, yet they write and publish in that language. Many other writers from ethnic language backgrounds write and publish in the language of colonization, usually English, French, Portuguese, or Spanish, rather than in their ethnic languages. Given your answer to #2 and #3 above, do you think writers like those mentioned above should continue to write in major languages, or should they be encouraged to write in their ethnic languages, possibly with translations into major languages?

I think those writers should be encouraged to write in their ethnic languages. But my first thought about writing in major languages when they have an ethnic one, it is to think why did not they use them? Obviously we do not know why they decided to write into major languages rather than use their own languages. There could be a lot of reasons why they did it. Maybe they did not feel comfortable writing in ethnic languages because of fear of disappointing to their people, or as represented by their culture to write and preserve it. Another possibility is they thought that putting some distance between their feelings and their roots they were going to be more capable to write in a neutral position about their own culture and people. The only thing we can do is guess about that. I feel they decided to write in major languages in order to get worldwide appreciation, they tried to be famous around the world. They did not care that much about their roots and culture. But get worldwide attention is also possibly writing in their native languages and then having translations of their work. Just like actually happened with those works, they were translated into other major languages. Obviously it also depend of the quality of any written work. I think people who write and have an ethnic language should worry about use it and show the world how it looks like, or how it sounds like. They are living encyclopedias that can teach to rest of the world, how their culture is. However some people do not feel indentify by their ancestors and their traditions, maybe that happened to those writers, even when their writings were about that, but in another language. You cannot be a good diffuser of a culture if you do not feel proud about that, if you do not , you are not going to be able to transmit to the other people anything about the wealth and importance that an ethnic language has.

1. How important is language to any culture? Explain.

We have learned during these months in literature class that language is an important part of any culture. Language is the tool that we use to communicate each other. Our language is something that we received from the ancestors. It is like an old relic that we must protect and pass to the future generations. Language keeps the history of people, and as I read in the articles, it is a part of people from a country. Each language gives an identity to people from a specific zone. Actually, and as in any other, languages may vary depending on the place that is spoken, even in the same country. The importance of all languages is that they show something unique of a culture. As is written on the essay “Let them die”, “when a language dies' we lose 'the possibility of a unique way of perceiving and describing the world” (Popham). This important thing enriches our culture, and reminds us where we come from. It lets us understand a little bit more how things were done, and this knowledge should be passed to future generations. On the contrary, ancient languages seem not to be important anymore, because of the globalization.



2. In the age of globalization, which is more important to the users of small, ethnic languages: preserving the language of the culture, even if it is of limited use outside of the group, or developing fluency in a major language such as English, Spanish, or Mandarin? Defend your position.

The globalization is a process where all cultures are being mixed up. We all can notice that different holydays have been absorbed by many countries around the world, Halloween is a great example. The integration of countries into a globalized world gave the chance to the most spoken languages to come over the “weak” ones. In this new world is important the understanding between each other and, this understanding of the other may give you opportunities to get better in what you do. In our case, ESL students, is really important to learn not just about a language but a culture too, to learn about a culture we must be able to communicate with people from another country, in that way we will be able to master a new language. Everything in this world change, and so people too. In my opinion, we should let the globalization take place, and as is stated in “Let them die”, we must let the language issue flow. Now, it is more important for people create than preserve. We have to move on and do not get stuck on the old stuff, despite the fact that it could be useful, old languages will just keep distance among cultures and countries. I do not think that we may lose our identity because we speak the same language, moreover, it would help us to enrich the understanding between different people. The ancient languages had been useful in the past, but now we do not need to communicate with people just from the near regions, but all around the world. English is the standard spoken language, and this language is giving new job opportunities for people from all over the world. It is taught in our schools. It is a main requirement for applying a job. It is a reason for increasing your salary. So, what would prefer a person to learn, an old fashioned language that is almost useless or something that would give you the chance to have a better life? Obviously most spoken languages will overcome the rest of the languages. In addition, young people are not interested in learning the language of their own culture, because, as I said before, it would not be useful for them. Finally, it is clear that old languages will disappear. However, that does not mean that cultures will perish with it. We must move on in this life. We must adapt to globalization, instead of trying to stop the unstoppable.


3. In the age of globalization, which is more important to the rest of the world, preserving ethnic languages, or enabling speakers of small ethnic languages to develop fluency in a major language such as English, Spanish, or Mandarin? Defend your position.

The answer of this question will not be so different than the last one. Governments must enable speakers of ethnic languages to develop like English, Spanish or French. Let me give you an example. We have people with ethnical roots in San Pedro; actually they have their Aymara language and they use it. These people earn their money by selling products mostly in San Pedro town for tourists, and the tourists are mostly from other countries. The most of these tourists do not speak Spanish, which is the language used in Chile, but they speak English. As you can see, these people do not need Aymara. They need to learn English to sell their products, to be able to communicate with Americans, Asians, and/or Europeans. In that way they will earn more money, that would be able to negotiate with tourists and all what they would need to do. Moreover, these people would sell their products to other countries and open a big door to the world just by letting them learn other language. Another important thing to point out is some people may say that many ancient stories or legends come with the ethnic language, and these stories are an important part of the culture. Although, in my opinion I would try to tell these stories to people who want to understand a different culture; for tourists that go to a specific country to learn more about other people. It would be great to translate ancient stories in Spanish, English, and all the possible languages in order to show the world how our culture had been developed through years. It would be much better that let those stories die with the language. I dare to say that we do not need ethnic languages any more, those languages are just pieces in a museum that are not worth to learn. It is understandable that France or Deutschland want to keep their language and culture. People from other countries must learn the language spoken in the place where they want to live. You must adapt to a new environment. That is what going to happen all over the world. Ancient languages will disappear and just the most important and useful languages will remain. In conclusion, I am sure that people will not lose their ethnicity just because they get in a globalized world. Globalization is the chance that all of us have to improve.



4. Writers like Chinua Achebe and R K Narayan are not native speakers of English, yet they write and publish in that language. Many other writers from ethnic language backgrounds write and publish in the language of colonization, usually English, French, Portuguese, or Spanish, rather than in their ethnic languages. Given your answer to #2 and #3 above, do you think writers like those mentioned above should continue to write in major languages, or should they be encouraged to write in their ethnic languages, possibly with translations into major languages? Explain your answers.

During this class we have read many books written by people whose native language was not English, they were born in Africa, really far away from here. However, they let us understand clearly how their cultures worked; they gave a clear picture of how people lived, what they did. By writing amazing and detailed books they could show the world what was the most important stuff about their culture. We must think that if those books were written in the native language of the writers, they would not have caused the impact they had in the world; I put myself in their boots, and, if I were one of those writes, I would like to sell my book all over the places, to show the world what I write about, to surprise the rest of mankind with a new point of view about an specific place in the world. So, they made the right decision. By writing in English they achieved worldwide fame, and we must say that money too. Maybe, it would be great to have the book written in the ethnic language too, but, as I said in a previous answer, they would be just a piece of art in a museum because an old language that just a few people are able to read and comprehend cannot more than that, something that you look at for a few seconds, you may take a picture if you are allowed to. But an understandable book is something that you may have on your mind for the rest of your life. I admire the courage of those writers, because they realized that nobody will understand them if they keep their culture in a cage. I want to restate that we need a common understanding in this globalizing world, in to reach this understanding we need less languages. We cannot stop meeting each other, language should not be a barrier anymore. Having a common language will allow us to destroy frontiers and it will join us as humans. Despite the damage that globalization may have caused, we must consider that Mr. Achebe would had never been, and his culture would had not reached places of the world as our country famous if globalization would not exist. There may be amazing writers that are not recognized just because they write in a “weak” language; we must encourage these people to write, at least, in English. There is so much knowledge that we should keep.

1. How important is language to any culture? Explain.

Language is one of the main key elements in any culture. A culture can be defined by the traditions they implement in their daily life, the way they dress or address to one another. But in the end what makes a culture different from others is language. It's so important, that in most cases we associate the identity of the different cultures to the language they use. This is easily seen when you ask people about countries or places they don't exactly know too well. If you were to ask a Chilean student what does he/she knows about France their first answer might be that they speak French. If you ask a kid what does he/she knows about the United States you wouldn't get the name of any state, you wouldn't hear him/her name the different traditions, food, dances or tribes that were present in the USA ages ago, you'll probably hear the kid say that he knows that they speak English in that country. The language doesn't exactly dictates how a society behaves, the different ideas or traditions they do, but it does give identity to the country or community it belongs, and this might be good or bad. In our case, Spanish is spoken in a number of countries. Amongst Spanish speakers, Spanish has different faces and it's easy for us to identify one culture from other. But for non-Spanish speakers all Spanish it's the same and they might take easily over 10 different countries and/or cultures and put them in the same bag.

2. In the age of globalization, which is more important to the users of small, ethnic languages: preserving the language of the culture, even if it is of limited use outside of the group, or developing fluency in a major language such as English, Spanish, or Mandarin? Defend your position.

This depends on the speakers, the community itself. Big cultures can benefit from globalization as it brings not only products from other countries to their already blooming communities, but also opens the possibility to comprehend new ideologies and languages better. But in the case of small communities, globalization presents a threat, not a physical threat but a cultural one. The next step for these cultures depends on the name of users and their ages. If the number of speakers are low and their age is already old they might benefit by preserving their culture, this includes language and traditions. Small communities have the risk of losing their identity completely by either a bad implementation of a new culture or even the imposition of the same over the one they already have. Old users might have problems implementing a new system of traditions and language to their communities and this leaves them in a bad position where they slowly lose their old identity but also don't manage to implement the new one, leading them to a disastrous situation. We have been witness of these incidents every now and then, small communities making implementations of new technologies and traditions, just to find themselves losing the ability to perform their old traditions and not being able to make a correct use of the new ones. In the contrary, if the community is moderate in size and/or its members are young they might benefit greatly by adapting (Carefully) a new language. Just like in a big community, the implementation of a new language opens the possibility to more opportunities. Young users can learn more than one language without many complications and in a easier way than older speakers. Now, even in this case, the implementation of the new language should be done in a limited manner, not allowing to have English/Spanish/Chinese words replace their vocabulary in any way, shape or form. The new language and the old one should be two separate entities completely and should be used in different occasions (Contrary to what happens in most countries, where we borrow words from other languages and use them together with our own language at the same time).


In a nutshell, the implementation of a new language in a small community depends on a number of factors, mostly the number of speaker and their age. In an ideal scenario, these communities would benefit from the correct implementation of a new language. But since in most cases these factors don't coincide, small communities are better off not making use of the new language and defending their already small culture.



3. In the age of globalization, which is more important to the rest of the world, preserving ethnic languages, or enabling speakers of small ethnic languages to develop fluency in a major language such as English, Spanish, or Mandarin? Defend your position.

This is a delicate topic. Ever since globalization came knocking on our door we find ourselves in an age of imposition. It's not uncommon to see cultural factors from different countries make their way into other nations in the blink of an eye. Terms like 'Talk show', 'Happy Hour' and more are English expressions used even in Spanish context, these don't need translation since they became part of our vocabulary and now we don't have the words that describe these concepts. We don't refer to the 'Show de conversacion' or the 'Hora Feliz' anymore, even more, these words don't make much sense even though they are Spanish translations of their English counterpart. We didn't signed for these changes on our language, but they have already been made and there's no turning back. The same happens with small ethnic groups or communities of native speaking languages. Without realizing it we begin to impose our cultures into theirs, we promise integration at the cost of them having to learn our culture. For us is easy to learn about other cultures without losing ours since we are surrounded by it. But for small groups, is easy to lose their cultural identity. Small communities can try to learn a new language in a restricted way but we see this as a sign of isolation. If a small community doesn't want to learn our language it means they're not interested, and in this cases we tend to leave them behind. In an ideal scenario, the big societies should try to teach the new languages having in mind that there's so much you can teach before you begin to step into their identity. But since this is not the case the only option left is to either leave the small community be, respecting their decision to not learn the new traditions and making sure to acknowledge their existence in a globalized world as a small community of speakers that doesn't want to be involved in cultural concepts beyond their own, or make an attempt to have members of the big society to learn the language or traditions of the small community, only if the speakers of these community don't have inconveniences with this. This way, the small community can have communication with the big societies without the need of having to learn another culture and risk losing their own thanks to the help of members of other cultures.

4. Writers like Chinua Achebe and R K Narayan are not native speakers of English, yet they write and publish in that language. Many other writers from ethnic language backgrounds write and publish in the language of colonization, usually English, French, Portuguese, or Spanish, rather than in their ethnic languages. Given your answer to #2 and #3 above, do you think writers like those mentioned above should continue to write in major languages, or should they be encouraged to write in their ethnic languages, possibly with translations into major languages? Explain your answers.

While it would be ideal to have both the ethnic language copy and the new language one to choose from, you got to see this topic from a perspective of time, resources, motivation and reason. Now, I'm not a writer, but it's not uncommon to see (Or hear) books be cancelled or be left incomplete due to the writer not being able to finish it for different reasons. Writers are a special thing, you can find them in all shape and form, their work is art and they know it. There are writers that would easily write an entire book in one language and then translate it themselves. But others would find this 'encouraging' as an imposition on their work. Imagine you're a writer, and they tell you that to be a good one you have to do your job twice. It can be a bit annoying.

Another important point is the reason of the book. The audience it is targeted to. If you write a book about your culture, your country, your traditions: Who do you want to teach this book to? Who should read about it? Most of the time, books about culture or even cultural pieces of contemporary literature are targeted to a wide audience, the big society so to speak, so in these cases it's best for the writer to make sure its work can be read by most people, this means, writing the book in English and then letting other cultures attempt to translate it. In the contrary case, if we want to make sure only people from our community reads it, then ethnic language is the best option.

Having writers produce both versions of their works would be perfect, but to achieve something like this there would have to be a numbers of different factors in it. First and most important, the writer's motivation. We can only get so far with the encouragement of the writer if they don't want to comply to these rules. In the end, they're the artists and if they don't want to produce their work in two languages, we can't do much about it (Other than try to translate their ideas with our own interpretation). Second would be the type of encouragement it's given to the writers. Not every encouragement works with every writer. What some might find as a good reason to perform such task, other might find it as an imposition in their work and refuse to do it.

In resume: I personally think it's a great idea to encourage writers to write in their native ethnic language AND the new language. But I'm aware that it is a hard task to perform.

1. How important is language to any culture? Explain. 
According to the reading, language is very important to any culture, especially because it can define the place where we come from, defining our identity. Language is a very special gift just of humans being who have the ability to understand each other, or even to learn a new language could let us know and understand more of another cultures and other parts of the world. Language is what can differentiate us from primates, or from animals, because they could have a way of communication, but it is now as perfect as humans. As we know there are many languages in the world, most of them are primitives and they are almost dying, because there are just a few speakers, or just one. We have to know that if that person dies, this culture is going to die with him/her. We don’t have to ignore that language is a very good elements of cultures, and we are always forgetting it, because we don’t realize that other languages (therefore, other cultures) are being introduce in our native language daily, because of the globalization.



2. In the age of globalization, which is more important to the users of small, ethnic languages: preserving the language of the culture, even if it is of limited use outside of the group, or developing fluency in a major language such as English, Spanish, or Mandarin? Defend your position. 
In nowadays’ society in more important being a success person than be aware of those that are small group of people who live between us, that even have languages and another points of view. With the age of globalization every culture, countries and continents are integrating things from other cultures, and probably we do not realize about that because we are living in the today’s world, where everything is faster than twenty years ago, and where there were more languages, because as we read in the articles, every year are dying more and more old cultures because their languages (or they speakers) are dying as well. In my opinion the small ethnic speakers could be in the middle of this positions, on one hand, they have to live in today’s world, because they cannot ignore that they are immerse in this society, where technology and everything is evolving faster and faster, and where there are people, and countries that think that they are superior than others. And on the other hand, they have to preserve their culture, and one of the principal elements of culture is language, because in that way we could understand each other, and if we understand each other therefore of the dialect we use, that is culture. A clear example could be the “Chilean Language”, and that is because we, as society, have a lot of “modismos” that we could understand between us, but people who came from near countries, would not be able to understand what we are saying. I think that could be the position of the speakers of ethnic languages. They want to have kind of privacy speaking between them or even to remember where they come from, and that is not bad, that is a very special and emotional way to keep alive what they think in, their belief and their strength as a society that one day lived.



3. In the age of globalization, which is more important to the rest of the world, preserving ethnic languages, or enabling speakers of small ethnic languages to develop fluency in a major language such as English, Spanish, or Mandarin? Defend your position. 
I think that for the rest of the world is more important that those small ethnic speakers start learning and developing fluency in major languages, depending on where they live, because it will change if they live in north America, Europe, south America or Australia. I alse think that it could be easier for them communicate with the rest of the people in the world if they learn those universal languages, and if they could need something they could buy and sell with any problem, understanding what the other people is selling to them. In that way, they can be prepared to not be scammed. As we could see in “A Horse and Two Goats” where the American man wanted to buy the horse, and he was speaking in his English language, but the other man, who was a native from India, thought that the American wanted to buy his goats. This was a confusing moment for both of them, because they did not understand each other, but they anyway made a treaty unconsciously. Another strong reason to learn the major languages, could be that today’s life is all about the world, where the economy are based on technology and more other important things, not in the past, and as we know there are a few countries who made this things, and other who buy it, and that is because the globalizations comes together with the capitalism. So, everything before mentioned and more, are reasons for the small ethnic speakers to be immerse in the new world, because even if they are just part of a tribe, having a religion, or anything that a culture have, they are also part of the world, and for that they do not have to be exclude, they have to be include just because they are part of all this place that we called home, that is the entire world.



4. Writers like Chinua Achebe and R. K. Narayan are not native speakers of English, yet they write and publish in that language. Many other writers from ethnic language backgrounds write and publish in the language of colonization, usually English, French, Portuguese, or Spanish, rather than in their ethnic languages. Given your answer to #2 and #3 above, do you think writers like those mentioned above should continue to write in major languages, or should they be encouraged to write in their ethnic languages, possibly with translations into major languages? Explain your answers.

    I think that it will depend on how they will develop their writing. It means that they could write in the language they want, but they also have to think in how this could affect them, in different aspects, economically, intellectually or others. If they start writing in their own language, it could mean that they are aware of their culture, and especially in transmit the language to the world. If we think like that we use to think that there are just a few speakers of those languages, but they also have rights, and one on those rights could be learn, and understand what they are reading. But it could be very hard if they do not know how to write, or even worse how to read in their own native language. On the other hand, writing stories on those major languages could be more beneficial for the writers, because there are more speakers in those languages, and those speakers will buy this books and spread the word about the content. And of course that could happen even if those books are translated from the native language. There are several examples about famous translated books, such as those book that are famous because they were filmed and converted in movies. Those writer just wrote the book in their own language, without thinking in how this novels could affect the world, but it happens. Those books became very famous, and so the writers, and the books have been sold around the world being translated to different languages. That could be a very good thing, I think, for the writers, because if they write just in English, for example, it could be translated to the other languages as well, but they do not have to be selfish, and have to share their native languages to the world.

2. In the age of globalization, which is more important to the users of small, ethnic languages: preserving the language of the culture, even if it is of limited use outside of the group, or developing fluency in a major language such as English, Spanish, or Mandarin? Defend your position. 
In my opinion, is more important preserve the language of the culture. I believe in globalization because I think it is necessary for the growth of a country. Beyond the importation or exportation of things, a cultural exchange that occurs. This is beneficial for the countries involved. I believe that globalization also brought out the negative side of each country which are focused on grow and show to the world as a modern and globalized country and put aside the real roots, as the word says, the roots are what keep us clinging to the earth. In this case what keeps us clinging to our culture. For example, unfortunately here in Chile children are not taught the Mapudungun that is a language of our Mapuche ancestors. It is easier to find a child who knows the numbers in English than find a child who know them in Mapudungun. And it is sad because gradually this language become extinct. I think globalization is an important part of the evolution of a country, but we must also be able to defend our roots and teach the culture and language of our ancestors because of them exists our present. There are many words that we used and we do not know that they are part of the Mapudungun culture like “zapallo” or “cuncuna”, and it is because schools do not teach us the background of the words, or simply do not tell us the ancestral origin of these. As their language, Mapuche culture has been abandoned by Chile. I refer not only to Chile because I had the experience to travel to Paraguay and there the ethnic language is the Guarani, and as Chile, many children did not know how to speak it. Children who can speak it is because their parents have taught them or because they live in small towns where elderly people only speak that language. I think these two examples are few to the many that exist around the world.
I think necessary and very beneficial to learn other languages like English or French, but I also think that we should start with ourselves. We cannot teach languages and cultures of other countries if we are incapable of teach the culture of our own country.