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

1. How important is language to any culture? Explain. 
Culture, as we define it in classes, is define as the body of traditions, values, and practices, which, taken together, distinguish one society from another. If we take this last statement we realize that every culture have a language, and that can distinguish each place from another, because people used to understand each other when they are living in the same place, because they share different things in common. With this, we can say that language is very important to any culture, because it can differentiate a place from another, and also can explain why people that speak in one way act different that people who speak on other. Every language spoken is a tradition of the people. There are languages that are considered World Heritage, because authorities and institutions such as UNESCO realize that language is a very important part of each town making a culture.



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. 
Nowadays, the world is running faster than some years ago, and that is because of the globalization, it is a process where people buy and sell things from places that are far. And that is very important in these days, especially because we depend on the economic situations of the potential countries. According to this situation I think that those small group of people have to be immerse in the world, actually because they are! They should preserve their own native language but at the same time, they have to learn about those major languages such Spanish or English, because it could be very beneficial for them, especially if they want to sell and buy things to survive, they do not have to live in a bubble, because they are part of the world. Defending their culture of course, but I think that a very good way to preserve it is sharing it with the rest of the world, they do not have to be that selfish, because there are people who like and enjoy studying cultures, and if there are no register of those languages, they just are letting them die, as the essay “Let Them Die” says.

Here in Chile, we have many native cultures, and they were almost forgotten by the government, but the same people who pertain to those ethnics tried and made and effort to preserve their languages, and there are towns that teach those languages. For example here in the north we have the Aymara Language, that is being taught, but in the south we have de Mapudungun, that is the native language spoken by the Mapuches. Those were small ethnic groups that decided to preserve the language and they did. Because they realize that language is a very element for the culture. And that is not all, because we can see that Mapudungun is being developed in different ways, such as computer programs, or even in the offices of the Registro Civil we can read the information in Spanish, English and Mapudungun, and that just because they realized that those languages were part of our country. And for that reason, I think that small ethnic group should keep their languages, but at the same time they should learn these major languages to be part of the world.



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. 
As I said before, nowadays we are being governed by countries that are World Potential, unfortunately we are depending on their economic situation. But on the other hand, this is bringing some benefits, because we are buying and selling things from fay away places, thing that humans never thought before. Also, everything that happen around the world is important, so we do not have to be exclude about that. In my opinion, I think that for the rest of the world could not be important what is happening with small ethnic, because we as society do not realize how important are those little group of people, because they are the beginners of everything, probably before our major languages they thought that there were no other cultures, or no other people living apart of them, but the colonization of countries was a process that change totally the world.

The world in changing every year, especially because of the technology, that is being more sophisticated every time. No one before could imagine how the smartphones could have repercussions in the world, but they are in my opinion the more intelligent machine never created. But those old ethnic never thought about that as possible.

I think that the world see those small ethnic groups as simple elements that contributed to the world, but nothing else. And for that reason those people should learn those major languages to be include in the world as society, and be remembered for the rest of the life. Because people do not care about them until those ethnic people or language has died.





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.

In my opinion those writer should write in their own languages, because they do not have to forget where they come from, especially if they have the opportunity to translate their works into major languages, and it could be even writing by themselves, and that could be a good opportunity to grow up as novelist in several languages. As I said before, those speakers do not have to be selfish with their languages, because those should be World Heritage, because they are beginners of this. The world have the right to know about them, and in that way more people who speak the language could learn how to write it and how to read it, and in that way would be more and more speakers, is the languages could no die. Those writers that we read along the course, should be aware about their own origin, because if they are not, who could? We have to think what could happen if we were the last speaker of our native language, such as English or Spanish, because fortunately we can speak both, and no one could save the language, we have to be able to spread those both languages, or even to preserve them in a museum.
And as I said in the first question, language is important, because it is the only element that could diferentiate from another culture, in the only that could not be sold, and it the only that could mark our form of be, and could explain different things that we as culture just could understand. Language is our way to save our heritage as humans, and if we forget out it, we will forget about everything.

soledadayabire; I understand your point of view, but when you say that they need to preserve their language and also that they need to be " conscious about how fortunate they are in having something so important to protect and shared with the rest of us", you need to think that they are normal persons just like we are, but they have this huge disadvantage for using their ethnic language. I think they would love to protect it and share it with the rest, but they do not have time for it I guess, just like us, they need to work and do a lot of things (I think more than we do) to survive in their conditions. I think they don't have the time or the desire of share with more people their language. I think they without wanting it, left their language to a side just because they need to "stay connected with the world".

milenaramirez; I  agree with you about that writers write their books in major languages because they want to be known for many people, but when you say that they would first write it in their ethnic language and then in a major language I guess I know why they do not do it. A writer typically is a normal person, not a billionaire or something like that; write a book first in a very little known language and then in a major language need a lot of time, work and money (to publish it twice). That's a reason why they do not do it. i do not think they do not write in their ethnic language because they want to see it die, or something similar. It is just they think about their personal goals before the cultural goals.

1. How important is language to any culture?



        Language is one of the most important components of every culture in the world. As we all know, language is the method through which we receive and deliver messages in a comprehensible effective and way. Languages can be produced orally, in a written way, and also through gestures which distinguish a culture from all the others. The different languages are composed of sounds, concepts, symbols and also dialects that represent the identity of the people who speak them. They are like identification cards. So, for example, when we hear a person speak, we can guess where that individual comes from. In addition, language forges the “feeling of belonging” and all the traditions of a social group or community of speakers. For instance, in the north of Chile and in Bolivia we celebrate carnivals during February such as the “Inti Ch’amampi” (With the power of the Sun in Quechua) in Arica, or the “Oruro Carnival” in Bolivia. Most of the dances that are presented in these carnivals have their origin in Aymara and Quechua culture. Therefore, when these carnivals are transmitted via television, the transmission is done in Spanish and Aymara simultaneously.
        Finally, I do not think that language defines how a social group should think and understand the world, but it really defines their identity and traditions.



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.


        I think that the most important for the speakers of ethnic languages is to preserve their language and culture. If we see this through the perspective of globalization, preserving those languages is useless because just a little number of people speak them. However, preserving their language is way more useful and meaningful for them because they develop within a community that shares the same heritage.

        Do you think that Quechua people need to speak French, Chinese or English in their community? Of course they do not. They have their own system, their own symbols and concepts that other language may not have. They can express themselves perfectly using their own language. Nonetheless, with globalization the ethnic languages have been adopting different words and terms from foreign languages. Continuing with this example, due to the fact that Quechua and Aymara communities live in countries that have Spanish as the mother language, they have had to learn it. The reasons are numerous, but I think that the mains are to access education and to promote the trade of their goods. As a consequence, they have become bilingual because they learned Spanish, but it does not mean that they will forget their mother language. I do not say that it is wrong for them to learn a new language, indeed it gives them more opportunities to communicate with foreigners. What I say is that, for people from ethnic groups, especially elderly people, the most important thing to do in this time of globalization and technology is to keep their traditions alive. So, if they forget about their language and adopt a foreign language they would kill their own traditions. They will fight in order to be recognized as the community that they are, with their culture and customs, not with anyone else’s.

        I think that, during this period of globalization where different cultures are sharing common elements, the “feeling of belonging” in these people has increased a lot, and their desire to make their culture untouchable by other cultures is noticeable. They don’t want their culture to fade away in this “global village”. So, why should they have to learn a language that does not represent their culture, their traditions and most important, their identity?

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.



        Here, my opinion is divided; I think that both things happen. On one hand, I think that most of the countries prefer to enable the speaker of small ethnic languages to be fluent in a major language. The reasons for this opinion are many. First of all, people from the age of globalization have lost the interest on languages that are not “useful”. It is better for everybody to have a common language because in this way they can communicate with any person in the world. This fact leads nations to encourage their population to learn a second language, which is world-widely used, such as Spanish, English or Chinese. This commonly shared language promotes the exchange of goods amongst the nations. Thus, a person from a Spanish-speaking country can easily find a job in an English speaking country and vice versa. So, what would people prefer? a language that facilitates the communication between them and the rest of the world? or a language that is used just within a small community? I think everybody would prefer to learn the “big” language rather than the “small”. Now, if we think of the ethnic languages, there are certain obstacles when trying to preserve them. First of all, most of these languages were transmitted just orally; they do not have a written form. This makes the preservation process a lot harder, and demands a lot of more effort. Secondly, the amount of speakers can be very limited. This is a very important factor because if the speakers die, so does the language and the culture. For example, Kenan Malik in “Let Them Die” says that “Eighty-one year old Marie Smith Jones is the last living speaker of Eyak, an Alaskan language. When she dies, so will her language.” The third obstacle, and the most difficult I think, is the fact of actually getting people interested in learning those ethnic languages. It is common that the younger generations follow what is popular, and ethnic languages are. They would prefer to learn a language that their favorite artists and people in movies use rather than a language that nobody knows.


       Nonetheless, there are some countries that care about their ethnicities. For instance, in Bolivia the Aymara population is a big number, yet their language is endangered just like many ethnic languages of the world. However, in the city of La Paz, they carried out “The first international congress of Aymara language and culture”. In this congress, they discussed about the Aymara culture and their concern about preserving their language. They say that “the language is the vehicle that transports the cultural expressions of the communities”.


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?

       First of all, everybody is free to write in the language they want to. However, seeing this from a cultural perspective, I think that they should write in their ethnic language, not to show a nationalist image but to preserve their culture. Globalization and its consequences such as the “common language” have caused that most of the authors have decided to write in the languages that are “dominating” the world, rather than in their own. I think that this is because of the fact that they can reach larger and international audience if they write in English, for example. And, if there is more audience, it means more money. Of course not all of the authors want just money. Some authors write in “bigger” languages because they want their message to reach more people than just the community they live in.

       In my opinion, author should at least try to write in their native language. Now, what if they write in their language and then translate it into a major language? Obviously, it is double work to do it. In addition, as we have seen, many languages do not have a commonly agreed written form; they are transmitted just orally. Consequently, I think that the double work has to be done by the authors because some languages are just too difficult to translate, and the message they want to deliver might be misunderstood.


      Wouldn’t it be terrible if there only existed books in Spanish or English? What about the people who want to know about a language and culture that are different from the major ones? There would not exist diversity nor cultural richness, and many traditions cultures be lost.
Finally, I want to say that I think that if every author wrote at least one book in their ethnic language, the cultural gain to the society would be priceless.

      

"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." I totally agree with you soledadayabire. It is true, and sometimes the meaning of some concepts changes drastically in different languages. However I disagree with you when you say that "Through language we are able to see the world in a different and unique way". I do not think that speaking language makes you see the world in a different way from a person who speaks another language.

"Despite the fact that in Bolivia and Peru still teach their native language, I think that they should, not get rid of them, but teach a useful language instead. You see how far behind are those cultures, and that people need to move on. They need to get engaged with this globalized world. In my opinion, learning new languages would give them chances to improve. It may not be the solution, but it is an amazing tool that they may use in their favor." I disagree with you sebaalliu. I think that the languages they have are already "useful", otherwise they would not be able to communicate. It is necessary for them to be part of the globalized world? I do not think that it is mandatory, so why should they endanger their own culture to be part of the globalized world?

1. How important is language to any culture?
Language is an important part of culture, and not just important it is fundamental to culture. If there is no language there is no way to share what you think or what you want. We know that without language there is no way to communicate each other, that is why it is important to preserve it even if it is a language that we don’t use anymore. To preserve language is a way to preserve culture too, I mean if we see a culture we can see that they have a specific way to communicate each others, they have different words to refer to an specific thing. Language define who you are, where are you from, sometimes we don’t pay attention to the importance of old languages and they finally die, and we are losing an important part of that culture. Language is all ways of communication, it is not just the way we speak, it also include the gestures we use, or the written language too. As I said before language is a fundamental part of culture, that help us to share our beliefs, traditions, and rules. When we don’t protect our native languages we are losing a part of our culture. Sometimes it is difficult because we share a lot of words from other languages and on schools there is not common to learn native languages.

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 think they must preserve their native languages, because it that language finally die parts of culture will die too. I think it is important to develop fluency with other languages like English, Spanish or Mandarin, because it gives you a lot opportunities nowadays, but we have to understand that we have to continue learning native languages. For Young generations I think is more difficult because sometimes they just think in be successful or let their native places to have a better life, and they leave their native languages and finally they leave a part of their culture, maybe they don’t think or they don’t know the importance of their native language. It is also because we use to see a native language as something less important, but they must think in what they lose if their culture died, as i said before to Young people it is difficult to preserve their native language if in their schools they don’t teach students the importance of it. Also native speakers should give the the opportunities to learn both. I think even if they want to teach their ancestors languages the most important thing is to be interested in learn it. Nowadays we have the opportunities to learn a lot about our own native languages and culture, but there is not interest on it. Nowadays we have the opportunities to learn a lot about our own native languages and culture, but there is not interest on it.The problem is that people still being discriminate because of their culture, for example here in Chile we have a lot of native languages but there still dieing, like 'Yagan', there is just one speaker. If we consider that people from ethnic places are the poorest, is easy to understand why they want to leave and go to the city, or learn major languages, they think they will have a better life, and I understand it. Because it is easy to have an opinion about that if we don’t have their difficulties and we don’t have the interest to learn those languages that we have here in Chile. We are part of the problem that languages die, because there is no interest in learn it. Cultural diversity is something that we have to learn on school or in our houses, because there is no way to be interesting in our native languages if we are not exposed to them, if we don’t know nothing about them. That is why i think for users of small ethnic languages there is no interest on preserve nothing about they cultures, and i think they see it as an impediment to progress, and they don’t see the important part of it to their cultures.

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

I don’t know if it is possible to measure, to tell statistically how important is a language to any culture, but it is certainly of a huge importance. There come a lot of discussions when explaining the importance that links a language with its own culture or a culture with its own language. The identity of the people or a just a singular person comes from its culture, that is defined by the language that culture speaks (or maybe the language its defined by the culture? , I can’t really tell), so when discussing the factors that prove how important is the a language to any culture is really difficult to give an answer. If we thing for a moment the importance of Spanish for Chileans we could say for sure that our society would be totally different is we speak another language, and I don’t mean it would be because the roots of the language, I mean that because Spanish is that flexible that we, Chileans, have the possibility to blend it as we want and create words that we can make them of daily use. It happens even today, we still create words that we add to our daily speech and those words have been accepted for all the society and even for the “Real Academia Española de la Lengua” (RAE). We can find today words that have been adapted by Chileans society in the latest versions of Chilean dictionaries released by the RAE. It is a simple example that kinds of show the importance of the language to the culture.

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.

Globalization is a difficult issue that threatens the ethnic languages spoken for a minor amount of people. To save a language in order to keep a huge part of a culture living it’s for sure a tremendous difficult task. There are some languages that are dying with the elders, so to preserve those languages they must be taught to the newest generations. The success on preserving the language will depend on the acceptance the newest generations have on the language. If the language cannot be preserved by the newest generations it will eventually die. If there is a reduced number of people that speak a language, they could be get together and with the help of some linguist they could discuss how to save the language for new generations or for any other reason, if the language dies with those people at least they could leave a register of the language, like a dictionary or an audio or video, for the people to know the language, how it was and how to use, the idea is to leave any kind of evidence if it is possible. If the culture is getting isolated because of the usage of the ethnic language they speak, there is an obvious necessity to learn a globalized language. The possibilities of learning a globalized language are many for cultures that speak a language in via of extinction. Learn to speak and communicate using a language that can be used around the world give people (mostly for people that live in community and speak an ethnic language) the opportunity to enrich their own culture and to create business relationships with another culture. In the case of little villages that speaks a language in common with other villages it will work for them keep speaking their own language, but for only one village that speak one language it will be a benefit to learn another language, so the village don’t get isolated and in case of a crisis or any problem it could communicate to another village and ask for help. I think it is important to preserve the language of a culture, but if the culture has to move on to survive they must learn how to communicate using another language. Learn how to communicate in another language doesn’t mean that that society will lost their culture, their language can die with the elders, but they will always have their culture, their customs, and all the things that identify the most that group of people.

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 first it is necessary to find a way to save those languages that are dying, so they do not just get lost in time. To every culture that speaks a certain language is important their own language, it is involved in the history of that society, is part of their customs, is an important part of the culture. After the goal of saving the languages that are dying the ethnic groups that speak an ethnic language should develop fluency in a major language like English, Spanish, Mandarin or another. The key to save those languages is the same issue that is threatening them, globalization. Yes, globalization. Globalization opens the gates of the world and with this comes a lot of benefits to small groups that speak languages in via of extinction. Economy and technology are the main benefits for a society that comes with learning a new globalized language. The economy could help (or destroy) those groups to increase the life quality. But the thing here is salving the language first, so technology is the main key. With the technological development linguists could develop a strategy or something to save those languages that are in via extinction, there could be a proposal of get a certain number of people that speak a language endangered and make a grammar book along with a dictionary and a recording of the phonemes that are used to produce the words of that languages, this strategy could be applied to those languages that are still in hope of salvation. After this I think is accurate for those ethnic groups that speak an ethnic language to develop fluency on a major language like English, Spanish, Mandarin or another, so those cultures have the chance to become societies of the “first world”.
Some people of those cultures could that developing fluency in a major language is something that will threaten their culture, if they only think on the bad things that come along with globalization they will probably never developed the fluency or the necessary level to communicate with other cultures. But on the other hand there come benefits too with globalization, like economic development, that will help the culture to develop their standards, also technological development, that will increase health qualities and education, among other benefits. To get a culture more globalized and more opened to the world, it all begins with developing fluency in a major language, so I agree that ethnic groups that still speak an ethnic language should move on and develop fluency in a major language.


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 have two thoughts about this. My first thought is that they should write in their ethnic language, why? , simple, because they usually write about their culture and the issues they suffer. They write stories or novels, fictional or real, it doesn’t matter, the matter is not all the people on the culture that speak the same ethnic language have the chance to read their stories. They also write the about the opinions of their society about the rest of the world and their view of the world. But is well know that not all the ethnic languages have a written form, so in those cases it won’t matter in which language it is written, but there could be a recording of the book, today is possible to afford a radio and buy a CD, so those ethnic groups can hear what the author writes about them. My second thought is that the authors should also write in another language, a language most known for the rest of the world, why? because of the same reasons, everybody in the world would be able to read and know the perspectives, thoughts, points of view and so on, about the author and the ethnic group in which he or she was born on. The societies of authors like Chinua Achebe and others were usually colonized for another nation, which leads to a blend of different cultures, in which the most prominent culture gain ground on establishing and defining most of the culture of that geographical zone. One way of telling the world how was for those cultures to lost their customs and blend with another society is by writing, we saw in the course how these societies that were colonized and what were thinking those who were colonized. So if it is possible for the authors to get their books published in more than one language, there should be a publishing house in charge of translating those meaningful books into those ethnic languages, even thou it will be a tremendous effort to accomplish the task, I think it is more simple to translate a book and make copies of it than get an ethnic group to learn a language in a short time.

Ricardo Ramos Díaz, Mint paralelo