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Lara Cowell

Tibetans Fight to Salvage Fading Culture in China - 0 views

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    China has sharply scaled back, and restricted, the teaching of languages spoken by ethnic minorities in its vast western regions in recent years, promoting instruction in Chinese instead as part of a broad push to encourage the assimilation of Tibetans, Uighurs and other ethnic minorities into the dominant ethnic Han culture. The Education Ministry says a goal is to "make sure that minority students master and use the basic common language." And some parents have welcomed the new emphasis on teaching Chinese because they believe it will better prepare their children to compete for jobs in the Chinese economy and for places at Chinese universities. But the new measures have also stirred anxiety and fueled resentment, with residents arguing that they threaten the survival of ethnic identities and traditions already under pressure by migration, economic change and the repressive policies of a government fearful of ethnic separatism.
Riley Adachi

Grappling With the Language of Love - 0 views

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    This article was about the language of love and took us, the reader, through the author's love history, given her very peculiar situation. The story began with Emily Robbins, moving to Syria as a young linguist trying to assimilate herself with the Arabic language. She met a Syrian doctor of similar age that she soon fell in love with. She was a beginner Arabic speaker and Arabic was his first language. There was an obvious language barrier between the two and it was often hard to convey messages to each other. The doctor was actually quite eloquent with his writing and speaking, but Robbins butchered his messages because of her blunt and broad knowledge of the language. They soon became distant because of their inability to understand each other. A few years have passed since Robbins has returned from Syria and she is definitely more adept to Arabic. She went through her old letters from the doctor and read them, with a better background of the Arabic language. From reading his letters she finally understood the full meaning behind his messages. The doctor's notes were beautiful and evidently showed his once devoted love to her. Robbins learned that being able to give and receive language is a huge base that ultimately holds love together. Had she understood the meanings of his messages before, there would be a possibility that they could still be passionately in love with each other today.
Ryan Catalani

British and American English: Americanisation survey: the results | The Economist - 0 views

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    "Our online survey asking Brits which Americanisms they use has had over 650 responses... It seems that "sidewalk" and "apartment" are the two commonest adoptions, while about half of you use "vacation" and "bug". There's a bit more resistance to "I'm good" over "I'm well", and to saying Z as "zee" instead of "zed". Around two-thirds stick with the British pronunciations of "process" and "progress", which seems to confirm my suspicion that those two are real assimilation watersheds."
jodikurashige15

The people who want their language to disappear - 2 views

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    It's not unusual to hear about attempts to save a disappearing language - but in one place in rural California, some Native Americans actually want their language to die out with them.
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    Sadly, one of the Maidu tribe members reports, "Those that know the language don't want to speak it. They associate it with difficult times. They don't want to stir up… anything." Having suffered historically at the hands of outsiders who encouraged assimilation and forgetting the native language, the Maidu are distrustful of outsiders attempting to revitalize the language.
jolander20

Angst In Germany Over Invasion Of American English : Parallels : NPR - 0 views

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    English has invaded the german language over the past 6 decades. Words such as sorry provide quicker more effective alternatives to their german counterparts. This assimilation of the english language can be seen in all levels of German society from common everyday interactions to even being used in the government. Some Germans see this as a bad thing and believe the problem stems from Nazi germany and a lack of appreciation for the German language following WW2. Other Germans see it as not a big deal because compared to a language like english the percentage of words borrowed from other languages is minimal.
kiaralileikis20

The Economic Value of Bilingualism for Asians and Hispanics - 1 views

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    This study examines how bilingualism affects the wages of Asian and Hispanic workers using 2000 Census data. In contradiction to the general belief that bilingualism can provide a competitive advantage in the labor market, we find no evidence that 1.5-generation and U.S.-born Asian and Hispanic bilingual workers generally have higher wages than their English monolingual co-ethnics; in some cases, in fact, their wages are significantly lower. In search of specific circumstances under which bilingualism might provide an economic advantage, we also examine interactions of language with such variables as education, employment in the public rather than the private sector, and the size of the population of mother-tongue speakers. With limited exceptions, we find no sign of greater economic returns to bilingualism. Since bilingualism requires considerable effort to maintain across generations in the United States, we conclude that the virtual absence of economic rewards for it creates pressure for linguistic assimilation.
rorykilmer21

Bilingual Education: 6 Potential Brain Benefits : NPR Ed : NPR - 0 views

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    This article discusses six benefits to bilingualism. It touches on matters like: increased attention/flexibility in learning; better understanding fo social cues; lower risk of dementia; smoother assimilation into schools; and better school performance and enjoyment. It cites current and past bilingual studies from UC Riverside, Harvard, and other top universities.
Lara Cowell

The U.S. has spent more money erasing Native languages than saving them (The U.S. has s... - 0 views

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    According to Ethnologue, of the 115 Indigenous languages spoken in the U.S. today, two are healthy, 34 are in danger, and 79 will go extinct within a generation without serious intervention. In other words, 99% of the Native American languages spoken today are in danger. Despite the Cherokee Nation's efforts, the Cherokee language (ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ) is on that list. There are 573 federally recognized tribes in the United States, and most are battling language extinction. Since 2008, thanks in part to the Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act, the Administration for Native Americans (ANA), through a competitive grant process, has allocated approximately $12 million annually to tribes working to preserve their languages. In 2018, only 47 language projects received funding - just 29% of all requests, leaving more than two-thirds of applicants without funding, according to ANA. The Bureau of Indian Education, the Department of Education's Department of Indian Education and the National Science Foundation allocated an estimated additional $5.4 million in language funding in 2018, bringing the grand total of federal dollars for Indigenous language revitalization last year to approximately $17.4 million. Compared to how much the United States spent on exterminating Native languages, that sum is a pittance. At the height of the Indian boarding school era, between 1877 and 1918, the United States allocated $2.81 billion (adjusted for inflation) to support the nation's boarding school infrastructure - an educational system designed to assimilate Indigenous people into white culture and destroy Native languages. Since 2005, however, the federal government has only appropriated approximately $180 million for Indigenous language revitalization. In other words, for every dollar the U.S. government spent on eradicating Native languages in previous centuries, it spent less than 7 cents on revitalizing them in this one.
Lara Cowell

The Spelling Bee highlights why it's so hard to spell in English - 0 views

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    This Reuters inforgraphic succinctly summarizes the evolution and history of the English language, and what makes spelling in English so difficult. To quote the article, "English is the collector and assimilator of the world's words and retains all their color and irregularities."
gabbiegonzales24

Island Scene - 0 views

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    A very relatable article that talks about the unique culture and blend of languages in Hawaii. It mentions the benefits of being bilingual, HCE, assimilation, and learning a language. It also talks about the Hawaii Seal of Biliteracy program and the perks of being bilingual.
sydneyendo24

The benefit of immersive language-learning experiences and how to create them | Cambrid... - 1 views

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    This article talks about second language acquisition, and a higher efficacy rate in those who are fully immersed in the language they're learning. The study concluded that those in bilingual immersion programs or study-abroads exhibit higher levels of motivation to learn the language due to a desire to assimilate.
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