Comments on: Multilingualism. http://www.catscanman.net/blog/2007/08/multilingualism/ random noise, nebulous views & artifacts Thu, 17 May 2012 03:49:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Lakshmi http://www.catscanman.net/blog/2007/08/multilingualism/comment-page-1/#comment-22559 Lakshmi Thu, 30 Aug 2007 09:07:47 +0000 http://www.catscanman.net/blog/?p=244#comment-22559 Vijay, that was a great post. Such posts serve to remind us every now and then how united we are in our diversity. Living in a university campus gives you an experience of "miniature" India. The building we live in has six apartments - we are a tamil family, my ground floor neighbour is a Bengali, on the first (second to Americans) floor, there is one tamil family and one Malayali family, and on the second (third to Americans) floor, we have a Telugu family and another Tamil family. And we all speak to each other in Tanglish - a mixture of Tamil and English ! Vijay, that was a great post. Such posts serve to remind us every now and then how united we are in our diversity.

Living in a university campus gives you an experience of “miniature” India. The building we live in has six apartments - we are a tamil family, my ground floor neighbour is a Bengali, on the first (second to Americans) floor, there is one tamil family and one Malayali family, and on the second (third to Americans) floor, we have a Telugu family and another Tamil family.

And we all speak to each other in Tanglish - a mixture of Tamil and English !

]]> By: moof http://www.catscanman.net/blog/2007/08/multilingualism/comment-page-1/#comment-22507 moof Tue, 28 Aug 2007 21:08:11 +0000 http://www.catscanman.net/blog/?p=244#comment-22507 Vijay! This was great! I really enjoyed it. Coming from a bilingual culture (Franco American) I could really relate to what you were saying. About another language becoming prominent in the US - I think that you can say that Spanish has. It's spoken more and more widely all the time, since it seems to be a language of choice in the schools. Many non-Hispanic Americans are fluent in Spanish. Americans, however, tend to have a blind spot where multiculturalism is concerned - particularly in the area of language. It was an eye opener for me when I traveled, and realized how many people in foreign lands had learned English ... and could converse with me. That speaks a bit about Americans ... shouldn't we be learning the languages of the places we visit rather than expecting them to speak ours? Your post wasn't too long, Vijay! It was great. You answered a lot of questions I would have loved to ask! :) Vijay! This was great! I really enjoyed it. Coming from a bilingual culture (Franco American) I could really relate to what you were saying.

About another language becoming prominent in the US - I think that you can say that Spanish has. It’s spoken more and more widely all the time, since it seems to be a language of choice in the schools. Many non-Hispanic Americans are fluent in Spanish.

Americans, however, tend to have a blind spot where multiculturalism is concerned - particularly in the area of language. It was an eye opener for me when I traveled, and realized how many people in foreign lands had learned English … and could converse with me. That speaks a bit about Americans … shouldn’t we be learning the languages of the places we visit rather than expecting them to speak ours?

Your post wasn’t too long, Vijay! It was great. You answered a lot of questions I would have loved to ask! :)

]]> By: Vijay http://www.catscanman.net/blog/2007/08/multilingualism/comment-page-1/#comment-22477 Vijay Tue, 28 Aug 2007 03:04:27 +0000 http://www.catscanman.net/blog/?p=244#comment-22477 <strong>Ian</strong>: Thanks for the comment. I think most of the English-speaking world has to thank the British 'arrogance' for their knowledge of English. I agree with you that things are visibly changing in the UK now. I read something interesting a few days ago. Churchill said 'The sun never sets on the British Empire.' It is now safe to say that the sun never sets on the Indian diaspora. Ian: Thanks for the comment.
I think most of the English-speaking world has to thank the British ‘arrogance’ for their knowledge of English. I agree with you that things are visibly changing in the UK now.
I read something interesting a few days ago. Churchill said ‘The sun never sets on the British Empire.’ It is now safe to say that the sun never sets on the Indian diaspora.

]]> By: Vijay http://www.catscanman.net/blog/2007/08/multilingualism/comment-page-1/#comment-22476 Vijay Tue, 28 Aug 2007 02:56:29 +0000 http://www.catscanman.net/blog/?p=244#comment-22476 <span style="font-weight: bold;">JMB</span>: Thanks for suggesting this post and for the comment. Most Indians would agree that we have to <span style="font-style: italic;">thank (?)</span> the British rule for giving us the idea of a united India. There is no question that India is truly unified. We do have a lot more of the lunatic fringe who demand a 'land of their own' in all corners of our vast country. There are quite a few 'insurgencies' and 'struggle-for-homeland-stuff' going on at the moment. Most notably in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jammu_and_Kashmir" rel="nofollow">Kashmir</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Sister_States" rel="nofollow">Northeastern states</a>. More than the people who want to break away from the Indian union, we have people who are fighting for their own unique identity within the union. We have multiple small-scale insurgencies by groups fighting for linguistic, tribal or sociological identities. When you say 'heritage' I think you mean the way of life i.e., culture & customs. I agree. A language thrives in the appropriate milieu. The 'Melting Pot' philosophy may not be such a good idea if you don't have a basic foundation of beliefs or customs in a country. The American experiment is still ongoing and not everyone will agree that it has been a success. JMB: Thanks for suggesting this post and for the comment.

Most Indians would agree that we have to thank (?) the British rule for giving us the idea of a united India.

There is no question that India is truly unified. We do have a lot more of the lunatic fringe who demand a ‘land of their own’ in all corners of our vast country. There are quite a few ‘insurgencies’ and ’struggle-for-homeland-stuff’ going on at the moment. Most notably in Kashmir and the Northeastern states. More than the people who want to break away from the Indian union, we have people who are fighting for their own unique identity within the union. We have multiple small-scale insurgencies by groups fighting for linguistic, tribal or sociological identities.

When you say ‘heritage’ I think you mean the way of life i.e., culture & customs. I agree. A language thrives in the appropriate milieu.

The ‘Melting Pot’ philosophy may not be such a good idea if you don’t have a basic foundation of beliefs or customs in a country. The American experiment is still ongoing and not everyone will agree that it has been a success.

]]> By: Chrysalis Angel http://www.catscanman.net/blog/2007/08/multilingualism/comment-page-1/#comment-22416 Chrysalis Angel Sun, 26 Aug 2007 21:49:09 +0000 http://www.catscanman.net/blog/?p=244#comment-22416 Interesting post Vijay. There is a huge push now in our U.S. elementary schools to teach Chinese and Arabic - this is something new. I believe we will be implementing it this year, that was the plan at any rate. There is an incredible movement for emphasis on Science and Math as well. We are realizing the world is changing, and we are trying to prepare our future generations to compete in the world around us. Children learn other languages so quickly, compared to adults. Interesting post. Interesting post Vijay. There is a huge push now in our U.S. elementary schools to teach Chinese and Arabic - this is something new. I believe we will be implementing it this year, that was the plan at any rate. There is an incredible movement for emphasis on Science and Math as well. We are realizing the world is changing, and we are trying to prepare our future generations to compete in the world around us. Children learn other languages so quickly, compared to adults. Interesting post.

]]> By: Ian http://www.catscanman.net/blog/2007/08/multilingualism/comment-page-1/#comment-22414 Ian Sun, 26 Aug 2007 21:04:12 +0000 http://www.catscanman.net/blog/?p=244#comment-22414 What a wonderful post Vijay. It always amazes and shames me that so many other people become multi-lingual and in the UK generally we do not. I remember when I went on an exchange trip about 25 years ago to Germany struggling in German and the whole family I was staying with speaking fluent English. I don't know whether it is a subconcious throwback to the colonial days and the arrogance of 'everyone will speak English'. I think we have a distrust of anything that isn't British which keeps everything else out of national use. Although, there has been a change in the cultural mix in the past years, more so in the last decade, this underlying distrust prevents the integration of these cultures leaving them as isolated pockets. That said, the earlier influx have integrated and are seen as part of British society and its now the newer influx that are distrusted, so we do change but slowly. So maybe slowly other languages will become more accepted and even mainstream rather than just 'available in other languages'. Regards, Ian What a wonderful post Vijay.
It always amazes and shames me that so many other people become multi-lingual and in the UK generally we do not. I remember when I went on an exchange trip about 25 years ago to Germany struggling in German and the whole family I was staying with speaking fluent English.
I don’t know whether it is a subconcious throwback to the colonial days and the arrogance of ‘everyone will speak English’. I think we have a distrust of anything that isn’t British which keeps everything else out of national use. Although, there has been a change in the cultural mix in the past years, more so in the last decade, this underlying distrust prevents the integration of these cultures leaving them as isolated pockets. That said, the earlier influx have integrated and are seen as part of British society and its now the newer influx that are distrusted, so we do change but slowly. So maybe slowly other languages will become more accepted and even mainstream rather than just ‘available in other languages’.
Regards,
Ian

]]> By: jmb http://www.catscanman.net/blog/2007/08/multilingualism/comment-page-1/#comment-22413 jmb Sun, 26 Aug 2007 20:53:44 +0000 http://www.catscanman.net/blog/?p=244#comment-22413 I think this is an excellent post Vijay. Not only has it highlighted the multilingual nature of your everyday life but it shows that while we all think of India as one country it is in reality a series of kingdoms forced together by the Moguls before and then by the British occupation and then united in their desire to be independent of the British. Is it truly unified? Are there problems? Is it like Canada, which is one country but stirred up every so often by the Quebec Independence Movement? Am I totally off the wall with this thought? As to the US making the learning of other languages a priority because of immigration, it hasn't happened in Canada, although multiculturalism has always been practised here, not the melting pot philosophy of the States. In the western Canada, many courses in the Asian languages are offered and we have many Asian TV stations, but I think that unless heritage is involved people only dabble in Mandarin or Hindi briefly the same way people dabble in Italian or Spanish because they are going on vacation to one of those regions. The big difficulty for us on the North American continent is distance. To practise the foreign language involves travel to far off places. Even with French in the west, we don't have very many French speaking people living here, although TV and radio is abundant due to the country's strong bilingualism policy. Even after years of French immersion schools we have not advanced much with producing truly bilingual people here in the West. In places like California and Texas and other southern states, Spanish is spoken more and probably more Americans learn it and can communicate in it well. It certainly is the most prominent foreign language studied in schools where my daughter is in New York. They struggle to maintain French and only the exchange program keeps it going. Of course I should not presume to speak for those in the States, but this has been my experience when travelling in those parts myself and from what my daughter has experienced as a language teacher. This is a very long comment, so I'm done here. I hope I haven't made any seriously incorrect statements. regards jmb I think this is an excellent post Vijay. Not only has it highlighted the multilingual nature of your everyday life but it shows that while we all think of India as one country it is in reality a series of kingdoms forced together by the Moguls before and then by the British occupation and then united in their desire to be independent of the British. Is it truly unified? Are there problems? Is it like Canada, which is one country but stirred up every so often by the Quebec Independence Movement? Am I totally off the wall with this thought?

As to the US making the learning of other languages a priority because of immigration, it hasn’t happened in Canada, although multiculturalism has always been practised here, not the melting pot philosophy of the States. In the western Canada, many courses in the Asian languages are offered and we have many Asian TV stations, but I think that unless heritage is involved people only dabble in Mandarin or Hindi briefly the same way people dabble in Italian or Spanish because they are going on vacation to one of those regions.

The big difficulty for us on the North American continent is distance. To practise the foreign language involves travel to far off places. Even with French in the west, we don’t have very many French speaking people living here, although TV and radio is abundant due to the country’s strong bilingualism policy. Even after years of French immersion schools we have not advanced much with producing truly bilingual people here in the West.

In places like California and Texas and other southern states, Spanish is spoken more and probably more Americans learn it and can communicate in it well. It certainly is the most prominent foreign language studied in schools where my daughter is in New York. They struggle to maintain French and only the exchange program keeps it going. Of course I should not presume to speak for those in the States, but this has been my experience when travelling in those parts myself and from what my daughter has experienced as a language teacher.

This is a very long comment, so I’m done here. I hope I haven’t made any seriously incorrect statements.
regards
jmb

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