Before it’s too late

No one knows how many languages there are currently spoken, but common consensus is between 6000 and 7000 languages. Languages are highly concentrated and the 8 largest languages cover more than 40% of the number of speakers worldwide (Table1). 

Table1: Distribution of world languages by number of first-language speakers (Paul et al., 2013)

Other languages are spoken by small communities and many of them are endangered languages. According to some estimates, half of the endangered languages are going to fade away within the next 50 years. It is also said that one language dies every two weeks. A dying language can have thousands of living speakers but when the youngest speakers are grandparents and older, the language is in danger of vanishing. Intergenerational transmission doesn’t work when the parent generation understands the language, but they don’t speak it to their children or among themselves.

The endangerment of language is severe to culture because language is the basis of collective memory, values and identities. Therefore, international communities, like UNESCO, SIL International and Ethnologue are doing their best to save the endangered languages. Some of the international operators focus on statistics and codification on their research. It is said that reason for this development is globalization where the economically powerful languages dominate other languages.

Globalization affects to our daily life in many ways. Some of the effects are invisible and hard to comprehend and others are unambiguous. The development of technology is one of the most substantial consequences of globalization. Where tales and stories used to be for entertainment and a way to transfer knowledge, today it is technology and the Internet that is used for communication and entertainment.

Kenneth Goldsmith said “If It Doesn't Exist on the Internet, It Doesn't Exist”. This is true in the world of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google. Social media is a medium that combines enormous amount of people in a way that is never seen before. People can today connect around the world and they can work for the same cause. Everyone with a Facebook account can express their views to millions of people. Of course, your influence is in Internet as great it is in real life, but at least you have chance to say your opinion. Social media is also fair in the meaning that the content counts. Twitter or YouTube are only tools to share content, content that is created by users. Today, technology deals with tasks that were handled elsewhere before. It works like language in some way.

However, these tools can be harnessed as a solution. In endangered languages international operators have comprehended the power of social media and crowdsourcing. A great example of collaboration is the Alliance For Linguistic Diversity. They have launched the Endangered Language project as an online collaborative effort to protect global linguistic diversity. Their website is a place where you can suggest a language to the list of endangered languages. The actual list is an interactive map, which you can browse like any other map in Internet. You can also contribute the site providing material about the culture or actual language in danger.

Introducing the endangered languages project - a video

Technology is not the answer to all problems, but it can help people to keep their culture alive. Open your mouth and speak up before its too late.

 REFERENCES:

Endangered Languages. Alliance for Linguistic Diversity. [www-page] Updated 2013. [cited 22.4.2013] Available: http://www.endangeredlanguages.com

Ethnologue. Languages of the world. [www-page] Updated 2013. [cited 22.4.2013] Available: http://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size

Paul L., Simons G. and Fennig D. (eds.) 2013. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Seventeenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com

Text: Mikko Järvi, student of Independent Study in English course

Student exchange - English skills in practice

It was late summer of 2010. I had letter of acceptance to Kasetsart University in my hand. I was really looking forward to my exchange studies at Bangkok, Thailand.

My English skills were at a good level by then, but I was insecure when I needed to talk. Speaking went well when needed, but I hestitated with opening the conversations. One major expectation for the exchange period was to get some fluency in my oral English skills.

Finally, I was in Thailand. Everybody seemed to speak excellent English… until I stepped out of the airport. The reality hit me. Outside workers didn’t speak English at all when I tried to find the place where hire a cab.

Jani in Thailand

I was lucky with my Taxi driver. He spoke good English on the scale in Thailand. There was massive traffic jam on the way to my hotel so I had a plenty of time to chat with the driver.

Because of the traffic jam, I walked the last 1.5 kilometers to my hotel. I stopped every now and then to ask directions from the locals. Usually they didn’t speak English at all, but they understood the word ‘Hotel’ and the name of it. Finally I reached the destination after 27 hours of travelling.

On the first day of school, we met our tutor teacher. I had received emails from him earlier and those were written in fluent English. When he opened his mouth for the first time, reality collapsed. It was extremely difficult to understand nearly anything he said. His pronunciation was way different that we Europeans were used to.

At least all subject teachers spoke understandable English. Some of them like natives.

During my exchange period, I made notations that it varies enormously how well Thais speak English. Young generation and especially university students spoke at least that much so that you were able to have basic conversation with them. Naturally, people in the tourist business spoke understandable English. A little by little, my ear got used to Thai-accent and it was easier to understand them day by day.

In everyday life I developed a habit of speaking very simple English. When I bought some fresh fruits from a street shack I didn’t say: “I would like to have two water melons”. Instead of it, I said “two water melons” and pointed out what I wanted. It influenced my English skills in a negative way. Nevertheless, I was speaking English every day and I had various situations during the day I needed to use it so I got confidence to start speaking with foreign language without hesitation about words or bad pronunciation.

I was travelling around the south-east Asia quite much during the exchange semester. While travelling, I met a lot of other travelers which gave me opportunities to communicate with proper language. While communication with people from other countries, for example from Europe or middle-East I noticed that the level of English skills of Finnish people is in a quite high level comparing to them. We are just too dismissive about our skills.

After the exchange period, I kept travelling for a couple of months. I had the time of my life. I spent many nights in restaurants hanging out with other travelers just waffling on everything possible on earth. 

The last week I stayed in Thailand, I was travelling with a person from the States. I really enjoyed accompanying a person who speaks native English. Just within a week I expanded my active vocabulary enormously.

As an epilogue I could say, the trip was an eye opening experience. I got confidence in my oral English skills. It was cheerful to notice that in my summer job where I spoke daily English on the phone.

If you have an opportunity to go on exchange, GO!

PS. You can read more about my exchange in Finnish from my blog:
http://janimatkalla.blogspot.fi/2010/08/ensimmainen-viikko-takana.html

Text and picture: Jani Vehviläinen, student in the course Independent Study in English, spring 2013

ANDREA TULI TALOON

Monesti asioita suunnitellaan vuodesta toiseen, kuukaudesta kuukauteen ja joskus asiat vaan tapahtuu, vaikkei niitä edes suunnitella.

Maaliskuun puolivälissä saimme sähköpostin, jossa etsittiin meksikolaiselle vaihto-oppilas tytölle kotia. Vähän vitsillä juttelimme, että otetaanko meille. :) Niinhän siinä sitten kävi, että muutaman viestin jälkeen pohdimme asiaa jo vakavasti.

Kahden viikon kuluttua meillä olikin sitten jo tyttö talossa! Elettiin hetkessä päätöksen kanssa ja päivääkään ei ole tarvinnut katua. Tämä on elämys ja kokemus, jota ei varmasti olisi tapahtunut, jos olisimme tähän kauemmin valmistautuneet.

Sama peli, eri kieli

Meillä on kaksi poikaa - Elias 9 vuotta ja Eemeli 8 vuotta. Nyt myös tyttö, Andrea 17-vuotias. Hyvin on Andrea sulautunut meidän perheeseemme, vaikka meno on välillä poikien kanssa melkoista härdelliä.

Andrea on ollut meillä nyt kolme viikkoa. Elämä on ollut luontevaa, on eletty meidän normaalia arkielämää. Tehty töitä ja vietetty aikaa yhdessä. Käyty laskettelemassa, moottorikelkkailemassa, juoksemassa ja avantoonkin Andrea uskaltautui meidän mukana.

Saimaalla kelkkailemassa

Laskettelemassa Myllymäessä

Eemelillä oli 8-vuotis syntymäpäivät ja halusimme järjestää lastenjuhliin jotain Meksikosta. Andrea ehdotti, että askartelisimme Pinatan. Pinataa askarreltiin 12 tuntia, mutta oli se sen arvoista. :)

Piñatan tekoa pikkutunneilla

Ja sitten se Piñata valmiina, synttäreiden kohokohtana.

Leipuri Andrean suklaaleivokset

Aikuisille vieraille järjestimme meksikolaiset ruokakekkerit. Andrea laittoi ruuan yhdessä meksikolaisen ystävänsä kanssa, joka on myös vaihto-oppilaana Kotkassa.

Kolme viikkoa on lyhyt aika, mutta silti tuntuu jo, että Andrea on kuin meidän oma lapsi. Avoin ja iloinen tyttö osallistuu elämäämme niin kuin olisi aina ollut meillä. Välillä talossamme kuuluu iloinen kielien sekamelska. Andrealla on Skype auki Meksikoon, mistä kuuluu espanja, täällä puhutaan englantia ja suomikin siinä sivussa raikaa, mutta kaikki tulee ymmärretyksi.

Tietoliikenneyhteydet pelaa

Soitetaan Skypellä kotiin 

Sisko ja veli

Olemme siis Jokelaisen perhe Joutsenosta. Sami työskentelee yliopiston viestinnässä, Tiina on esimiehenä R-Kioskilla ja pojat käyvät koulua Pulpin ala-asteella. Elias 3. luokalla ja Eemeli  1. luokalla.  Andrea käy Kimpisen lukiota.

Voimme kyllä kaikille suositella vaihto-oppilaan ottamista, jos vaan mahdollisuus tulee. Elämä ei ole niin vakavaa etteikö joskus voisi heittäytyä hetkeen ja tehdä asioita hetken mielijohteesta.

Avoimin mielin syntyy uusia rikkaita kokemuksia. Ja nyt meilläkin on tyttö. :)

Kirjoitus ja kuvat: Tiina Jokelainen ja Sami Jokelainen, projektisuunnittelija, Viestintäpalvelut