The English Behemoth.

(I quite like the word 'behemoth'.)

So I've nearly finished the 5-day in-class foundation course for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL, but you may know it as ESL or EFL or any number of other acronyms), and I'll have lots to say about that over the coming weeks when I've had a chance to work out what I think about it all.

In the mean time, a question of language ethics that was raised in today's class:

"With twenty five languages dying every year, how can we go around teaching English?"

It wasn't actually me who asked that question, believe it or not, but it's definitely one I've been thinking about for a while. Isn't teaching English the same as building a Starbucks on every corner, playing the Top 40 on every radio station, and giving someone an ipod for Christmas?

(Thanks for being incompatible with everything on my computer, ipod! I'm so glad I had to buy into the apple empire to use you and now none of my media work in their original format!)

But it's not a flippant question. Aren't languages, like independent coffee shops, interesting local bands, and original file formats, losing the battle against cultural behemoths? Why give more power to this giant?

The thing I wonder though is if there's such a simple relationship between the English language and other language loss?

I think certainly when English is promoted, whether by colonial force or the economy or world media or whatever, then a perceived need is created to speak the language.

They're English. They're cool. Who doesn't want to be like the Beatles? (image: www.theguardian.com)

This is an argument for teaching English, I think; I haven't personally created the need to speak English to gain viable employment, for example, but if that need exists then by teaching English I am potentially helping people to deal with the situation.

However, with such a situation in place, parents who are native speakers of other languages may deliberately choose to have their kids speak English only, especially if they don't see the possibility of raising their kids bilingually; or the kids may learn both languages but then make their own choice to speak English, in order to stand out or fit in, whichever one it is that kids want to do. This sort of thing seems particularly common when the kids are being raised in an English speaking country, and so the intergenerational transfer of the native language goes into decline.

On the other hand, I'm not sure - or rather, I'm curious - about the influence of language knowledge by itself, without external forces. Because as a general rule, knowledge of a language does not necessarily lead to it being spoken.

How many people in Wales know Welsh, for example, but never use it on the street, in the shops, or even in their own homes? Or, how many people in France know English, but continue to speak French? And why?

I'm about to go round in a full circle in my head, so just to be clear as mud: if other forces create a situation where English is required, but English language knowledge by itself does not necessarily lead to English language use, then a) what does? and b) where does that leave teaching English as a second language?

So, uh - more thoughts on these questions when I've caught up on some sleep, I think!

The Apparent Invisibility of English.

I had a really interesting conversation with one of my colleagues as we were driving back from a school visit (car trips are the best way to get to know someone quickly and then skip to the good bits) – about Aboriginal Australians, their cultures, the discrimination they face, and how their languages are being passed on but also changed, and in some cases, “eroded”

My colleague is a strong believer in supporting Aboriginal languages, and I found myself saying the usual thing about how languages are so important for sustaining culture, engendering confidence, etc. etc. You know. It was one of those great conversations where we agreed with each other the whole time but also learnt things.

But while I do think that language, culture, individual and community confidence, prosperity, and happiness are all linked in some kind of way thing and support each other and all that, I have absolutely no idea how. Not just intellectually because I don’t have the time right now to sit down and work out all those different connections and stuff. I mean, even if I intellectually understood it, I still wouldn’t personally know how. These kinds of questions just don’t come up when you’re a native English speaker in a predominantly English speaking country in the western (so western) world.

I’ve never had difficulty getting into university or getting a job because I didn’t meet the language requirements. I don’t get teased for speaking English. (Okay, I make some weird vocab choices sometimes but whatever, I’m posh innit.) I’m not the least bit concerned that my language won’t be spoken after one or two generations.

Furthermore from my world viewpoint, English is so widely spoken and printed everywhere that I don't even notice that I'm using it - I'm just getting (or refusing to get) the message being communicated. It's like English is so default, so behemothic and yet so insipid that you can't even see it.

That makes me wonder, then, if English gets to be a part of my culture, confidence, prosperity, and happiness; if being an English speaker is something I can enjoy being or if it’s just like wearing clothes – most people do, and it only becomes an issue when you don’t.

But then I remember that Calvin and Hobbes is written in English and I think yea – I have language pride.

Why Welsh III

Iawn te. Wedais i oedd mwy o resymau pam dw i'n dysgu Cymraeg, felly dyma ni.

Right then. I said there were more reasons why I'm learning Welsh, so here we are.

(Straight away I feel I should apologise profusely and point out that I don't regularly write yn Gymraeg so I think this is how I would write the above sentence; but possibly also how I would say the above sentence is wrong too.)

One of my curiously favourite things about Welsh which also sounds quite sadistic/patronising is that it's very much one of those minority languages the linguists are always going on about; and being (or having been) one of "the linguists", I'm all over that like a cat on a fly screen door.

According to UNESCO, who rate endagered languages from "vulnerable" to "critically endagered" based on the transfer of the language intergenerationally, Welsh is considered "vulnerable". This means that while lots of kids speak the language they don't do it across all areas of life. There are other figures out there of course, about the number or percentage of Welsh speakers in Wales and globally, but in the end if children don't speak the language then it will die out in a couple of generations.

Language revitalisation: one stinky, baked-beany, book-eating kid at a time (image: www.walesonline.co.uk)

This isn't a morbid fascination I have with a dying language though - it's a giddily optimistic eagerness to see a language kick ass and take names, and as a Welsh language learner I get to see this not just as a passing spectator but ever ever so slightly from the inside. I have something invested in this.

I think partly my interest comes from being a bit of a sap - I cry (bawl) when the ugly person on a talent show has the best voice, or the soldier's dog goes crazy over its owner's arrival at the airport, or the overworked single mum of five comes home from work one day to find Oprah has renovated her entire house and also here's a new car and a holiday. You know, that sort of thing. GO LITTLE LANGUAGE GO.

But I also have a slight but weird political bent (I'm sure I get this from my dad), in the sense of being interested in policies and people.

I love the idea that government has the potential to create policies that will have a positive impact on people's lives. For example, the Welsh Government/Llwyodraeth Cymru has its "Welsh Language Strategy 2012 - 2017" (which you can read here as a 53 page pdf). I think there is unfortunately already some backpedalling on this about whether certain targets will be met by 2017 and who's responsible for it, but that's part of the political game. (Even though it sucks. Which it does. But it makes victory sweeter, right?)

Following the Welsh political/language scene also throws a very interesting light onto the upcoming vote for independence in Scotland. Maybe it won't happen this referendum; it may happen the next. I'm guessing Scotland will have to do it before Wales does, and then what a game changer for Wales if when they become independent.

Of course rising to meet the challenge of the apparent hopelessness of the Welsh government to create any kind of positive language change (that may be hyperbole; I don't know. I write because I'm ignorant, innit) are the "grassroots organisations", by which I mean people.

People like the folk at Say Something In Welsh, the Welsh language course I'm doing (and a reason in itself to stick with the language), and FfrinDiaith (hosted at the SSiW website), who help language learners to link up with language speakers. I believe very strongly in what these people are doing and they give me a lot of hope for the future of Welsh.

So I'm very much looking forward to see how all these things interact and keep on interacting and growing to essentially rework the future of a language (and a nation?); I don't for a second believe that as a twenty-something year old living in Australia I can positively influence that change but nevertheless by learning Welsh I get to see that change as something that influences me and that's pretty cool.