Hello All: As a person who speak 4, 5 languages (not to boost my ability but to illustrate the possible problems), and constantly lived/live in countries that I have to use languages that I am not absolutely fluent with, I become quite critical about usefulness/harm languages would do to a person. In the Netherlands, we also have problems with immigrants that either willingly or unwillingly do not have the Dutch language skills (some immigrants do not think they should learn the language since Dutch is a minority langauge in international arena), therefore leading to many social issues associated with Dutch language skills such as isolation from the community/sociaty at large, employment issues because of language skills etc. etc. Language is the medium for communications. But human language is also the most important skills one should master for advancement in many careers such as lawyer, or managers of any levels. Without strong language skills, there is no way such professionals could articulate their thoughts either verbally or in writting. And of course digital divide. Therefore I think, first and foremost the national language should be enforced. Other languages should be encouraged as added skills. While in the US I came to understand there are many arguement if Spanish should be equally important as English. For the sake of arguement, should Chinese or Japanese or Korean or Portugese or Italian or Polish or Russian ... be the official language side-by-side with English? The problem with MAKING Spanish as important as English is, then most Spanidh speaking persons would NOT think it necessary to learn English since they could get by with Spanish (such is the case in the Nehterlands, most official documents and notices are translated into Turkish, Arabic to make sure the Morokkan and Turkish population are included. Which I absolutely disagree. In doing so the Morokkan and Turkish no longer think it is necessary for them to learn the Dutch langauge hence creating even larger and long term problems). BUT can the rest of the population get ! by without learning Spanish if they so wish to communicate with the Spanish speaking population? Would that also mean making other language groups the burden of having to learn TWO languages (English and Spanish) in order to survive in the US in equal term? For some of us who are lucky to born with two languages or more, and the fact that some of us are more talented in languages, or our personal status allow us the luxury of learning more than 1 language, our thoughts perhaps should be looking at what is most appropriate for running a country, or a company. Short term solution generally looks attractive. Just my 2 cents on the subject about language divide. I can see the arguement from both sides. Just like I can see the problem the IT world (or digital divide world) with the dominating English language (English is my 3rd language). The dominating party should not be too HAPPY about being the dominating party. What they are missig is the talents from ALL the others. Eventually who is being excluded? Cindy Paul Mondesire <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Hello all:
To many people public service is a zero sum game--if there are resources allocated to accomodate the needs of one segment of a community, they must be being taken from "MY" community. Add in the English Only faction and you have a fairly typical hyperbolic debate. In 1967, Lillian Lopez (my aunt, and the first Puerto Rican to reach a position of significance in the New York Public Library system) was instrumental in the creation of what came to be known as the South Bronx Project. This initiative offered services tailored to the people of the neighborhoods they served bringing in more Spanish language resources and being more inclusive rather than exclusive in their attitude towards the community. The follow-up studies showed an increase in circulation and in the overall delivery of library services thus the model spread more broadly throughout the city and beyond. This was part of the foundation of what has become known as multi-cultural education efforts in our nation and is a part of my late aunt's (may she rest in Peace) wonderful legacy. I share that to say this: those fighting against such an initiative should spend additional time in the library, period. They can then read about anything and everything they choose and be supportive of those from other cultures who are trying to learn something new. Reading and educating oneself are traditional means of moving up in our society and learning the value of what being a citizen of these United States really means. In my view, fighting against high quality, broad-based library services for all people in a community is simply bad public policy if you want everyone to buy into the notion of cooperative effort, building a sense of brotherhood, and mutual understanding. That's just my $.02--that plus $2.58 will get'cha a gallon of regular these days. ;-) Paul Mondesire P.S. Thank goodness for all of you folks out there, especially Andy! I keep hoping to be able to contribute in some small way to the wonderful communications/work of the DDN and WWWEDU lists. Keep fight the good fight. P.P.S. I often feel like a combination of Sisyphus and Cassandra of legend...read thse lyrics if you feel that way too: www.countrygoldusa.com/impossible.asp Andy Carvin wrote: Here's another article about the controversy: http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3988338,00.html I can't get the Denver Post URL to work either. -- ----------------------------------- Andy Carvin Program Director EDC Center for Media & Community acarvin @ edc . org http://www.digitaldivide.net http://www.tsunami-info.org Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com ----------------------------------- _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
