I recently received an e-mail from a Samoan relative who is teaching English to Japanese students in a French speaking part of Switzerland, and it was all in Māori. This demonstrates the degree to which we are users of more than one language in the wider world. Historically New Zealanders have typically taken the view that the only language that counts is English. Their reasoning being that without it one cannot get a good job.
The concept that language only has economic value has been carried forward to the present where people express the idea that if one was to learn a second language then it should be Mandarin, Korean or Japanese as these are the languages of our major international business connections. Again the language is valued only in economic terms. We still regularly get letters to the newspaper saying that learning Māori is a waste of time because it won’t get you a job, even though that is totally incorrect. (I got mine through speaking Māori!)
Obviously there are numerous really good reasons for learning another language. After all the principal purpose of language is communication and we communicate a lot more every day than stuff that earns us money. So what other reasons can we think of?
- Being able to talk to grandma and find out what happened in her life.
- Being able to talk to relatives in our home country
- Being able to identify with our heritage be it Māori, Samoan, French, Indian or whatever.
- Being able to participate in events of cultural significance to us such as church, weddings, birthdays, funerals, meetings, fiafia days, poukai, Polyfest…
- Being able to express thinking in ways unique to our culture and language.
- Be able to do the things our ancestors did and valued.
- Being able to participate in many worlds, in many languages
- Being able to connect with people from other cultures
- Being able to send an email half way around the world in a language significant to the receiver while still speaking French and Japanese at work, talking to the wife in English, phoning Mum at home in Samoan, and, in Māori, saying thank-you for the birthday present.
Noho ora mai rā,
Chris
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4 comments:
Kia ora e hoa
Thankyou so much, Faafetai tele lava for creating this blog!Love it and hope it reaches many people than just little old me...I'll be inviting more people to this blog as soon as I get the chance. Just one thing...can't see your word of the week in Samoan! haha..Do you need someone to submit one weekly!...We like our Kupu o te Wiki as much as the rest of them :)
Malo lava le taumafai!! Look forward to many more posts. Feeonaa
Hi Feeonaa,
Thanks for the feedback. I set the blog up to get the bilingual stuff about the school out there.
The 'Word of the Day' things are actually 'Google Gadgets' that some clever people have set up to update automatically. I found these on the web when setting up the blog. Unfortunately there were no Samoan equivalents.
I believe that's possible to create a Google Gadget but not sure who / how to do this like the Maori or French Word of Day gadgets.
What I've done for now is added in a 'Samoan Word of the Day' text box that can be edited. If you're keen I am happy to give you editing rights to the blog so the word can be updated each day (or less often if more convenient).
Let us know if you're keen !
Regards, Stephen F
I just finished an article on learning a second language helps boost children’s brain power, making children stronger, quicker and smarter. The effect is more obvious the earlier that a second language was learned.
So I totally agree with you. That is why we as parents should encourage our children to learn a second language when they are young.
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