It was 6 years ago when I chose the language class in Senior high school. I found it amazing to learn more than just english, since it was the only foreign language i learn. And I'm amazed how some words in order could mean something, before, it meant nothing to me. And I started to learn german, japanese, and korean at the same time. At that time, my grammar was suck. If you saw this article and still think that my grammar is suck, it was worse! I don't know what the usage of grammar, and why would we learn it, if we could communicate with each other, though our grammar wasn't right! and i make excuse by saying, come on, using proper grammar to communicate would be lame. I don't even know why the hell did we have to understand the proper use of adjective, verb, or noun in a sentence. Screw it!
And when I have to make an essay for my scholarship application, i was shocked by the word of my teacher. Ive been told that my essay was a tragedy. I didn't use proper grammar, I used a terrible english to write a formal essay. I hate it; I love writing, I love telling story, I love languages. and why the hell could it be wrong! and 2 years later after that, I met Mr. Edmund, the only professor that help me to reach an epiphany about language. The importance of proper grammar, and how to use proper grammar, what do we need, and why. At that time I was struggling with german proficiency test I had on may.
Big thanks to my professor, I found the similarity between german and english grammar. Later I realized that both of the languages came from germanic language, no wonder they have the same usage of grammar. I started to understand that there are so many language in this world and it was divided into some language families. (Well actually I know this when I was a kid, but I can't understand, why they have this language families.) So that I understand why is it so hard for me to learn english, cos it was a really different language with my native language. They have different usage of grammar, and by this, the logic and order of the word would be different. For example, english, they concerned so much about the time differences, and they have different use of verbs, when indonesian language didn't have to change the verbs. When in german language, we have to look at the gender of the noun everytime we wanna make a sentence. and in chinese, there's too many words, and when one character is combined with other characters, it has different meaning. and they have 4 tones, that would make you move either your finger or head everytime you learn.
After discover all these things, I realize how much I love languages, not specifically one language, but i want to study more about human language.
But before this, I am curious whether my friend experience the same thing about language or not, so I asked them why they learn language.
Being in a school dominated by many department of various foreign language is my dream. It's fun to see different languages everytime i erase the blackboard. It feels like I was in the middle of the world, when all people from different cultures and country came and communicate with each other. (It was a silent afternoon, but it feels like they were talking to me.) though i am in the school of my dream, I realize that, the people here have different purpose of learning language, though we understand and speak the same language.
When I was in first grade, I asked my taiwanese friend, why would you learn german language? - he would use it for business purpose, he said that there are many big german company, and german would be useful.. - other friend said, germany is a big country, and he wants to go there either to study or to work.
My teacher told me, that there are so many people started to learn chinese, so I have to be happy cos I have the chance to go to a country when the people speak chinese, and therefore I could learn chinese. My parent told me, chinese would be useful in the future, many company would need people who could speak chinese.
Then I just realize, that I could speak 4 languages, that are very important.
But then I look to myself, that wasn't my purpose of learning language; to understand the most spoken language in the world, so that I could work in a big company. Though I was happy by that.
From my point of view (without further research), english become the most spoken language in the world, because of the globalization. america is a big country and a very powerful country, and therefore communicating with english, would be beneficial. But english language came from england, by this, I would first explain that english wasn't the original language of the islands in great britain. From the year of 500 ad, many anglo-saxon people came from german (not nowadays german) and live there. When you learn the history of english, you know that the first english language was the old-english. I have learned a little about old-english, and it was pretty much the same with german language (it wasn't really the same) for all the anglo-saxon people came from german. Before german people came, the people in the islands in great britain spoke celtic language. But later, some celtic languages put in endangered state for there's only several people left. and it makes me sad! all the purposes mentioned above, (from my point of view) support the languages imperialism and therefore cause the loss of knowledge and culture embedded in the extinct language.
Why do I have to be concerned with the disappearance of languages, because (as i said earlier) I have discovered that there are different usage of grammar since it was in different languages family, and it's a pity to lose it. Grammar, I could say, could show the logic of its languages. And (im not sure) it could tell us how the people, who spoke it, see this world. and when we have to lose one language, that means we lose another world view.
Therefore the reasons for me to learn language is that I want to see the world in different view through language.
How bad is language imperialism, and how we could consider something as language imperialism.
In some country, the government, or schools, ask their students not to speak their native language in a class. They have to speak english. and to speak fluent english, you have to practice it day by day. and some students would rather use english than their own native language. Then voila, one language disappear.
English, German, or Chinese, appear to be the most spoken language, and to keep one's own dignity, they would rather speak english rather than their own language. Nowadays people are consider not cool if they couldnt speak english. -not to mention, I lose the capability to write in a good indonesian language after I learn another 3 languages.
Moreover Learning endangered languages appear to have zero benefit. You could not work in a big company, and why would we learn languages that only one or two speaker left.
In a one documentary film about endangered languages, one of the linguist explain that there are several books consist of herbal medicine, or other knowledge that has not been discovered by the world due to its language. and there are not much of the speaker left, and most of them are old. If they died, there's no way for this world to discover the medicine that may cure many sickness, or maybe the knowledge that might be useful for this world.
It is beyond our imaginary, cos to makes this world better needs lot of time while all we need is money to buy our food for today. So, learning endangered languages is still not beneficial.
although, today, my parent could not understand my idealism to have a better world, I still encourage people to be concerned with endangered languages. For it's very beneficial for the future, but may not be very useful for some purpose.
And please stop saying that one language is better than other, it comes from different culture, and therefore different way of living. Speaking indonesian, doesn't make you inferior than people who could speak english. And speak english, doesnt make you superior! if it is incredibly hard to learn some endangered language, start not to forget your own language, use it properly, and be proud of it. that doesn't mean that i forbid you to learn other foreign language. But it would be a tragedy if maybe 40 years later, your native language, would be just words without meaning!
Save your own language!
this is the trailer from the film, 'The Last Speaker'
I leave you with a catchy song from Browned Eyed Girls, who said that all the influence from korean was bad because there is no right in being boyband and girlband. Like my mom said, you cant blame the globalization, for the people who could not adapt with it and therefore make it worse.
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