Learning Journal #8

[yushi jiang]

It is a grieve for the extinction of several languages. Tracing the language history and trying to find a reason for the extinction of language, I would say it is hard to find a general answer. In theory, the sudden death of all its speakers could be a sound reason. However, in practice, this would not happen. The extinction of a language is more possible because of language shift. The children are gradually started speaking other languages. The language shift is can happen when there is a dominant language in the region which gradually replace all the other language. After watching the video, ‘When Languages Die’, I feel sad to realize that language will continue to die over time until everyone is using a universal language. I think the way that helps preserve a language would encourage young people to learn both their home-country language and the universal language. I think it might be hard to bring back a dead language, but it will be more easy to protect an existing one.

[Ruofan Jiang]

The history of the world's languages is largely a story of loss and decline. it is quite realistic to expect that half of these languages will be gone, their last speakers dead. But What causes this? I think one answer is globalization. Because when globalization starts to appear, people are more likely to choose to learn the international language, for example, English and then abandon their own language for convenience. This is really a pity.