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This week I did not meet with my language partner because of scheduling difficulties. Instead I spent a lot of time on Duolingo, finding Hindi Discovery Channel videos to watch, and practicing Hindi with my fiance.

Interpersonal communication progress is slow, but it is going. I seem to progress faster when I talk with my fiance because, besides just giving me extra practice, I am more comfortable with him than anyone else, and so I am more willing to take language risks. This week I was able to speak 95% Hindi (very context heavy) for probably 20-30 minutes. I was able to tell him a short story that happened that day, tell him about an app that I want to get on my phone, and talk with him about various snack foods.

I met this week's Duolingo goal! I have also returned to Mango lessons after a couple weeks off, and they seem much easier now! I do Duolingo lessons in bed first thing in the morning and last thing at night - it has replaced my social media habit and I am much happier for it. I attached a screenshot of my current Duolingo tree.

My goals for this week:

Duolingo: get the next five lessons up to level 2

Mango: complete chapter 7 (transportation and payment)

Interpersonal communication: I'm not sure what goal. It may come to me.

Other: check out at least one Hindi Discovery Channel video

When a language is only used in a small population of speakers such as in a tribe or a village, it is more likely to go extinct. Since the endangered languages are not widely used and people in the tribe do not travel across the country to communicate and propagate the language; As a result, when the population of the tribe becomes smaller, the language teeters on the brink of oblivion. If a language has died, there are no people whose primary linguistic system and tool of thought is this language, which means the dying of the knowledge written and the record of that language. Linguists help to write the dictionary by talking to the elder and listening to old recordings made by anthropologists in earlier years. A ‘dead’ language could be brought back to life, and Siletz is an example mentioned in our article.

Except for creating the dictionary, an endangered language can also be introduced to younger high school students in school as a foreign language. I remembered the Chinese government issued a similar policy as well in Shanghai recently because they found that teenagers can only understand the dialect but can hardly speak it. People around the world realized the value and importance of endangered languages so that they paid more effort into saving them.

     Languages go extinct when there aren’t enough people speaking the language to pass it down. And at the time that nobody speaks that language, the language becomes dead and its cultural related things also become dead with the language. According to David Harrison's interview, the rate of languages go extinct is about one language every two weeks. And there are about 3500 languages is expected to go extinct. 80% of the world's population speaks the major languages, for example English, Spanish and Mandarin, there are thousands of languages that are on the edge of becoming extinct. A language can be dead because of different types of reason. One of those reasons is because the speakers of a certain language are taken in by a dominant language or group. When there are no speakers left, the language is dead. Passing down a language to the next generations becomes difficult especially since children may choose to stick with another language. It is really sad to see a language disappear from this world because it is not only a way to express but also culture.

    It is possible to help preserve a dying language and even resurrect a dead language. With the help of linguists, an American Indian tribe whose language, Siletz Dee-ni only had 5 speakers left, was able to create a dictionary that helped record and preserve the language because linguists are helping find new people to learn this language. Now, it is being taught until sixth grade at a public charter school in Siletz. However, in the hurly-burly of modern communications, keeping a language alive goes far beyond a simple count of how many people can conjugate its verbs. There is still a long way to go.

Tết (Lunar New Year) is a major holiday in Vietnam. It's an extremely important holiday where almost everyone returns to their hometown to reunite with their extended family. My friend from Vietnam said that during this time, Sài Gòn is a dead city. The population crazily plummets and even the air quality improves because everyone left the city to return to their hometown. Being in the US and in college, I cannot return home for tết and so missed out on a lot of good food that is only available during the holiday. When I visited Boston during Spring Break, my sister and I tried making Bánh tét a Southern Vietnamese dish that one must eat during New Years. We miserably failed and ended up just going to a bakery to buy one. The process of making it though, I think taught me a lot. It was extremely time consuming and difficult to make. The reason why it's a dish associated with New Years is because the women in the family would gather around to make it together as a bonding activity during the holiday. Making it made me better appreciate the effort that goes into the food that I've always had readily available during New Years.

I recently watched a hài kịch that aired during Tết 2019 (Lunar New Year). Hài Kịch are Vietnamese comedy skits usually performed in front of a live audience intermittently during a long musical concert and is immensely popular among the older generation. One of the comedians in this skit is named Hoài Linh.  He is a famous veteran in the field. I remember watching his skit's with my family when I was still in elementary school. Watching these skits is a favorite family activity in Vietnam especially during large family gatherings where there is a wide age range. It reminds me a lot of SNL, but more family-friendly.

The major issue languages are facing is globalization. Due to increased interaction between cultures, the “big” languages are becoming more and more prominent. Even though there are around 7,000 languages currently being spoken, around 85 languages are spoken by the majority of world’s population. Around half of the current languages will most likely go extinct within the next century. Furthermore, when different tribes mix, they adopt features of culture and language from the other groups. This can lead to a loss in the original language. Many languages only have a few fluent speakers left and these are often elderly people. This can hinder the preservation of a language, especially if they are losing their ability to hear or speak clearly. Many smaller languages also have no writing system, but are solely oral in nature. This can lead to great challenges in preserving the respective language. In addition to this, small groups oftentimes face oppression and pressures from the outside to learn a different language rather than their own indigenous tongue. One of these examples are former boarding schools for native American people that aimed at getting rid of traditions and the culture.

Linguists are making an effort in preserving language through spreading awareness of the crisis languages are facing. Studying different languages and recording fluent speakers can help to preserve the language for a long time because these materials can be made available to everyone and especially to the people and their ancestors. Furthermore, linguists are working with indigenous people to build online dictionaries in order to find people globally that are interested in learning the language or about the language. This can help to prevent languages from going extinct, however, it is not very likely to completely revive a language after it has gone extinct just with the current strategies in place.

It is very important for linguists to preserve language because of the vast knowledge that is relayed through language. Different people have a different knowledge of the world around them, the environment, and the living species. Therefore, it is important to preserve different languages and learn about the way they see the world. However, differences in gestures and words can make it hard for linguists to correctly interpret languages other than their own.  

The song Là Anh Đó by Trương Nguyễn Hoài Nam was performed live for the first time on a Vietnamese show called Bài Hát Hay Nhất. The show is organized in a similar fashion to The Voice. The song was sung in the perspective of the spirit of a girl's dead boyfriend. It tells the story of her crying while hugging her boyfriend's body after a traffic accident as his spirit watches the scene. Trương Nguyễn Hoài Nam had witness an accident where this happened (minus the boyfriend's spirit) and has also been in a car accident where he needed to be in physical rehabilitation to resume normal life. I thought the story behind the song is interesting. As a developing country, Vietnam's traffic regulations (traffic lights, crosswalks, etc.) is not the best. The combination of heavy traffic and lack of regulations leads to a high rate of accidents in major cities such as Sài Gòn. This is especially true during major holidays like New Years where everyone is rushing to return home. I asked some of my Vietnamese friends and they say that crossing the street in Vietnam is not difficult, but you have to be prepared because drivers will continue driving around you. I think this song became so popular not only because it was so moving, but also because it is relatable to many city dwellers.

https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/traffic-accidents-kill-111-over-four-day-new-year-holiday-in-vietnam-3862261.html

Languages go extinct as they gradually become less and less commonly spoken and even less so documented. Languages like Chulym is also not a written language, which makes it even more difficult in conservation efforts. For Chulym, there are only about thirty-something fluent speakers of Chulym left. Efforts being made involve audio recordings, dictionary building, nuances. With linguists and other people who are interested in the language itself, there can be efforts made in conservation. In trying to preserve a language that is only spoken by a handful of people, I believe initiatives are very difficult, especially since it is hard to gain the trust of the community and breaking through to them. K. David Harrison mentioned in his interview that it has been easier for him to go into communities in Siberia regarding these efforts, but he faces more difficulty in North America in terms of going into communities to perform the same tasks.

As an outsider, linguists can serve as people who can better analyze the structures and cadences of language, but there will be many nuances that only native-speakers will ever be able to analyze. Even as someone who is a native-speaker of English, there will be many things I will never be able to explain, but having an outsider as another point of reference is extremely useful in language conservation efforts. I believe that a language can be conserved, but to be able to bring it back into use/life is an extremely difficult task. Even in modern times, I think it is difficult to reuse a language that may have died within a community. There may be language courses offered or speaking clubs, but be able to reintroduce a dying language back into use is a task that is still something that I think society struggles with. If the language still remains in elders, it may not necessarily be something that will be an easy task for other members of the community to utilize, if there is not someone already speaking it in the family.

For linguistics researching and performing this work, I think it is an extremely valuable and important task to conserve, but to figure out how to reintroduce the language back into use, will be something we all still have to figure out. 

Discussion Post #8

My plan for the two weeks before Spring Break was to practice dictation in preparation for the midterm. To do this, we paused the weekly new vocabulary and free-talk sessions. We agreed to postpone learning the household goods vocabulary until after Spring break. The dictation practice was as difficult as I anticipated. Half way through the practice article, I had to tell her that it was too much. It took 45 minutes just to do half the article. After some conversation about the difficulty level we agreed to use the practice article for the midterm as well. Only half of the half we practiced will be on the midterm, but I will not know which half. The second week was spent just for midterm testing. I improved immensely from the practice session to the midterm, but I think the length for dictation was still too difficult.

My Language partner and I agreed to continue dictation practice for the next two weeks, but with much shorter paragraphs. We agreed on 5 sentences every lesson. I think this will be much more manageable. If my dictation skills improve, this number will be amended. Additionally, for the next two week we will continue with reading practice using news articles. We will also try to find some northern dialect video clips to practice my listening skills.

Overall, there wasn't a lot of new things the two weeks before Spring break because just one week was spent on testing. However, I think it was good to spend one week on dictation practice. It was an exercise I was most reluctant to start because I knew writing is my weakest language skill. Having it on the midterm forced me to practice it seriously.

I was appalled to read that Siletz Dee-ni only has about five speakers left. I do not understand how a language can only have five speakers. I speak English (spoken by 1.5 billion people) and Spanish (437 million people) and am learning Korean (75 million people). All three of those languages are very popular. I am thankful that English is my native language because it is the most widely spoken language worldwide. I learned Spanish through my school, which only offered Spanish or French, but they are very common languages. I am learning Korean so that I can communicate with a very important person in my life. All of the languages I know and am learning are spoken by many people. A factor that I consider when deciding which language to learn is how many additional people I can communicate with. I would be hesitant to learn an entirely new language if I could only then communicate with five other people.

The point of language is communication. A language goes extinct when new ideas are no longer being created in it. If a language is only used to refer to old ideas, it will die. For example, Siletz is preserved in song for certain native dances. However, unless there are new songs or new ideas being made in Siletz, there will be no new communication in the language. The case of preserving Siletz is unique because it is closely tied with the history of how American Indians were treated by the American government. The Siletz tribe was declared dead, but managed to regain its federally recognized status. The mission to maintain the language is made even more difficult by the fact that it is also a challenge to maintain the culture and status of the tribe.

Linguists can help preserve a language by encouraging more people to speak it. Technology can be a helpful resource. Bud Lane is working on the online talking dictionary for Siletz Dee-ni. Jen Johnson is texting with tribe members in Siletz. I am tempted to say that another way linguists can preserve a language is by having people learning it as their first language. The problem is: I would not want those people to be limited to only talking with the few other native speakers. Having many people speak the same language promotes diversity in other ways because it helps people learn about others who are different than themselves. Finally, the most obvious way of preserving a language is to teach it in schools, because children can grow up and then teach it to their kids.

My immediate response is that a ‘dead’ language can be brought to life; however, I am not sure why it would be. Someone would have to be incredibly passionate about reviving that language and get others to learn it as well. It seems unrealistic to bring a ‘dead’ language back to life.

At first, I didn’t see the downside of having an uncommon language die out. Not many people are directly affected. Furthermore, having more people speak the same language is beneficial because they can communicate with each other. After watching the video, I learned that having more people who know uncommon languages can result in more collective knowledge. This can lead to technological, healthcare, societal, and general advancements for multiple cultures. Additionally, other languages can offer new ideas about different aspects of life, such as mythology and religion.

I was conflicted while learning about this topic. I value cultural diversity. I also see the practical benefits of having many people speak the same language. This allows for easier communication and less misunderstanding among a diverse group of people (except for linguistic diversity). For example, the term “English speakers” encompasses a massive group of people of different races, ethnicities, socioeconomic statuses, et cetera. However, I also understand that less popular languages reflect the unique beauty and essence of a specific culture. They also offer value in their unique structures. For Siletz, this is revealed in how Jen Johnson “fell in love with its cadences.” This point is further emphasized in younger tribe members learning Siletz because “it can sound pretty cool.” My question now is, “How do we balance increased communication among people of different backgrounds, while also appreciating linguistic diversity?” After reflecting further on this question, I’ve wondered if maybe linguistic diversity isn’t different from other forms of diversity. We should promote diversity for the minorities who would otherwise be underappreciated, but also because, when the minority is silenced, the majority is missing out on the valuable contributions they could offer.

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Reasons for languages to go extinct include the domination of certain languages, lack of interests/use for learning the language, and lack of documentation/recording of the language making them very fragile. Our reading gives an example of the domination of language; several groups with varying languages were forced to stay near each other. To communicate, the languages with less speakers learned the language with the most speakers and gradually these languages with less speakers became extinct. According to Harrison, there are 84 dominant languages spoken in the world today even though there are 7,000 languages in the world. To preserve languages and linguistic diversity, linguists are compiling documentation on these languages. Documentation includes written record and recordings of the language spoken by native speakers. Additionally they are trying to increase interests in these languages, both to increase speakers and to decrease prejudice against these languages. These efforts are important because I think its extremely difficult if not impossible for a 'dead' language to be brought back to life. Take Latin for example. Even with abundant documentation of Latin and people studying the language, Latin is rarely spoken verbally let alone with unknown languages with limited documentation.

In the interview, Harrison compared the loss of languages to a loss of major world artifacts and monuments. I agree with this. Language is a major part of culture, embedding ideas, beliefs, and the knowledge of and about its speakers. Its loss would be detrimental to the study of other subjects such as history.

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Dant Kanti is a wonderful example of how India has herbal alternative "medicines" for almost everything! In Hindi it is called Ayurveda or Adurvedic Medicine. It is based on an ancient system of herbal remedies and an understanding of using natural products to achieve balance in the body and mind.

Dant Kanti is a toothpaste which is made all out of herbs in a calcium carbonate base. It can also have fluoride added, since Indians might not get fluoride from the purified water in India. Some of the herbs include neem, spearmint, clove, "porcupine flower", "false black pepper", turmeric, among many others which we don't have in the U.S.

The color of the toothpaste is a rich brown (it isn't like the sparkling white toothpaste in commercials!) and it tastes predominantly like clove. I think it tastes great - it's a nice change from the mint toothpaste I have been using my whole life.

As you can see, the packaging is in both English and Hindi. Most packaging and advertising in India is in at least two languages (English and the local language) so it makes it easier to me to find items I need in the shops.

Kathak is one of the eight traditional dances of India, and it originates from Hindi-speaking northern India. Each dance is considered to be telling a story, with intricate feet movements and facial expressions explaining the narrative. The word Kathak comes from Sanskrit (a precursor to modern Hindi) for story (katha) and one who tells a story (kathakar). In fact, modern Hindi has retained those words, although I'm not sure if the pronunciation is the same. The original dancers of Kathak are thought to be wandering groups of performers, who would later play a role in entertaining the courts of north India.

There are three main forms of Kathak, with the distinctions being in the relative use of feet and arm movements, and facial expressions. They are performed with the purpose of expressing stories - usually of great religious or mythical figures - although now the people of India may not be knowledgeable enough of the art form to understand the "language" of the movements. Kathak can be performed with Indian classical instrumental music, as well as with Slokas and Bhajans, which are Sansckrit/Hindi religious songs of devotion to Hindu deities.

Gypsy Kathak dancers are thought to have influenced the development of movement art in Europe as well. In fact, some people believe that the popular Spanish Flamenco dance is based on Indian Kathak dance. If you watch videos of both, you will indeed see many similarities.

Here is a TED talk and performance of Kathak dance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=64&v=Fz_Tpp0q73A

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The past couple of weeks included Spring Break, so I took a break from all school-related tasks.

I have been working with Duolingo Hindi, and using my textbooks sporadically. In my meetings with Abhi, we have practiced conversations, with topics like shopping, food, family, and wedding plans. Grammar topics included past and future verb tenses, as well as some unique aspects of casual conversation.

Last month I saw a lot of growth in my Hindi learning, but the past couple of weeks I feel that I have plateaued. I feel discouraged about that, but I hope the way to get back on track is with proper planning.

I am seriously considering attending Zabaan Language School in New Delhi. They have a intensive beginner program and an intensive intermediate program - both are for 4 weeks each. I will probably do the beginner course to start, because it will help me with review.

This coming week I need to buckle down and get serious again - it's hard coming back from Spring Break! My goals for this/next week are as follows:

Writing/Reading goals: Reach level 2 on Duolingo skills "Animals", "Activity", and "Adjectives"

Interpersonal Communication goals: look through ACTFL benchmarks and decide accordingly.

Speaking/Listening goals: Mango next chapter

Course goals: start thinking about final research presentation