Wichita may be a city in Kansas, but it was first the name of a Native American tribe. It had a language of its own, spoken, at one time, by more than 10,000 people. However the Americans didn't allow the people to continue with their own culture and demanded that all speak English. Only one 83 year old Witchita woman remains. who can speak that tongue. When she goes, the language goes with her. Click here for a video and to learn more about her.
There are thousands of small languages around the world that are slowly dying out. However, it is the ones which remain that are causing some problems. Without question, it is frightening to think you can be somewhere and unable to make yourself understood. World travelers can be shocked if they wander away from their hotels where most employees throughout the world know enough English to make their patrons comfortable. However, in villages and towns away from American speaking hotels it can be quite anxiety-producing. A form of charades and universal facial and hand movements helps to a degree but limits communication to less than conversation.
As families tend to be so mobile these days, branches of families can converse in the same generation; but their children and the grandchildren may not be able to speak with the others' family members at all. While I was born and raised in the United States, along with English I learned the language of my foreign born parents. When I visited my parents' country of birth I was happy to speak like a native, though my vocabulary was hardly sophisticated, It was strange visiting relatives who spoke no English, forcing me to translate for my English-speaking-only husband. It was like some churches do, first in Latin then English; first in Greek, then English, etc.
Recently I was outraged to be watching MSNBC and have commercials in Spanish. There are two totally Spanish speaking channels for which my monthly check pays though I do not view them, as I view the numerous sports channels rarely...though they are, at least, in English if I happen on them. I still resent making phone calls in my country where I have to press a key to get into the English speaking robot mode!
I used to supervise clinicians in a mental hospital years ago. One of the major problems was that paranoid patients were suffering unnecessarily because the caretaking staff and aids spoke Haitian. No matter how much we lobbied and ruled that staff must speak English at all times, it never happened. Eventually the hospital was closed and the patients were turned out, many of them landing on the streets. Hopefully, English was spoken there and in the hostels they might be fortunate enough to spend some time in.
Some are surprised that the Untied States has never made English official as the language here. Some states have ruled it thus but not all of them. Immigrants used to know more about our Constitution than our home-grown folk. That has all changed as the government has grown weaker and people have lost patriotism. WW 2 had made us all united as Americans, even all the foreign born (with the exception of the poor choices made to lock the Japanese-Americans in camps). Today, patriotism is scarce. People treat the American flag with utter disrespect; many have forgotten to hold their hands over their heart when saluting it or hearing the National Anthem, and we seem to be fighting the North and South Civil War still. None of that is good as a model for foreigners who have migrated to our country and see no reason why they can't make it their own in every way. Why do we not set a better example of pride in our country and request it of people who bring their own culture and language with them, expecting us to learn their ways but not the reverse.
No comments:
Post a Comment