Language Questions

a) What are the arguments on both sides of the debate in promoting a single language?

One argument is that promoting a single worldwide language will help all humans communicate better and it may break down cultural boarders to help all people understand each other and even prevent war. The other argument is that it will cause all other cultures who’s language is not being promoted to lose part of what makes up their society and it would give that native speakers of the promoted language an upper hand which they may take advantage of which could cause more disputes rather than prevent them.

b) How far should we go to save a dying language? What are the financial and cultural implications?

A dying language should be fought to be preserved until it gets to the point where trying to preserve it is causing great difficulty or costs so that its preservation becomes a burden to those who do not even care to preserve it. Trying to preserve a dying language within the community it came from would help to preserve a part of that community’s culture and history that may be useful for educational or archeological purposes. However preserving a language would also cost great amounts of money and time which could ultimately have a negative affect on the growth of the community.

c) After reading: “Every Teacher is a Language Teacher,” what do think of the I.B. supporting International Mother Language Day?

I think Mother Language Day is a pretty good idea that couldn’t hurt the IB if they supported it. It seems like it could be an interesting experience for students at the schools and it would probably be very enjoyable to hear all the different languages and to learn a little about the past of the teachers. Even if nothing was accomplished that day in an academic sense, the students could take a lot from having a day like that at school and it wouldn’t hurt their grades to do it once a year. It’s not like aren’t some days out of the school year when teachers and students take some time to relax in class and not accomplish much. Why not make one of those days more productive in a different sense?