3/14 (Tue.) Saving a dying language? (Host: Rock)

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Rock
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註冊時間: 週三 10月 31, 2007 9:03 am

3/14 (Tue.) Saving a dying language? (Host: Rock)

文章 Rock »

Notice:
We will have a special guest-- Chichi, the founder and president of the English debate club of the Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University. (What a title! :lol: )


Hi, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we are having a learning session about debating. And we will have Chichi, the girl prodigy of Gloria's family, to share her ideas about it. Please take advantage of this opportunity to know more about how to fight people officially.
:wink:

To start with an analogy, a similar question could be asked about biological extinction. Who cares if the polar bears die out, aside from zoologists?
Why did humans let all those languages go extinct?

At a more concrete level, some of the reasons are:

1) Loss of cultural information - There may be a lot of interesting and useful cultural information captured by a language's lexicon that is lost when the language dies. For example, a language might make a lexical distinction between two different types of plants that may ultimately have medical benefit. Ultimately, Language has been called "the DNA of culture." (Bruce Cole)

2) Loss of linguistic information - Not only do linguists care about this, but the general public might, too. Understanding how language works can ultimate provide insight into rehabilitating aphasia, dealing with dyslexia, helping children with specific language impairment, helping older people with hearing loss and may help with degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's. If there are only a handful of languages to study, then we do not have enough data to really understand how language actually works in the brain.

3) Loss of cultural identity - Language is an important way of establishing and maintaining cultural identity. This may not seem important to you, but to a lot of cultures and peoples, it makes them happy to not assimilate 100% to the dominant culture.

4) Benefits of bilingualism - This is not directly related, but would definitely be a result, but not preserving dying languages would result in less bilingualism, whereas bilingualism has been shown to have tremendous cognitive benefits. Bilinguals get Alzheimer's later in life, the have better ability to block out irrelevant stimulus and are better at task management-type skills.

Those are a few reasons - there may be more particular at the level of individual languages, where there may be reasons specific to each language/context. For example, the Chief of the Unkechaug Indians says, “When our children study their own language and culture, they perform better academically. They have a core foundation to rely on.”....
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-it-importa ... -languages


Hongkong Cantonese banned?
https://badcanto.wordpress.com/2013/10/ ... niversity/
https://www.hongkongfp.com/2016/05/26/f ... se-survey/
http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/phorum ... 5946,95964
http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/phorum ... p?4,126884
http://www.thenewslens.com/article/1937

Should we save a dying language?
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/2014060 ... -languages
http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-w ... -languages


Session One
(19:00-19:30) Introduction of debating (by Chichi)

(19:30-20:10) Topic discussion: Should we save a dying language?
Questions
1. Why are some Hongkong people fighting for Cantonese? What is the problem? Is it serious? Do we have a similar problem in Taiwan?
2. What is the definition of mother tongue? What is your mother tongue? Is your mother tongue important to you? Do schools need to teach mother tongues in Taiwan? What would you feel if nobody speaks your mother tongue anymore?
3. Should we save a dying language? Who should take the responsibility of saving a dying language?

(20:10-20:30) Presentation

Session Two
Debate: Should we save a dying language?

********************************************************************************************************************************************
Agenda:
6:45 ~ 7:00pm Greetings & Free Talk / Ordering Beverage or Meal / Getting Newcomer’s Information
7:00 ~ 7:10pm Opening Remarks / Newcomer’s Self-introduction / Grouping
(Session I)
7:10 ~ 7:55pm Discussion Session (45 mins)
7:55 ~ 8:10pm Summarization (15 mins)
8:10 ~ 8:20pm Regrouping / Instruction Giving / Taking a 10 Minutes Break (Intermission)
(Session II)
8:20 ~ 9:05pm Discussion Session (45 mins)
9:05 ~ 9:20pm Summarization (15 mins)
9:20 ~ 9:30pm Concluding Remarks / Announcements ********************************************************************************************************************************************
聚會日期:列於該貼文主題內
聚會時間:當天請準時於 6:45 pm 到達 ~ 約 9:30 pm 左右結束
星期二聚會地點:丹堤濟南店
地址、電話:台北市濟南路三段25號 (02) 2740-2350
捷運站:板南線 忠孝新生站 3 號出口
走法:出忠孝新生站 3 號出口後,沿著巷子(忠孝東路三段10巷)走約 2 分鐘,到了濟南路口,左轉走約 2 分鐘即可看到。
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In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
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Rock
YOYO member
文章: 2161
註冊時間: 週三 10月 31, 2007 9:03 am

Re: 3/14 (Tue.) Saving a dying language? (Host: Rock)

文章 Rock »

We will need a moderator for the debate. Who is the best one?
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Luis Ko
YOYO member
文章: 970
註冊時間: 週三 6月 06, 2007 10:18 pm

Re: 3/14 (Tue.) Saving a dying language? (Host: Rock)

文章 Luis Ko »

what a shame that i have no any idea about formal debate, or guess i would be a good candidate for being a moderate since i'm a Libra haa~ XD


by the way, i don't deny language represents culture and identity. that's why i think the case happened in Hong Kong City University is a vivid example that language does separate people, and it breeds violence.. 8)
i might be a cynic and, a sceptic as well but, i'm definitely not a bad person!!
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Rock
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文章: 2161
註冊時間: 週三 10月 31, 2007 9:03 am

Re: 3/14 (Tue.) Saving a dying language? (Host: Rock)

文章 Rock »

You cannot be a moderator. We need you to fight people; some people want to fight you. How can we forgo the fun?!
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
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Rock
YOYO member
文章: 2161
註冊時間: 週三 10月 31, 2007 9:03 am

Re: 3/14 (Tue.) Saving a dying language? (Host: Rock)

文章 Rock »

I dare say that you must have experienced something extraordinary if you were with us tonight. Chichi is the hope of Taiwan, no kidding. Many thanks to everybody: Luis, Michael, Tashi, Amy, Cindy, Iris, Shirley, Eileen, Jessica, Steve, Liwen, Wenhan, Ken, Wendy, Chichi and Rock (host). See you guys next time.
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
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