2/7（Tue.）Does language preservation matter？Elon Musk's Proposal for Taiwan（Host：Michael）

[Michael-liu]

Session1

I chose this topic because I don't think preserving my mother language-Hakka 客家語 is important. So, if you don't agree with me, feel free to try to convince me.

Article
https://www.trustedtranslations.com/blo ... -important

Questions
1. Do you agree the loss of a language is similar to the loss of a species？

2. Do you agree the world will be more united and has less wars if we human beings all speak one same language？

3. Do you care about the future generation of Taiwanese can no longer speak Taiwanese, Hakka, and aboriginal langusges？

Session 2
Elon Musk's proposal for China-Taiwan tensions
Article
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-paci ... 022-10-08/

Video
（This YouTuber was a journalist in 中國央視，his comment is always very logical, rational, and neutral）
https://youtu.be/ibGO_SLgmts

Questions
1. Why do you think Elon Musk make this proposal for China-Taiwan tensions？

2. What do you think about this YouTuber's rebuttal to Elon Musk's proposal？

3. Do you agree this YouTuber's proposal that Taiwan promise not to declare independence and China promise not to use military force will bring peace for 50 years？Do you agree there might be a war between Taiwan and China within 10 years？

[Rock]

I believe human being should speak one single language so they can unite. It's written in Bible.

[Sherry Liao]

Session1

I chose this topic because I don't think preserving my mother language-Hakka 客家語 is important. So, if you don't agree with me, feel free to try to convince me.

Article
https://www.trustedtranslations.com/blo ... -important

This is a good article. I agree with “when languages are lost, culture is lost with them” and “When a language dies, the culture it represents may be irretrievably lost”. But my question is, why is culture preservation matters? Why do we need to preserve a dying language in order to prevent the culture it represents from dying?

In my opinion, cultures represent wisdom and knowledge of a certain period in history. It is not a bad idea for the government to set aside some budget for preserving endangered cultures. However, it goes too far to include the to-be-preserved languages as a compulsory subject in the curriculum. Learning a language that is not useful in everyday life is time consuming and can be tedious for some people. I need to have some good reasons to convince myself that it's worth it.

[Iris Wu]

Rock’s comments cracked me up, as usual!
Sherry’s logic is always very thorough and hard to challenge.

Language is a living organism. It is not like a fossil or a historical artifact preserved in museums. When we are learning a foreign language, even if it is still popular, and not dying, if we don’t have the environment to use it, we tend to lose the skill quickly, not to mention learning a dying language. Since the language is merely spoken by a small group of people, the resource and cost to enforce it in school curriculums will be enormous, and without a proper environment for practical use, the result will likely be doomed.

Only if learning a dying language lands the opportunity to uncover hidden treasures like Indiana Jones, then it might be worth the effort.

But since AI technology and data capacity are so advanced now, I don’t mind training an intelligent chatbot to pick up a dying language and save it in his brain for cultural heritage preservation and study.

[Sherry Liao]

But since AI technology and data capacity are so advanced now, I don’t mind training an intelligent chatbot to pick up a dying language and save it in his brain for cultural heritage preservation and study.

Totally agree with this.

By the way, I noticed that chatbots can be used as language exchange partners. As a Japanese learner who has no Japanese friends in real life, I try to practice language conversations with chatbots:


The problem is, chatbots are too serious and nagging...

[Rock]

It seems that you used N4 level sentences to talk with an N1 level chatbot.

[Sherry Liao]

It seems that you used N4 level sentences to talk with an N1 level chatbot.

Thank you for your compliment! I thought my Japanese conversation level were only N5