A colleague and I recently gave a presentation to other language teachers about the International Baccalaureate guide to Language B. In the IB program, Language B is any language not native to the learner. Although our presentation was on more mundane parts of the guide, I was struck must be the opening page, on which can be found the following statements.
"The principal rationale for learning additional languages is to further intercultural awareness and international-mindedness, both central to IB's mission through:
+ the acquisition of the language of a culture, and
+ the possibilities to reflect upon and explore cultural perspectives."
"The ability to communicate in a variety of modes in more than one language is essential to the concept of an international education that promotes intercultural understanding."
"In all IB programs, the role of language is valued as central to developing critical thinking, which is essential for the cultivation of intercultural awareness, international-mindedness and global citizenship."
"Learning a language B...equips students with the necessary multi literacy skills and attitudes to be interculturally competent, enabling them to communicate successfully in the global contexts of the 21st century."
"The study of an additional language provides students with the opportunity to:
+ develop insights into the features, processes, and craft of language and the concept of culture
+ realize there are diverse ways of living, behaving and viewing the world.
"The MYP [Middle Years Program] language B course aims to encourage students to:
+ develop a respect for, and understanding of, diverse linguistic and cultural heritages."
From the boldface that I have added to the IB guide, you can probably guess where this is going. I agree that an appreciation for diverse cultures is a part of learning a language. What I question is the insistence that this be the primary aim. Language can certainly provide windows into understanding a culture, and understanding of a culture can facilitate deeper language comprehension as well. What is missing in the IB view, however, is the function of language in uncovering and communicating truth. Sadly, this is likely intentional.
I hate it that the word "gay" has been hijacked to describe sodomy. I hate it that ideas of free thinking, open mindedness, and liberal study have come to mean a narrow subset of what they once denoted. As wonderful as all those things are, we must admit that in current parlance, these are indicative of a particular worldview that encourages license, embraces sin, and denounces any position with the temerity to say otherwise.
So it is with the language of this IB document. We should indeed understand and appreciate various cultures, but we must also be able and willing to praise one and denounce another when the truth of a matter calls us to do so. It does not take much reading between the lines to see that this is not IB's purpose, or if it is, that such words can be easily twisted in the current age to legitimize a blanket acceptance of all views except those rooted in truth.
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Wow. I can well-enough speak more than a few languages. I did not learn a single one of them for any of the reasons you boldfaced.
ReplyDeleteKK, would you mind elaborating? What were your reasons for language study?
ReplyDeleteI had no foreign-language study until high school.
ReplyDeleteSpanish in grades 9-10 was required. I was irked that living in South Louisiana, where many of our elders still spoke French, we didn't learn French. I was indifferent to Spanish, but liked reading El Cid.
Latin in 11-12 was also required (minor seminary). Loved reading Caesar. I saw the connections between Spanish & Latin, which helped with Latin. I then noticed connections between both of these and French, of which I knew bits by osmosis. From there I began to see the Latin and French within English and connected Rome to Gaul/France to 1066 & All That. Began to casually learn French on my own now that I had a leg up on the Romance Thing, just browsing Paris Match or Le Monde and referencing Spanish, Latin and English.
Studied in Italy during gradschool. Decided to teach myself Italian during the summer. Got a textbook, browsed Italian periodicals in the library, listened to opera. Three months later hit the ground running in Genoa, first time out of America. I said stuff in Italian, people understood me just fine, I was well-received there for speaking their language with care and respect.
So I got serious about French while in Genoa, got a French Berlitz. When I spent a week in France I took care of business there in the local tongue. Was once-again I well-received. Really liked that benefit.
Decided languages weren't all that big a deal, bought this book: European Berlitz Phrase Book and Dictionary, which has, oh, a dozen languages, each one gets maybe 20 pages.
Prepared for time in Germany the same as France. I already knew that German was a first cousin to English and how it went together from years of reading military history & wargaming. E.g., Stuka = sturz/kampf/flug/zeug = dive/fight/fly/thing = diving warplane. Again no sweat.
Back home I tried to improve my grasp of the languages I could manage in through records, periodicals and movies. Because I had learned to recognize the Greek in English, I began to fool around with Greek a bit, and then Russian because of the similar alphabets. Russian was easier because I already knew a lot of Russian words via...military history.
Got a great dictionary with an Indo-European root glossary in the back. Every word entry in the front linked to its IE root in the back. My brain exploded at that point. I learned to look at every language in the biggest way I could, and see all kinds of shortcuts and patterns that would make it easier to learn.
I spent two weeks in Turkey, learned tourist Turkish for that. Oops...Turkish was way hard, not like anything else.
I just love The Girl from Ipanema. Checked out a cd (Joao Gilberto, Live in Montreux) 25 years ago which came with lyrics. Learned a lot about how Brazilian Portuguese differs from Spanish, got the hang of the accent, still love to sing the songs. Haven't been to Brazil or Portugal, but now my brain is wired for it.
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Married an Art Historian/ Marine Archaeologist. The day before our first date I had picked up some language books at the library. During dinner we talked about travel. At her place for coffee afterward, we sat on the sofa and translated a Russian train schedule which was in one of the library books. What fun!
ReplyDeleteWe honeymooned in Cancun. Wow, I remembered all my Spanish! It was great! And I loved sussing out all the Arabic in Spanish: so many non-Romance words in Spanish are Arabic. Like all languages, Spanish hides its ancestry in plain sight. Knowing of My Arabic Thing, at our first Christmas my wife with great effort got me a Castilian Etymological Dictionary. The best Christmas gift ever! It opened the door to Arabic as well as Spanish, which later helped when I was trying to learn some Old Testament Hebrew, which of course is one of Arabic's Semitic cousins.
About a year later, we went to Stockholm for a week for her research. I learned enough Swedish to get us around...not too tough, like German and English: Ja skulla vilja skopa tvo billet pa operan: I should will shop two billets to opera-the/ I'd like to buy two tickets to the opera. Yes, we went to see Tosca in Sweden.
About 1999 we adopted two Russian kids, 7 & 11. My wife ground thru the piles of paperwork. I just had to learn Russian, whatta deal! I worked on it for 4 months (learned to sing Katyusha), it was fine. Lots of Russian is like, or contains, English, French, German, Greek, Polish. Just love the sound of Russian coming out my mouth: so heroic. We got home before Christmas, and I was the kids' translator through March, by which time they were able to speak good-enough English.
My wife is also a travel agent so we cruise a lot. As part of that business I've exercised my French, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Greek, Swedish, German and Russian; and learned modest tourist amounts of Serbo-Croatian (like Russian), Estonian and Finnish, but didn't really need them except to be nice. Still, people appreciated it.
I've never learned any language enough to call myself fluent. I'm content to speak the local language wherever I am, well-enough to get around, eat, see stuff, light conversation, be polite: good tourist Sprache. I do like to have a good accent, though.
And since I've been teaching Sunday School for 9 years now, my language base helps broaden & deepen the kids' grasp of Christianity, especially through Hebrew and Greek, which young minds latch onto quite readily.
So I learned languages at first because it was required; then because it was useful; then because it pleased me.
I am interested in languages because they reveal the thought patterns of a people and because thought patterns inform a culture to some extent. Along with the language comes the non-verbals that add richness to my understanding of a people.
ReplyDeleteAttending Mass in languages I understand and watching the non-verbals that go with a language sometimes open my eyes more to Christian truth.
This is pretty funny. I start in on a Language B because the culture or the language appeals to me. Pretty, interesting, etc. etc.
ReplyDeleteIf I keep at it, it's because I want to get something done.
I'm pretty sure this is why most of us don't persist in language study to the point of fluency -- we don't need to.