Wednesday, March 30, 2011
patricia ryan
languages today: 6000
in 90 years: 600
a language dies every 14 days
teaching english has morphed from being a mutually beneficial practice to becoming a massive international business
the best ed, is to be found in the uni's of the UK and the US, so everyone wants an english edu
but if you aren't native english and you want it you have to pass a test
if i met a monolingual dutch speaker who had the cure for cancer, would i keep them out of our uni's?
but.. all the research is in english..
well - what about translation?
love having a global language, but against having it as a barrier..
this system equated intelligence with a knowledge of english, which is quite arbitrary
the shoulders on which we stand did not have to pass an english test.. ie: einstein
toefl test costs - $150 - very prohibited to pour people
when a language dies, we don't know what we lose with that language
some children cannot pass our exams. and so we'll never know what they know. let us not keep ourselves and them in the dark.
mind your language... use it to spread good ideas.
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