Hello im melissa chan and im guest hosting this stream home edition today were going to be talking about endangered languages there are some 50027000 languages out there depending on how you count it and 50 to 90 percent of it its estimated could be gone by the end of the century well take a look at why and speak to some of those who are working to preserve these languages as always on you tube post your comments and questions well try to get to as many as possible see you too you can join the stream. Welcome to our guest today we have david and we have a rock or a we have beat us to get quickly if you can each introduce yourselves to everyone lets start with david. I mean listen and good morning to our viewers and my names david harris i must secure geographic. I study law. And endangered languages and i work with last speak. To world to help them change their languages pts. David you broke up there so im going to let the viewers know that you are affiliated with national geographic. Now be considered introduce yourself to everyone. How. In a cause that probably current will devolve into them hi everyone my name is beat us again. I am from minneapolis minnesota and my clan is bare and i work every go to Learning Center which is an Immersion School located in the south we have less rocker a tell us about yourself. But theyre not kowtowing among the n. R. A. Or tell me on the cant quit the my name is Ricky Holland i come from qatar in a key which is one of the province provinces in new zealand out there or most of my work in and if it has been Community Based really are without language revitalisation effects and is very much where i would now. Its very interesting with these languages that are being threatened about one 3rd of all the languages out there has fewer than 1000 speakers and its just a big challenge in this day and age to maintain their days and im curious where are some of the regions that you see around the world that are most vulnerable to losing languages. Listen. I bit and study and was diversity. By weve noticed its not evenly distributed so there are what you could call Language Arts which are areas in the world which have extreme diversity of languages and there are Global Forces that are pushing languages and exchange but fortunately there are also strong local force despite being to say my decision i really cut. My fellow get today because they are with which warriors who are fighting to save their own what im getting so it is a dire situation globally as we see almost half of the worlds 7000 languages threatened with extinction but of the signs that languages are being revitalized. I want to put everything in context here i pulled a Washington Post article its super interesting because of the graphics on it take a look it says nearly 2 thirds of people speak one of these 12 languages as their native language you see chinese arabic spanish will be very do bengali english no surprises there and look at this next page or in the same article english is by far the most commonly studied Foreign Language in the world so if you have 2 people speaking to different endangered languages for example and they meet there most likely if they wanted to communicate most likely to have english as a shared language a to what extent i wonder is the fact that there are these main languages the fact that theyre pushing out the ability for people to practice language as it was smaller with a smaller population of people. Im curious about how racker a thinks about this in your work. So quite obviously having Global Languages associated with government and the economy i definitely has an impact on local languages but i suppose that i dont focus so much on the numbers of speakers for me its not about having a 1000000 speakers or 100000 speakers its more around the quality of the interaction that takes place the intergenerational transmission in a language can survive with a relatively small population has long as the quality of the transmission in the maintenance of that language is a part of the shared identity is strong so focusing on numbers sometimes is a is a huge distraction and we feel that because we dont have as many speakers they were not doing as well but i tend to focus on the quality of the interaction and generational transmission. Yes it is and here is do you agree with races do you think its more about quality not quantity. I completely agree theres a lot of instances where we have see the scene language that lays starman for a long time but as long as we get quality language thats being you know maintains insecurity and like a Great Variety of resources that was documented you can definitely bring back language to thrive i do believe that as long as we have quality language that is being then i dont see any way that it couldnt survive. Im curious about what you think in terms of why this is happening and theres a lot being written about in terms of the fact that urbanization is a contributor to people losing languages know their language that they speak in their village or are in our area will area and they go into the big cities and they end up speaking whatever everyone else is speaking a city so theres urbanization there globalization theres also technology and technology can be both a good thing or a bad thing its bad that Google Translate determines which languages they want to include ray but its good because you have apps like dual lingo where people are learning languages the technology is something that im curious about in terms of how you guys think about it as a positive or a negative david i see you not easy why dont you jump ben. Well technology. First say it can be a great platform to expand a language i have developed a platform called the talking dictionary which is the 1st presence on the internet for now nearly 200 endangered languages and these communities are using it to increase their presence i also want to comment briefly because you had a track to it on the bottom of the screens in the past the worlds languages have no written form that is presenting writing and. Writing. Most of the worlds languages are oral and we we in literate cultures we tend to think of if you dont have writing youre lacking something youre deficient somehow but oral cultures are amazing in astonishing in what they can do with their mind. Of tales who speak an unwritten language and they can recites 10000. 00 lines of an epic story that can do things that seem miraculous to those of us and so theres a significant trade off between our writing in a language other cultural things that you might lose that someone way progression. Should adopt already. And normally and what weve seen in the past is that there tends to be a view that a language without a script that is just oral is looked down upon unfortunately i want to bring in some of the comments that weve seen on you tube and jenny since america says that hebrew and hawaiian are examples of languages successfully brought back from extinction or the threat of extinction why did they succeed when so many other attempts to save indigenous languages fare so i mean lets hold on to that top thought and let me go to 2 tweets that have also been written presently im having the same challenge so i make sure my children learn to speak minute a language which is a nigeria a very younger age at home that its not compulsory for them to speak new bay thats actually something that i personally also experience i was not allowed to speak english at home it was cantonese and Mandarin Chinese only here is some body else. For for forcing i thought about that some time back i think as a way to save them we direct the same energy and resources as the english language i mean dictionaries computer digitalization if the language with the aid of the people who are still in the grasp of the language rather a and b. Jessica quick im very curious about. Your your your method of educating what do you think about what people have said about starting from the home and that that being a very important component to get quick. I think its really important i mean ideally youre setting up in last for your family at home where you realize and recognize that this is a place where its safe to speak your language and you dont have the outside impeding in on who you are and what your identity as we speak your language your heritage language i think its very important and i love that everybody has commented so far and i think youre on the right path for every. Rock or a you think so to. A war absolutely i think we need to start raising our children in these languages so that a becomes a neutral and a normalized language in those communities but returning back to the earlier comment having a written language or having a large corpus of the language is really important however at the same time sometimes when we focus so much on the written form we focus on the language as something separate from the communities themselves and so that something has happened with modeling which theres been so much emphasis on the language understanding grammar and structure in the building the corpus that in many ways weve left out one of the most important ingredients which other communities of speakers need to maintain the language and so we really really only come to terms with how we can reengage communities again with their language today here in this country. And i want to bring in another comment at this time were talking about communities here is a comment from you tube. Abdul fattah saying i personally believe that colonialism has a great role to play especially in africa and i hear ruba tribe in one theory i hardly understand some at media of words as a father how do i teach my children and that leads me to the Community Video submission that we have from grassy n. At bay hes a professor of african language its from camera have a listen. The legacy of organizational on account with these is the adoption by the newly independent nations of the east of the followup musts weve just think is the policy patents and yes are. Those languages and only one would ease at the expense of the Mother Tongue. So theres a narrative absolutely right yes go ahead to that and i love the examples from africa and youre the person who tweeted said they were from nigeria you know nigeria is part of a language hotspot that has the immense language diversity more than 500 languages and ive been speaking to a friend of mine whos a nigerian linguist hes a speaker of the b. B. S. Which is a language with millions of speakers in the 1st piece of school. History type area in the 4th through 6th grade it was entirely in english and they were discouraged from speaking the Mother Tongue and then as soon as he reached the 7th grade. They were not only discouraged they were punished by being beaten or being forced to perform hard labor if they were caught in their Mother Tongue so that the irony is that he still speaks both languages and he didnt need to give up if he be of it in order to earn. The right encourage with. Yes so institutions and government have a big role to play when you think about colonialism it really is about institutions and how governments decide what languages are important i think about these days of course some of the headlines is china trying to impose teaching and preventing mongolian from being taught they have of course also trying to control the language in this scene jan territory where their articles readers as well and of course tibetan for quite a number of decades and so i really am curious ruach are a agnes b s a good question about your respective languages because they were essentially a victim of the institutions and the governments in place recreating you just let people know a little bit of the history. Language was dipping at least. If it be used by the government to ensure that modeling which wasnt maintained so just as they that is just explained nigeria. The language in 867 you could only get funding for schools if you only spoke english and in probably about 70 or 80 years ago punishment for speaking marty wards was still very much the norm. Though. That they had a government of one National Language and all of the other lane with the interface make it on their own. Theres a common theme i think around the world the themes of nationalism associated with one common dominant language. Is something that denies the voices denies the identities of localised communities and quite often we associate ourselves in moving ahead in the world with it leaving behind a diversity and certainly was the case in not an alky or in new zealand. When you look at languages that are dying i want to pull up a video of Christina Calderon shes over 90 years old shes the last person on earth who speaks this language called young don have a listen. I would have to be in this if. Sometimes when i think about what i was going to say and then i i dont remember i used to speak with my sister when she was still here but my sister died the children did not let me again bring one of my nephews learned you know i have no one and no one no one to speak to thats how it is you know its a shame to not be able to speak again because i really miss that. You know i have hunted up ahead of christinas story is very touching of course and ive met many speakers around the world who are truly to the left which is you know. Your language become silent it becomes interest lies people in the community a sense of loss to regret to a star it may take a generation or 2 before they come back and realize the value that it has for them but her story is true common among us speakers its very heartbreaking and on you tube we have another comment from expect oh patrolling as language is important it is the most important symbol of ones culture the issue cannot be overlooked just because we have more pressing issues like Climate Change they have their own importance and i think that really echoes what you just said david so looking at what can be done i also want to share another Community Video that was shared with us from naive lotto and im yes wilker theres founders of lower languages in mexico this is what they have to say. I think all around me is a niche in our language and over 300. 00 a month of land in there without the use of any of the kind just the raw edges are already sitting in mega resat a chain and i know we made a mission. To learn the language and this is the 1st that can break fast and make people very probably get. So much show that every guy didnt show the view the m. F. T. That they were my friends and that we also prevented all the use of the nation because with them feed us make it quick im curious what are methods that have worked for you in terms of teaching the language that get young people engaged. I just want to point kind of a comment that i have that everyone has talked about how like oral proficiency has been more of play theres a lot of languages that are oral and its been a tough transition to making them more about literacy for the language a language is one of those languages that it was almost entirely oral oral speaking and you know the literacy is just now starting to be like thats a thing that we teach the students and you know its a new way the new age kind of thing and i think with the oral speaking what comes in the hand is you get all these cultural teachings and remembering where to fall on them i mean one of the comments that you had earlier was about like Climate Change if you have if you rely on your language for like oral practices and that language that falls in hand with it you will get teachings from your elders or resources that were passed on from generation and those teachings can teach you about like Climate Change or how to take care of your community i mean its those things that you can genuinely fall on to take care of yourself and your community all together thats what we do with immersion teaching its an experience a learning we use all those cultural teachings to teach our kids what was passed on to us thats very interesting so its very holistic rockeries that the same experience you have in terms of getting younger people engaged its not just about the language its very holistic. Or so much so much focus goes on language acquisition and in many cases for us weve become very good at teaching language but were not very good at using language and so establishing those immersion environments absolutely whats needed within our environment and using and then all the or but the key pointers as if we wait until Children School age or we wait until were adults to start learning a language its hugely inefficient its far easier to establish a lane which was when children are picking up their languages in the 1st instance that expose them to communities or domains where language is a normalized is a part of culture and identity and they pick it up so much more quickly and so much more. The integrity is so much stronger for them is they grow up so that. Rather than focus and are learning a language and im not saying that we dont do that on just simply saying we cant leave aside the importance of the immersion demand outside of the learning environment and sometimes we leave those behind or we dont put enough effort into those spaces kerry culture and i didnt. Yeah i got a lesson that that was at least yes go ahead yeah i could just kind of like to pick up on the das a good quote is really wonderful point about the environment but you know. We need language diversity just as we need biodiversity for a Healthy Planet for a Healthy Society and most of what humans know about the environment plants and animal species that are not yet known to scientists are well known and well under stood and then theres languages and cultures so without those languages were missing the huge chunk of the Human Knowledge base and were missing the ability to take care of our planet but that knowledge its very interesting as is going to say that in many ways that question that was asked on you tube earlier how do i teach my children is in many ways based on what you guys have said it the wrong question to ask almost that it isnt just about going into a classroom and its about so much more that david i do want to follow up on that what what if if a parent does ask you that though what would you say to them. About the importance of transmission you know generational transmission is how language is survive and it has to be incentivised and for the parent we underestimate the amount of agency that children have in deciding whether to keep a language or not if you create the right social conditions children will make a rational choice in the. Language if you make them go ashamed of their if youre at the will give up the language. When youre in the very end of our shows i want to go to each of you to ask if you can Say Something in the language that you teach and you specialize in and what it means lets start with a rock or a. No hold on michael though you do not nor you teenie dont even a complete typically called at all that i just explained. A seed farewell but also. Using the witty put on me which is that i would put into nick since that he says that is a coming together source or container for language got it. Bit us to get your final thought. Is that i it could all. Go and im. You know i think you know are we quite facinelli and i would like to say that i speak 10 phrases at home every day if you have 10 phrases you can use those 1 and polite and all this and then from there and then i also want to say thank you for having me and it go up a man ill be seeing you. David your quick sentence into the language of the nomadic you are herders when youre saying sure well use. Your ruby because weight is a sacred color to color or to work for some. Rock or a good ass it quickly and david thank you so much for joining this program. Business leaders is for to find a brass path. From. Business leaders as well to find a brass path. If you were looking at this from the outside you would really wonder what was going on but what is this grace is a religion that they have an indepth exploration of global capitalism and our obsession with economic drug this is still the center of capitalism there is no limits i view myself as a capital artist we are trying to pay for the well smaller and smaller we dont want to be set realistic in the world we would rather have a fantasy growing pains on aljazeera. We understand the difference is im similarities have cultures across the world. So no matter what you see aljazeera will bring you the news and Current Affairs that matter to you. Aljazeera. If you want to help save the world. Sneeze and euro. Hello norn Taylor Nandan the top stories on our jazeera fires are again burning near to a greek migrant camp that was all but destroyed by an overnight blaze its left thousands of Asylum Seekers without shelter but locals blaming them for starting the fire people are reportedly fleeing the area again as the new bases take hold around 12000 people were housed at the morea camp on the island of lesbos Officials Say the fires were started by refugees forced to self isolate after testing positive for the coronavirus concerns of a Public Health crisis arising with the whereabouts of more than 30 my