Regional and minority languages
sara abdulla
Wednesday, 13 August 2008 14:16 UTC
A recent Nature editorial called for the protection of regional and minority languages in France and elsewhere. A cautionary response on Nature’s Correspondence page, claiming that schools in a third of Spain teach only in minority languages, is itself prompting a bulging postbag of replies including, two of which subsequently appeared on Nature’s Correspondence page, here and here.
What’s your view on the role and effects of minority languages in science education, and about related science education policies?
Updated 05 September 2008 10:53 UTC
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I think we just need more multilingual scientists.
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Edsger W. Dykstra, the great Dutch programmer that I was lucky enough to be able to speak English, used to say that: “Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of one’s native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer.” I agree with that, I find it important to have a “good mastery” of your language.
I just think people should be able to use their native languages to do science. I think it is shameful for Brazilians and people in other other non-English-speaking countries to find it more difficult to express a certain idea in their language than in English. I think that for no particular reason. That is one issue that actually I believe very few people care about, and perhaps doesn’t has anything to do with this discussion’s topic.
Regarding the need for “minority languages” in education, this is an obvious need if we are talking about educating a (probably young) local “minority” population. What is the question here? Why should we teach English to a kid in a non-English-speaking city to teach him basic algebra in English? That is a no-brainer.
What are we talking about here anyway?…
Are we talking about me writing my master’s and doctorate’s thesis in English instead of my parent’s language?
Are we talking about teaching programming to American natives? Well, in that case we either get a professor to learn their language, or we get them to learn the teacher’s language. Whatever happen will be. There is no “solution” to there problems, each case is a case. So what is the big issue?………
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My guess is that most languages of the world could not be readily used for scientific communication, simply because they lack the appropriate vocabulary. (Of course, this may be different for different scientific fields.) Note that this has nothing to do with the language being inherently inappropriate for such communication. I’m quite convinced that any language could be used for any kind of communication if supplied with the relevant vocabulary.
At the same time, I fail to find good reasons for translating scientific texts of global relevance to `local’ languages. Having international audience requires the use of an international language, i.e. English for now, maybe Chinese for the future.It is very important, though, to use `minority’ languages (minor in number or social power) for primary and possibly secondary education. E.g. in South Africa, only around 15% (as far as I recollect) of children receive their primary education in their own language. In some cases, the children don’t even know the language of instruction and they have to learn it on the fly (since there is nothing like a `language course’). This is just about the worst thing you can do to a human being. Much worse and with greater consequences than not using our own native languages for scientific communication.
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I just want to make clear to Nicolau that in Spain there is no a risk of losing the minority languages like Catalan, Gallego or Vasco… but instead there is a risk of losing the common language, that is Spanish. I’m completely agree that everyone in Cataluña must learn Catalán (or Vasco in Vasque Country), but they should learn Spanish as well. And that is what Jose M. Rojo was claiming in is correspondence. What it´s a fact right now is that in Cataluña, Galicia or Vasque country is almost impossible to get in any school or university the lessons in Spanish. So in these regions, Spanish is becoming a minority language and not the opposite.
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In fact, it is curious (if not suspicious) that Dr. Rojo and others signing the “political” manifesto in defense of the spanish are mostly spanish speakers! What they call “the common language” is in fact theirs!.
This is very much in the line of those who believe that languages can be classified in “higher” and “lower” classes, “useful” or “useless”.
All these artificial classifications miss one important point, languages are cultures and preservation of them goes in parallel. Just remember this quotation by the famous portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa: “My country is my language”.
Are we aiming for a future of culture homogenization?. If that is what we want, fine, let’s get rid of every single language (including the spanish) and select the most “useful” one, whatever this is.
It is apt to add here that a culture that needs manifestos, political statements (the right party, PP, is preparing one for the Parlament) continuously (this is not the firt time), shows itself as a very neurotic one. What the spanish speakers (myself, for instance) have to do to defend their language is to produce top quality cultural products: in science, literature, philosophy, etc… That is the best way to defend and promote a language! -
In fact Salvador Naranjo is expressing the misleading impression that some spaniards have with respect the education of the catalan, vasc or galician students. They believe that students in these areas are “loosing” the spanish. But, in this year´s “selectividad” (exams that high school students take before entering University) the catalan students, for instance, had higher scores, in spanish language, than the average for the country.
These statements (based mainly on prejudice) don’t resist the scientific analysis (or the statistics). -
Regarding the letter called ‘Schools in a third of Spain teach only in a minority language’ of the Spanish scientist José María Rojo to Nature (Nature 454; Vol. 575; 2008). In his letter he tried to give the impression that in one third of Spain it is impossible to learn in Spanish. In this one third he included Catalunya, Mallorca & Valencia, Galicia and Euskadi where the people can speak Catalan, Gallego and Euskera respectively as well as Spanish. I think he forgot to mention that in these regions the students have Spanish lessons as well as the regional language lessons in both primary and secondary school. Furthermore, in Catalunya they are discussing now to add a new hour of Spanish. Anyway, in these regions, in the street the Spanish predominates over the other languages, at least in the cities and towns. In addition, there are much more newspapers and TV channels in Spanish than in Catalan or other regional languages. Obviously, the children can learn more easily Spanish than other languages. I am a Catalan researcher and I went to a Catalan school where I learnt Spanish, Catalan, English and French. I am very proud of speaking perfectly Spanish and Catalan and even I live in a Catalan city where I have to use the Spanish more often than the Catalan. However, my mother tongue is the Catalan and I think I must have the right of communicate myself in Catalan with the Spanish Institutions because is a co-official language, instead of having to change to Spanish.
Actually, behind this new defense of a common language for all the Spanish country there is a new strategy to reinforce the more radical Spanish Nationalism. They try to give to the World the impression that in Spain the Spanish is attacked by the regional languages. They are playing the victim with the purpose of reducing to a minimal expression the languages that are spoken in Spain which are not the common one (the Spanish). It is really curious see also how so many Spanish intellectuals have decided to sign a manifesto favoring the use of a common language in Spain. How can we understand that a intellectual wants to use a unique language? How persons, which are supposed to be given to activities or pursuits that require the exercise of their intellect, wants only use and communicate themselves in one language? I just find one reason, a political one, they have a strong Spanish Nationalism feeling, and therefore they must not confuse the public opinion. Fortunately, the Spanish has got in our planet a very good health and it does not require any campaign to save it.
In the Catalan case, I think that the Spanish Government must be more worried in the fact that one of the languages that are spoken in Spain, which is the ninth language in Europe, is not recognized yet by the European Institutions, instead of trying to make happy the more radical Spanish Nationalism. Also they must be worried about the level of English of the Spanish population, which actually is not very high.
Albert Pallejà
Departament de Bioquímica i Biotecnologia,
Universitat Rovira I Virgili, -
The issues raised by Mr. Rojo in his letter from Madrid are absolutely no trivial matter. Especially considering the tone, that I would qualify as “irritated righteousness”, in which he raises them, and also because the “facts” he presents before the innocent general scientific audience are outrageously untrue (any fact-finding survey that Nature may do on the legal/linguistic situation in Spain will debunk them). For one, the letter-title is false (it is absolutely not true that a third of Spain is not taught in Spanish). It is absolutely not true that “it is impossible to obtain public education in Spanish in Catalonia, Mallorca and Valencia” (rather the converse is true). Rojo cavalierly uses the term “minority languages” (they have been in fact historically minorised), offends the Basques by saying their language is “obscure” (both Spaniards and French should hold this original and ancient language as their treasure, as disinterestedly did the late [U. of Sussex professor] Larry Trask), and invents a non-existent, and impossible, 2009 law that will “drop” (?) Spanish (which happens to be the maternal language of a full 80% of Basques, nationalist or not). The bit about English being easier to learn (in Spain) than Spanish is a final joke. What is true, though, is that the “prominent intellectuals” (who sign the Manifiesto) are “by no means all conservative”: indeed, many are simply extreme-right-wing. Just consider that the present linguistic situation, however imperfect or unfair (to minorities), scrupulously follows the Spanish law, so that what Manifiesto signers actually pretend is challenging a law they have not been able to change legally or politically. Hence the moral and offended high tone of the pamphlet.
In an additional and parallel effort to the preceding commentary, I am insisting Nature editors, directly, to publish a printed response (see below), so that Nature readers can get a hopefully balancing view. The reasons I am giving the editors to consider publication of such a response are the following three:
1) Mr. Rojo’s letter intrudes into a very sensitive and socially-charged matter, particularly as viewed from Barcelona or Bilbao (and also, in a completely different light, from Madrid). The topic is hotly debated in the press in Spain and has, at least, two sides. We would do well to let the matter resolve or settle and the wounds heal, if possible. (And if the topic proves interesting to scientists, deal with it in an informed and objective manner.)
2) Non-suspecting scientists must be sheltered from buying or propagating political manifestos, especially if they are designed to force or disrupt the delicate social fabric of a multicultural-or plainly “multinational” (a Briton can understand that)- country (i.e. Spain) that is slowly trying to heal its wounds after a civil war and a bloodstained repressive 40-years dictatorship (waged against individual liberties and also-and perhaps mainly- against collective freedoms, as witnessed by present Catalan and Basque malaises). Not a toy to play with, nor a topic into which to disingenuously discharge one’s foibles, in my opinion.
3) Anybody should be particularly concerned, as I am, that scientists worldwide may buy-or simply find natural- Mr. Rojo’s xenophobic attitude (with their own Spanish compatriots!)Additional, more general reasons for asking to be granted a printed response are the following:
a) We scientists need to enforce our Right of reply, as a necessary balance and protection. Without its forceful use we may be at the mercy of any political or religious zealot’s will (in this case a noted scientist who finds Nature editors sympathetic and gets his extra-scientific letter published-however politically partisan he may be himself).- consider their content as truth. (Having lived myself under Fascism, I cannot avoid reminding that it is a law of society that, as Göbbels said, any lie can eventually pass as a truth provided it is repeated often enough or left unchallenged.)
b) It is a known fact that if readers see that an information item is left unrefuted in weeks, they may —and often willThe intended letter was as follows:
Sir,
J. M. Rojo’s letter (Nature 454, 575) about the apocalypse French should expect if they happened to recognise the existence of regional languages contains an ‘Intelligent Design’ argument: that natural language should follow –and conform to– a particular group’s religious or political beliefs (here those of the extreme Spanish-nationalist “Manifiesto” he adheres to), not civil law, its own logic or its speakers’ will. Actually, none of the Spanish “facts” he finds absurd is true. Though Rojo and the Manifiesto present the struggling minority languages as a menace –even an offence– to an overpowering half-billion of Spanish speakers, just the reverse is true. In fact, the Manifiesto’s linguistic policy is undistinguishable from Franco’s fascist 40-years practice. As noted in the non-partisan press, the Manifiesto contains an innovative feature: the right of ignorance (as it strongly suggests Spanish –i.e. Castilian– speakers can claim their right to be unwilling to understand anything they are told if it is not told them in the one enforceable language –the “common” language, as they prefer to say). How different from your journal’s scientific –and humane– stance (Nature 453, 1144): that languages should be preserved, as they are our common heritage and their loss would be tragic for all. As you rightfully say, “if earlier French [or Spanish, you could add] governments had had their way, Breton [or Catalan and Basque (also French regional languages themselves)] would have been eradicated long ago, and only stubborn Breton [local] persistence has prevented this from happening”. Acceptedly, scientists should neither support coercion policies nor endorse particular nationalisms. It would be a welcome extension that scientists should also not allow a language to be lost or unspoken, whether in France, Spain or anywhere else.
Ton Sales
Professor of Logic & Artificial Intelligence (ret.)
Departament LSI – Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – Barcelona
ton.sales@upc.edu -
It is true that command of Spanish language amongst Spanish youngsters is poor generally, and so it may be true that Catalan is just as good, that is, just as bad. However this is not at all the primary issue here, but the fact that families are routinely denied the right for education in the mother language, which happens to be the official language in the state and second most important internationally.
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Hi all,
For me, to be educated in your own mother language is of capital importance for the intellectual development of the children; so it has been widely recognized by UNESCO among others, which in 1999 established February 21st as the International Mother Language Day. I strongly support a multilingual education, but always respecting:
a) the prioritary use of the mother language as vehicle language for teaching.
b) the fundamental right of the parents to choose the language in which they want their children to be educated.
Sadly enough, the crossed letters and replicas published recently in Nature are actually not answering to one another. In principle, one can choose being educated in spanish language in Basque Country, Galicia, Baleares or Valencia, but not in Catalonia. The fact is that in Catalonia it exists a single-language public education system, that uses only the catalan language for teaching.
The Language Immersion in Catalan is 100% enforced during kindergarden (3 to 5 years old children). Only after they start Primary School other languages are allowed, being those english (three hours per week) and spanish (two hours per week). Yeah, spanish is not completely banned from catalan educative system; it has just been relegated to be a foreing language, taught twice weekly from Primary to High School.
Funny enough, highly successful catalan pop-stars sing in spanish, best-selling catalan writers write their books in spanish, and some of the most important editorials and print houses of the hispanic world are based in Barcelona, but you cannot find a single public school for your kids to be educated in spanish. Try to imagine a scottish-only public school system in Scotland or a breton-only public school system in Bretagne. That is the reality in Catalonia.
Certainly many catalan children do speak spanish at that ages, mostly those whose parents are native spanish speakers. But the fact that all the education is taught in catalan creates an effective situation of diglossia, being the catalan the high-prestige language, while the spanish thrives in the playgrounds, streets and discos. And actually, a kind of ‘creole’ is arising in those areas, which is neither castillian-spanish nor catalan, hence called ‘cascat’ (which also means ‘broken’ in catalan).
Children from catalan-speaking families tend to learn spanish from their class mates, specially in the urban periphery of Barcelona, also through TV, newspapers and movies. They might eventually develop a good proficiency as they have many resources at hand to improve their spanish, but for them the problem is not that big; the spanish is for them a second language, as english or french could be. The problem for them might arise in rural areas, where a catalan-speaking kid could live his or her whole life without listening or speaking a word in spanish… a dream for the catalan nationalist, a step forward to independence.
My personal point of view is far from those nationalists; far as well from the spanish nationalists which would like a spanish-only country. I rejoice in Spain’s cultural and linguistical diversity, and abhore the exclusion of minorities from mainstream culture. But the fact is that while claiming to defend linguistic diversity in Spain, many do not defend this diversity in Catalonia. I strongly support the right of catalan, gallego and basque-speaking children to receive education in their own mother languages, but I equally strongly demand that right to be respected for spanish-speaking kids in Catalonia.
The issue here is not whether the performance of catalan students is better of worse. It is a hotly debated political issue of basic human rights, the right to one self identity, the right of choosing which education you want for your children. This right is one that spanish-speaking catalans do not have; and that is what the Manifesto for the Common Language is about. Most probably, not an topic for Nature Correspondence section ;)
Best regards,
Carlos M. Luque
IRB, Barcelona, Spain
(from 2003 to 2006)CABD, Seville, Spain
(from 2006 to date)PS: I am father of two, guess why I left Catalonia ;)
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