Multiculturalism:Your Opinion

[Riverwolf]

I wish German was that easy. I was in German class the other day trying to remember what the gender of Bibliothek (library) is. Turns out it's feminine (die), but the way I was using it makes it masculine (der). Sometimes you can make make some sort of relation between the word and it's gender to help you remember it, such as der Kuli, which is a pen, a long stick like a man's penis, or die Tür, a door, which the "door way of life" is a female's vagina, but die Wand (wall) or das Buch (neuter, book), elude any clever ways to remember the gender in my mind. At least Japanese doesn't have gender to make that one even more complicated.

No, it just has half a dozen ways of saying "I". ^_^ And I LOVE it for that. :yes:

 

[Estro Felino]

Not if both understand each other.

If such an employee insists on speaking Sicilian to colleagues who don't understand it, then yes, they should be fired. But if they're only speaking Sicilian to people who do understand it, and it's not pertinent that others hear the conversation, then no, they should NOT be fired for that.

as I said, all Sicilians understand Sicilian. But few of them speak it.
In a public administration an employee should never dare speak Sicilian. If he wants to speak it, he may do it in the privacy of his own house.

 

[Riverwolf]

as I said, all Sicilians understand Sicilian. But few of them speak it.
In a public administration an employee should never dare speak Sicilian. If he wants to speak it, he may do it in the privacy of his own house.

If everyone speaks it, why should it matter?

Too many languages are in serious danger. Irish is all but dead despite being the official language of Ireland. Finnish almost died if it weren't for the Kalevala. Native Americans barely know how to speak their own ancestral tongues.

 

[Estro Felino]

If everyone speaks it, why should it matter?

Too many languages are in serious danger. Irish is all but dead despite being the official language of Ireland. Finnish almost died if it weren't for the Kalevala. Native Americans barely know how to speak their own ancestral tongues.

with all due respect, you cannot compare Sicilian to Gaelic. Please...Sicilian is a dialect with no history nor literature.
Gaelic is both an official and an administrative language

 

[Riverwolf]

with all due respect, you cannot compare Sicilian to Gaelic. Please...Sicilian is a dialect with no history nor literature.
Gaelic is both an official and an administrative language

Irish Gaelic is different from Scottish Gaelic. Hence why I specified Irish.

It's also dying. Hardly anyone speaks it. Officials and administrators speak English to each other in Ireland, because they don't know Irish. Another major difference from Scottish: Scottish isn't dying.

I also still fail to see what the big deal is. No history or literature? What does that even mean? If Sicilian is the native language of the people of Sicily, then sure it has a history. And I'm sure there's some Sicilian folk tales that have survived? That would count as literature.

 

[Estro Felino]

I also still fail to see what the big deal is. No history or literature? What does that even mean? If Sicilian is the native language of the people of Sicily, then sure it has a history. And I'm sure there's some Sicilian folk tales that have survived? That would count as literature.

I've never spoken Sicilian in my life. The future generations probably will never know that Sicilian existed.
At least Neapolitan is praised for its songs.
You should try to understand us Sicilians. We need to erase the past and look to the future.
well...actually people still write poems in Sicilian. But it's just art.

 

[Alceste]

If everyone speaks it, why should it matter?

Too many languages are in serious danger. Irish is all but dead despite being the official language of Ireland. Finnish almost died if it weren't for the Kalevala. Native Americans barely know how to speak their own ancestral tongues.

Actually, Irish is very much alive. I lived and worked on the Aran Islands for a summer. It's one of several pockets where everybody speaks it as their first language, and English as their second.

I was watching a friend's preschool-aged kids play with English speaking kids there when he turned to me, amazed, and said (about his kids) "They're awfully good at English, aren't they!" They never spoke English in the home, and he had no idea where they picked it up. They were good at phrases and sentences, but had trouble with things a native speaker wouldn't, like counting backwards from ten. (When you learn how to count in another language, you generally start at one and work your way up, often having to mentally go through the whole sequence to get to the right number - playing hide and seek they had to go all the way up and then back down again).

Ireland has several official Gaelic language zones, like the Connamaragh, where the signs are in Irish, the businesses all operate primarily in Irish, schools and government offices, etc. all speak Irish. That is an intentional effort on their part to keep the language alive, and it's been quite effective.

Yes, languages do die off, but they're also easily preserved if a community puts their minds to it.

For my own part, I want to make Chinook Jargon cool again.

 

[Estro Felino]

Ireland has several official Gaelic language zones, like the Connamaragh, where the signs are in Irish, the businesses all operate primarily in Irish, schools and government offices, etc. all speak Irish. That is an intentional effort on their part to keep the language alive, and it's been quite effective.

I really like the Gaelic names of Irish towns. Armagh, for example.
Not to mention Drogheda, which has become famous because of the Thorn Birds.

The Irish are marvelous....Cranberries and Dolores O ' Riordan especially

 

[Riverwolf]

I've never spoken Sicilian in my life. The future generations probably will never know that Sicilian existed.
At least Neapolitan is praised for its songs.
You should try to understand us Sicilians. We need to erase the past and look to the future.

NEVER!

The past should NEVER be erased, and I sincerely hope that the future you speak of never happens.

And I STILL don't understand why you have such a low opinion of Sicilian.

well...actually people still write poems in Sicilian. But it's just art.

"Just" art?

And I thought I saw greener grass in another's yard...

 

[Riverwolf]

Actually, Irish is very much alive. I lived and worked on the Aran Islands for a summer. It's one of several pockets where everybody speaks it as their first language, and English as their second.

I was watching a friend's preschool-aged kids play with English speaking kids there when he turned to me, amazed, and said (about his kids) "They're awfully good at English, aren't they!" They never spoke English in the home, and he had no idea where they picked it up. They were good at phrases and sentences, but had trouble with things a native speaker wouldn't, like counting backwards from ten. (When you learn how to count in another language, you generally start at one and work your way up, often having to mentally go through the whole sequence to get to the right number - playing hide and seek they had to go all the way up and then back down again).

Ireland has several official Gaelic language zones, like the Connamaragh, where the signs are in Irish, the businesses all operate primarily in Irish, schools and government offices, etc. all speak Irish. That is an intentional effort on their part to keep the language alive, and it's been quite effective.

Yes, languages do die off, but they're also easily preserved if a community puts their minds to it.

I hope it doesn't die off, but what you speak of, while great, is, as I understand it, quite the minority in Ireland proper.

 

[Alceste]

I hope it doesn't die off, but what you speak of, while great, is, as I understand it, quite the minority in Ireland proper.

Yeah, they're fairly small regions compared to the whole, but not insignificant.

Gaeltacht - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not only is the language well preserved by this strategy, people from the rest of Ireland can (and do) study the language by immersion in these areas, which is an indispensable asset to the whole country's grasp of Gaelic.

 

[Estro Felino]

NEVER!
And I STILL don't understand why you have such a low opinion of Sicilian.

Sicilian sounds ugly. It's not like French, which sounds beautiful.
yes...actually I classify Romance languages according to qualitative point of view.
French is the best, then there is Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.

 

[Riverwolf]

Sicilian sounds ugly.

I fail to see how that's any reason a language should "die".

I took a look at a side-by-side of Sicilian and Italian, and they look pretty comparable. I've also heard both French and Italian, and both sound equally beautiful to my ears.

 

[psychoslice]

I don't think it works, because each culture believes its own culture is the best, and if they had their own way we would all be their culture.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Please...Sicilian is a dialect with no history nor literature.

Sicilian is not a dialect, does have history and does have artistic value.
Your sentence qualifies as 'not even wrong'.

 

[Revoltingest]

Sicilian is not a dialect, does have history and does have artistic value.
Your sentence qualifies as 'not even wrong'.

Mr Pauli would appreciate your reference, but I think this is definitely wrong.

 

[Drolefille]

so...if I were a school student, do you really think I would be allowed to speak Sicilian to the school headmaster?
I guess you think he would be pleased to hear me.

I wouldn't know because you haven't provided a citation. No evidence, no assumption.

Actually, Irish is very much alive. I lived and worked on the Aran Islands for a summer. It's one of several pockets where everybody speaks it as their first language, and English as their second.

I was watching a friend's preschool-aged kids play with English speaking kids there when he turned to me, amazed, and said (about his kids) "They're awfully good at English, aren't they!" They never spoke English in the home, and he had no idea where they picked it up. They were good at phrases and sentences, but had trouble with things a native speaker wouldn't, like counting backwards from ten. (When you learn how to count in another language, you generally start at one and work your way up, often having to mentally go through the whole sequence to get to the right number - playing hide and seek they had to go all the way up and then back down again).

Ireland has several official Gaelic language zones, like the Connamaragh, where the signs are in Irish, the businesses all operate primarily in Irish, schools and government offices, etc. all speak Irish. That is an intentional effort on their part to keep the language alive, and it's been quite effective.

Yes, languages do die off, but they're also easily preserved if a community puts their minds to it.

For my own part, I want to make Chinook Jargon cool again.

Irish also exists particularly when some people don't want to speak to American tourists or exchange their traveler's checks (this was more than a decade ago.)

I don't really blame them, mind you.

 

[Estro Felino]

I don't think it works, because each culture believes its own culture is the best, and if they had their own way we would all be their culture.

I don't think so. Lots of Europeans think that the American culture is better than theirs. That's why it deals with an Americanization of Europe.

 

[Estro Felino]

I fail to see how that's any reason a language should "die".

I took a look at a side-by-side of Sicilian and Italian, and they look pretty comparable. I've also heard both French and Italian, and both sound equally beautiful to my ears.

In Italian we have lots of Z (pronounced like in pizza) ...so it can be qualified as a boors' language, compared to the refined French.

By the way...I discovered this, and I am realizing that Americans are more interested than us in preserving Sicilian
Arba Sicula - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[psychoslice]

I don't think so. Lots of Europeans think that the American culture is better than theirs. That's why it deals with an Americanization of Europe.

Yes, maybe so ?.