Marry a speaker of an endangered language.
(Tongue in cheek, s.v.p.)
Not only will you have a greatly improved opportunity to learn the endangered language, you will also have a consultant at hand - very handy for those random questions needing checking.
Reducing one's language footprint is a long-term commitment and practice. By marrying an endangered language speaker, you can also participate in furthering the transmission of the language to your own progeny.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
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4 comments:
Well.. I don't know that my fiance's language is actually endangered... but it is foreign (hehehe!) and it is non-European...
All the same I wouldn't teach my progeny his language at the cost of mine (luckily this is barely possible). Although his is very cool, I am still very proud of my own :) and I have a family attachment to it (and he speaks English to an almost native-like degree).
Be assured I am going to some lengths to make sure I learn his though- both for me to communicate with family, and of course so our children have a better chance of acquiring it and keeping it.
He also wants to learn Spanish, and then we would have three languages in common(!!). Language superstars I tell you!
this is so stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com
white people love diversity and bilingualism!
it's true!
Sophie, while I appreciate your language superstardom, and general superstardom, did I hear you make appeal to that most horrid of language myths - that the acquisition of another language can only be done at the forsaking of one's own??!!
I know you later assured us that you'll be doing all you can ensure your children will be bilingual (oh! every linguist's dream! If not for themselves, then for their children!). So I'll let you off this time! ;)
!!! No that is not what I meant at ALL!!! Of course a person doesn't forsake ones own language ( which is why I said it is barely possible!). What I was trying to say is that I don't want to make English out to be the "bad" language in our family- it is just as dear to us as Hebrew will be. You can probably guess that language diversity is pretty high on my list of cool things (being a "whiteperson" and all hehehe).
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