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  • In the war against English, we won't be undersold

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joseph_m_sixpack@yahoo.com Feb 23, 2007 3:08 pm

It's hard to blame the French for wanting to protect their nativetongue.  After all, language is the vehicle of culture, and no onewants to lose their culture to an encroaching invader.  Idon't.  Do you?

Unfortunately, Hindi and "Chinese" (Mandarin) are no better atsolving this language problem than French or English.  Eachimposes the native language of one culture upon an unwilling majority,most of whom will never be remotely as fluent as their native-speakingcounterparts.

A better solution for the French would be to support a project like Indigenous Dialogues, which enables long-neglected speakers of minority languages to communicate with one another on a fair, equal footing.  If it can work for the Tlingit, the Maasai and the Maya, it can work for former world powers, too.

Reply to joseph_m_sixpack@yahoo.com at 3:08 pm