Our Land

When reading these articles one thing above all else stood out in my mind, and though I agree with it with all my heart, in an Anthropology class it may not be taken too well. The movie Hero recalls a time of chaos in China where lands were being conquered and absorbed into the central nation. In the movie a assassin who had the chance to kill the emperor responsible stays his hand, and not until the end do you realize why, when he writes the 20th form of the word sword, which shares the shape of a phrase in Chinese which stands for "All under Heaven."

The point of all this is to say languages are an important part of culture and are the words in which we use to channel our ancestors and history, but we live in a world of suffering and only feel more isolated the harder it is to communicate what's in our hearts. The emperor of China saw this as well, he laughed at 20 ways to write one word, how confusing, how useless. Now I don't hold those same views, but I do believe that there is a benefit in being able to communicate with people at ease.

Language is an art which should never be lost, and should remain as diverse as the people speaking it, however I do believe that a globalized language is not the enemy of these endangered languages, I don't believe it even belongs in the same category, the enemy of these dying languages is laziness, is the cultures themselves. I will always morn Bloody Sunday, but what do you think when I say Bloody Sunday? Chances are that event is something different to you than it is for me, but being that the Irish rebellion was so important in my family's history how could anyone think that would die? Just like my friend who's first language is Spanish, though was born and raised in Minnesota, that part of him will never die, and it won't die with his children either. Now after that who knows these languages are an art, but their also a choice.

Save them or not I won't be forgetting my culture any time soon, and for those who do I only hope they can find an amazing ray of new and exciting pieces of themselves to replace whatever is lost, so that their children too can channel their history, their ancestors.

-Bryan D. Racine