Africa: "No Country Can Make Progress On the Basis of a Borrowed Language"

[Black smoke and cac jokes]

What about India?

What about India?

 

[Black smoke and cac jokes]

He's right tho, but to me the best course of action is have those people that are proficient in European languages translate books, documents, etc etc etc into the local languages so that the greater populations can learn in much the same way the Diaspora does. I know in Ethiopia there are translation projects in different parts of the country, mind you hundreds of languages are spoken in Ethiopia so its not wide sweeping just yet however books are being translated in the not as popular languages like Amharic, Tigrinya, Orominya, etc but even languages from the smaller more obscure southern and eastern tribes whom have very little literary works to fall back on.

So the work is being done definitely, but not throughout the continent like it should be.

Exactly, I don't really agree with the local language being the priority. Instead, translate the texts to the language that best suits that region and then encourage them to learn the dominant language.

 

[GetInTheTruck]

Africans aren't as homogenous in terms of language and culture in comparison to people in countries like China and India(China more so), that's part of the reason why it was so easy for Europeans to conquer them. The fact that aside from Ancient Egypt and Ethiopia Africa didn't really produce a rich written tradition that can be readily referenced didn't help the situation either.

 

[TheBigBopper]

America, India, and Singapore say hi.

 

[TheBigBopper]

The Philippines too

 

[theworldismine13]

Exactly, I don't really agree with the local language being the priority. Instead, translate the texts to the language that best suits that region and then encourage them to learn the dominant language.

How is "encouraging" people into learning the "dominant" language any different than learning English?

I think the best model is the scandanavian countries, basically most people in the country know the native language and English

 

[TTT]

I think Vietnam and many other countries that have large native speakers of their main language are at a big advantage compared to very diverse African countries. Apart from Lingala in DRC and Swahili in East Africa there aren't many countries that managed to have some African based lingua franca. Asking people to adopt one of the languages in the country no matter how dominant it might be is a recipe for instability. There is a lot of literature written in local languages as there are newspapers i have seen dedicated to African languages such as Shona,Ndebele,Zulu etc.Many African people get by speaking a number of languages including multiple local ones and they have multiple uses of language for social purposes as well as economic ones. As it stands without mother tongue education at the early education i.e pre- school simply makes it difficult to use such language at the later stages in life.

 

[The Real]

What about India?

India is different in that it wasn't a real country before its independence. There was no language that united the people before English (and later, Hindi being imposed on all the non-Hindi speakers by the government, which is still a controversial issue.) That's not true in several of these African countries.

 

[newarkhiphop]

why should English be the world language?

 

[Black smoke and cac jokes]

How is "encouraging" people into learning the "dominant" language any different than learning English?

I think the best model is the scandanavian countries, basically most people in the country know the native language and English

You encourage the dominant language, meaning the language of the colonizers. All of Africa wasn't colonized by England.......

That's exactly what the Scandinavian countries are doing. They are encouraging students to learn English in school but the language isn't used in their daily life and therefore not applicable, to be honest. People who really wants to learn English are attentive and try to learn English outside of school too but the majority know the basics but doesn't really speak it at all.

Instead, to be proficient in reading and writing, learn all the literature in their own language and then, for those who have ambitions beyond their local environment can choose to learn a new language.

People talking about the world becoming more global and connected, yea, for the rest of the world but not for most African countries.

 

[theworldismine13]

You encourage the dominant language, meaning the language of the colonizers. All of Africa wasn't colonized by England.......

That's exactly what the Scandinavian countries are doing. They are encouraging students to learn English in school but the language isn't used in their daily life and therefore not applicable, to be honest. People who really wants to learn English are attentive and try to learn English outside of school too but the majority know the basics but doesn't really speak it at all.

Instead, to be proficient in reading and writing, learn all the literature in their own language and then, for those who have ambitions beyond their local environment can choose to learn a new language.

People talking about the world becoming more global and connected, yea, for the rest of the world but not for most African countries.

oh ok, i thought you meant the local dominant african language

 

[Black smoke and cac jokes]

oh ok, i thought you meant the local dominant african language

ahh nah...although