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Language Magazine’s forum for changes in world languages

Confucius Says Learn ChineseThe first Confucius Institute Conferencewas held in Beijing in early July as part of themainland’s promotion of Chinese languageand culture overseas. Speaking to some 400delegates from 38 countries and regions,State Councillor Chen Zhili said thatConfucius Institutes not only help others tolearn the Chinese language and culture, but“also get a much clearer picture of a modernChina.” “Language is the most important toolthat helps promote mutual understandingand friendship among people,” Chen added.The institutes’ main responsibilities are toteach Chinese, train teachers, certify instruc-tors, conduct examinations, and provide con-sultancy services on Chinese culture, theeconomy, and society. The Confucius Collegestatute says that “the mission of theConfucius Institute is to enhance peoples’understanding of the Chinese language andculture across the world, develop friendships

between China and other countries, promotemulticultural development, and contribute toa harmonious world.”

According to agreements signed there byChinese Language Council International(CLCI), a government body which co-ordi-nates language-teaching efforts in othercountries, there will soon be 80 ConfuciusInstitutes worldwide. It was also announcedthat China had signed deals with six moreforeign institutes to set up Confucius collegesin Britain, Germany, Serbia, Portugal,Belarus, and Spain.

The Confucius Institute, a non-profit publicinstitute, was first initiated in 2004 to satisfythe surging overseas demand for Chineselanguage learning. To date, a total of 80Confucius Institutes have been launched in36 countries and regions, and an additional99 institutes from 38 countries have appliedto set up Confucius Institutes. It is estimated

that 100 million people will learn Chinese bythe year 2010, calling for at least four millionChinese teachers. Facing such a great trendfor international dialogues, China hasannounced to build 100 Confucius Institutesworldwide by the year 2010, noted WangShenghong, president of Fudan University.

“China is a global power, — it influencesglobal prices on commodity markets, it’s aplayer in global trade talks, it’s a principalparty in six-party talks on North Korea andmany other issues of global importance,”says Yuen Pau Woo, president of theVancouver-based Asia Pacific Foundation ofCanada. “These issues are shaped in someways on perceptions of China and how itbehaves as an international power. One waythat can be shaped is through softer issueslike culture, language and education. Theseinstitutes are a way to project an image ofChina.”

Language education officialsin Shanghai are calling on morepeople to learn languages otherthan English ahead of the 2010World Expo, which is expected toattract 70 million visitors.

The city is seeking languageprofessionals in a range of tonguesto avoid a shortage of multilingualvolunteers for the Expo, which isexpected to attract visitors from allover the world.

Officials will issue qualificationcertificates for professionals whospeak one of eight foreign lan-guages — French, German, Spanish,Italian, Russian, Japanese,Portuguese and Arabic.

Since 1995, the government hasissued similar certificates for Eng-lish proficiency. The certificates arehighly prized in the country’s crowd-ed job market, and as of last year100,000 people had them issued.

Officials hope the new certifi-cates will attract the same interest.But issuing authorities reportedthat only 500 people had signed upfor the first qualification test, whichwill take place in December. Mostof the applicants were young stu-dents or white-collar workers whohad studied language as their majoror as a second foreign language atuniversity.

“The number is far less than ourexpectation, not to mention thecity’s demand for foreign languageprofessionals,” said Shi Ronggen,an official with the certificationapplication office. “We believe thatthe number of people who can getthe certificate is much higher thanthe number of people who haveapplied for one,” Shi said.

China’s fourth-largest ethnic minority,the Miao (known as the Hmong in the rest ofSoutheast Asia) people with thousands of yearsof history, are in danger of losing their lan-guage, Chinese state media has reported.

Evidence from areas in south China populat-ed by the Miao suggest a drastic and speedydecline in the use of the language, theShanghai Daily said.

“Native people in Miao villages communicatein their own language less and less,” said HanKan, an official in charge of ethnic and religiousaffairs in Guizhou province, where many Miaolive.

In Danzhai county, part of Guizhou, only 60percent speak their own language, down from85 percent just seven years ago, the paper said.

The Miao language may have gotten a leaseof life when a writing system was developed in

the mid-20th century, but now experts are wor-ried it could be destined for extinction.

“With no effective inheritance mechanism,the Miao language will be hard to preserve,”Han said.

The Miao, or Hmong, number nearly ninemillion in China and also inhabit parts of main-land Southeast Asia, such as Vietnam,Thailand, and Laos.

China’s minority languages are under pres-sure especially from economic forces, as mem-bers of ethnic groups migrate to big citieswhere the standard Mandarin Chinese dialectdominates communication.

Many parents also prefer to send their off-spring to schools where Mandarin is taughtexlusively or predominantly, as it gives the chil-dren significantly better chances in the labormarket upon graduation.

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China’s Miao Language Threatened

ShanghaiSeeksLinguists

1177August 2006 http://www.languagemagazine.com

Bahasa Malaysia

The spoken Sabahandialect of BahasaMalaysia differs much ininflection and intonationfrom the West Malaysianversion, having more similarity in pronunciationto Indonesian. English,Chinese Mandarin as wellas the Chinese dialects ofHakka and Cantoneseare widely understood. Inaddition, Kadazan-Dusun,Bajau, Murut, and otherraces also have distinctethnic languages.

Source: wikipedia.org

1188 August 2006http://www.languagemagazine.com

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Malaysian police in the eastern Sabah state on Borneo Island will be made toattend language classes to enable them to communicate in basic Mandarin and Arabic, ontop of being proficient in the English and Malay language. The majority of police officers inthe country are ethnic Malays, who generally lack proficiency in any language but the Malaylanguage. Many struggle with speaking basic English.

New police recruits in the state must now attend a six-month English training programand take a language competency test, said state police deputy director of training AbdulWahab Julai. “This is to enable future policemen to have at least a basic understanding ofthese languages and eventually better communication skills.” He pointed out that the topbrass of the police force was determined to ensure each recruit is able to converse inEnglish or at least have a basic understanding of the language.

“We are trying to improve their communication skills in view of the growing number of for-eign tourists,” said Julai.

Malay Police Go Trilingual

Brazil Embraces Spanish

Almost five years ago, Brazilian con-gressman Atila Lira presented Bill No.3987/00 in Brazil’s National Congress, re-questing that Spanish be taught as a sec-ond language in all of the country’s privateand public schools. Last month, the bill wasfinally approved, and now only awaits thesignature of President Lula da Silva tobecome law.

If approved, Brazil’s education systemwill have five years to adapt to the new lawrequiring that Spanish be offered as an elec-tive for students in grades five through eight.

Congressman Lira commented that “Thenew law is important for primary educationand for Brazil’s integration with the rest ofMercosur.”

As English usage becomes more common,Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia are establishinga regional agreement to revitalize Malay as theirnational language.

“We would like to maintain Malay-Indonesian’s position as a national and regionallanguage and put foreign languages likeEnglish, Chinese or Arab in a purely supportingrole,” said Indonesia’s education MinisterBambang Sudibyo after signing the commit-ment. He also said that to implement the pro-gram nationwide, the ministry was initiating alaw that would stipulate the use of BahasaIndonesia as the leading language. The plannedlaw would also require that Bahasa Indonesiabe used for public speeches and commercialadvertisements.

Although the ministry has yet to decide onthe kinds of punishments people might face forbreaking the law, the drafting process is finishedand the draft bill will be submitted to thePresident soon.

Bambang said Bahasa Indonesia is now in adifficult position in this country, since publicplaces are often named in English.

“We have to halt this process; otherwise wewill no longer have a national language,” he said.

A similar thing has happened in Malaysia.The use of Malay has decreased over the pastfew decades amid increasing emphasis ontechnology and education. Malaysia’s EducationMinister Hishammuddin bin Tun Hussein saidthe globalization process had diluted the usageof Malay among native speakers. The commit-ment with Indonesia and Brunei, he said, wouldrefresh the three countries’ determination tofight for their united national language.

“I will ask support from other institutions inmy country to use the language in internationalagreements and meetings,” he said. “If we, thelocals, who are the owners of the language,don’t want to use it, then who will?”

Indonesia and Malaysia have also estab-lished an agreement to link top schools fromboth countries in a network to promote the useof Malay. The schools would facilitate sharing

MultinationalSupport forSaving Malay

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Kiwis PushMultilingualism

New Zealand’s education minister,Steve Maharey, says New Zealandersmust become competent in the majorlanguages of the world or risk being leftbehind in trade with emergingeconomies.

On July 31, Maharey unveiled a draftcurriculum which will make it compulso-ry for schools to offer classes in a sec-ond language other than Maori andEnglish from Year 7. He says NewZealand needs people competent inSpanish, Chinese, and Indian becausethey are countries New Zealand will bedoing business with this century.

“On top of ensuring that people canmaintain their languages, we want toensure that we have a wider variety ofpeople speaking a wider variety of lan-guages,” Maharey said.

Maharey noted that final amendmentswould be made to the draft after threemonths of consultation ending inNovember.

The head of the Maori LanguageCommission in New Zealand has called forthe development of a pan-Pacific language tostem declining numbers of indigenousPolynesian speakers.

Commission chief executive Haami Piripisaid the commission was in discussions witha number of Pacific nations including Hawaii,Rarotonga, Samoa and Niue to develop alanguage database that would be used todevelop a common“Meta-Polynesian”language.

He claimed theinitiative wasrequired to halt thedeclining use ofPolynesian lan-guages driven bythe dominance ofthe English lan-guage and highnumbers of Pacificpeoples settling inother parts of theworld.

“There are net-works of lan-guages that sharea common ances-try, from Fiji acrossto Tahiti, it isimportant tochronicle thechanges to thelanguage as itspread across thePacific and to rec-ognize the family oflanguages thatexist.”

The end result would be a database thatwould assist in developing greater uniformityamong the various languages, driven by aneed to ensure Polynesian languages aremaintained.

“There is a merge point, the point wherethe languages merge will get greater andgreater until it becomes a language of itsown. As we move towards convergence wewill move towards a means of conversingacross all of the languages.”

He said the New Zealand and Australiangovernments had been a driving force in thedecline of Polynesian languages and mustplay a greater role in ensuring their survival.

However, the proposal has been met withskepticism by senior lecturer in Samoan stud-ies at Victoria University, GalumalemanaAlfred Hunkin, who said strong oppositionwould follow moves for change, “When wetalk about language loss it is a very emotional

issue. Languageis about identityand pride andyour culture if youhave someonewho comes alongand says ‘heylet’s use thisword’, you aregoing to havesome veryhealthy debatearen’t you?”

Mr. Hunkinapplauded movesto compile adatabase andprotect Pacificlanguages, butsaid initiatives toensure the sur-vival of a nativetongue had to bedriven from withinthe communityand embraced bythose at thegrass-roots. Headded, “Whilethere is a similari-ty between

Pacific languages, there is also great unique-ness of vocabulary and words particular toeach language, including in spelling.”

Hello across the pacificMaori kia ora tatou katoaRarotongan Kia orana tatoa katoa toaHawaiian Aloha kakouSamoan Talofa tatouTongan Malo e leleiNiuean Whakalofa

Call for Pan-Pacific Language

A waka [maori canoe] on an AbelTasman beach, New Zealand