Less Successful
EN120b Essay
Student
Gourley, Jonathan
Expos. II
15 May 2003
Language Loss in Micronesia
Language loss in Micronesia is a serious problem and if we don’t
do something to keep our language, it will probably die in two generations
(Andreas). We know that languages change every year and if we don’t
do something to help keep our language, English will be the language use
in Micronesia. As a matter of fact, the language that we adopted is not
our native language and it can kill our own native language. We all know
that the language that most of us are now using is not so easy to put
a stop to it. If we loose our native language, the culture of each island
will probably forget.
Some languages in the Micronesia are now started dying. Let’s take
Chamorro language for example. Before, we all know that there are a lot
of people who speak this language. But now that the western style influenced
their cultures they stared loosing their cultures and even their language.
Today, they still considered them as Chamorro but they don’t speak
their native language. Only few of them still know how to play with their
native tongue, but more than half of the people already had forgotten
how to communicate using their native language.
Since we adopted most of the western way of life it’s really hard
to avoid speaking English. It’s like that we’re in the middle
of doing the western way of life that we cannot pull us back from it.
We already lost most of our culture because the western way of life is
so strong on our small islands. For example; in my own culture, the western
way of life may be play a biggest roll in the community and as a result,
the culture is now start dying out. There are words that we used for different
ages, but now we started loosing them because our language was influence
by the English language. (Mangwerus) One good example is when you call
somebody to come and eat. In our culture, if you call a brother to eat,
there’s a word to use, but if you call a sister you use a different
word. We did this to show respect with others. However; this generations
now was already addicted to the western style. This means that they loose
the opportunity of practicing their cultures and to speak their native
language perfect.
There are words now they started teaching the native language in elementary.
The small kids are now practicing speaking some of the word from the elder
that we hardly used. These words are now only used by those old people.
We don’t know them and they hardly used them when they speak to
us. Now in school culture classes teach small children the cultures and
the language. They used to teach them the words we no longer used. The
older people are trying to save the language and culture before it’s
too late. They know that if they don’t do something they language
will die. They wanted especially our age to practice the cultures so it
will stay strong. Though we lost most of them, they’re trying to
teach how those that they still know.
Most Micronesians have English as their first language (Andreas). For
example, there are children who are Micronesians that they don’t
even know how to say a word in their language. When you speak your native
tongue to them, don’t worry to hear them answer you back in their
native language. You might probably hear them answer you in English. They
don’t even know their native language. It means that they don’t
know how to speak their native tongue. It wasn’t their own fault
to have English as their first language. Their parent’s just wanted
them to learn English because they know that English is a very important
language now to know.
We Micronesians know that education is a key of life. With out education,
we will not have a good living in the future. We learn English in school
and we attend school so we will have a better job in the future. That’s
why parents speak English to their children so they will speak English
well. But they don’t realize that language is also part of our cultures.
They look only on the side that will help their child, but no on the other
side that we’re loosing one of our important cultures. It’s
true that we should know how to speak in English because we’re part
of the US; however, we should also know our cultures first before entering
others world. Isn’t that a shame trashing your own cultures and
try to adopt others? As for me, I don’t feel like taking others
way of life and try not to practice my own cultures. Though it endanger
of dying, I still wanted to practice it because it’s my own culture.
We should do something to help save the languages in Micronesia. Some
people might probably wonder about what to do to preserve the languages.
In my own opinion, the College of Micronesia needs to offer classes of
Micronesian language for the students to practice their languages. This
is a good place for all those who wish to learn their native language
and other languages in Micronesia. We might think that it is useless to
do it, but it will help those who don’t know how to speak their
native language. On the other hand, the very best way is that all schools
in Micronesia will offer a class which students can learn their own language.
Language loss in Micronesia is a big problem and we should do something
that will help prevent our language. Since we adopted most of the western
way of life, it’s hard to for us to pull back our language and cultures
that we already lost, but at least we practice how to use them again.
Aside from these, it is a big problem for us Micronesians that we put
aside our native languages and cultures and try to adopt the English way
of life. We thought that the western way of life is easier than ours,
but we don’t realize that our languages are endangered of dying
off. So lets all work together to save the languages and cultures in Micronesia
before it’s too late.
50% F – Too many verb tense errors. Too many grammar errors.
Need to prove that adopting Western culture leads to language loss. Also,
it’s not clear what it means to live in a Western way. The student
understands how to form paragraphs, but begins to falter as the paper
goes on. Once a paper gets to: “Education is the key to everything,”
you know that the student has run out of ideas. Not enough sources. Not
correctly cited.
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