The interview is about the Language and the influence of it on the culture and identity of a respective zone. First, we have to clarify some aspects that probably are not completely understood and will cause some problems later:
“Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication. The scientific study of language in any of its senses is called linguistics. The approximately 3000–6000 languages that are spoken by humans today are the most salient examples, but natural languages can also be based on visual rather than auditory stimuli, for example in sign languages and written language.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language)
“Culture is the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc.” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/culture)
The interviewee is Mr. Danny Nunez, who is a teacher of philosophy on The Mackay School that knows everything about the Greco-Roman culture and that reads a lot about the different cultures of the world. Mr. Nunez, when we did the interview, was really enthusiastic and happy because he knows a lot of things of the topic “language and culture” and he was sure that he would give us amazing answers. The interview was done on the Social Studies Department, and Mr. Nunez was drinking a coffee:
What do you think about the Chilean culture?
-I think that it’s a very interesting culture, that it continues forming and incorporates a lot of elements from other nations.
Do you think that our national dialects make part of our culture and our national identity?
-Obviously they form part of our culture, each dialect assures a part of our language and it makes it dynamic.
Do you consider that bilingualism is essential for a man from the XXI century? Why?
-Yes, it is essential because it provides essential tools for his development. It is now becoming more common for men to travel the world and speak several languages that favor his adaptation.
Do you consider language as a fundamental aspect to the native culture, for a respective area?
-Yes, it is essential because through language is transmitted customs and traditions, making each nation or people has its own identity.
Do you think that the native tribes realized that they were losing their culture in the colonization process?
-I think that the tribes keep his culture during the colonization process. The Mapuche were the ethnic group that kept more time away the Spanish, the Arauco War lasted 116 years. But then the mixing was so rapid and extensive, that actually it made directly a homogeneous mix, having with that, the Chilean race. Therefore, there was no consciousness of been losing a culture, so that culture was decreasing and at the same time the miscegenation started emerging. The Ones or Selknam, however, who didn’t have the miscegenation, became extinct, with the death of the last Selknam woman, Angela Loji.
Do you think that to the current cultures it’s easier to interact between each other than they were to the ancient cultures, due by the globalization?
-I think that there are more facilities, but less clarity in the communication. There is a great quantity of bad understanding that are produced because of the issuer doesn’t express adequately, for example by e-mails. In practice, globalization has meant more to have a McDonald in each city of the world than to a successful cultural exchange.
What do you think about the globalization that is changing and sometimes eliminating de native language of a zone, for example, the Mapudungun on the south of Chile?
-The Mapudungun is a communicational media that was considered as a language only since the sixty’s. For doing that, the Mapuches started writing their words using signs and symbols created by the Spanish to establish a written language. Of course this divided the Mapuches because some of them considered that the language of the invaders wasn’t appropriate to write or translate their native language. From then on, as they never agreed to communicate their language on non-native words, this beautiful language called Mapudungun has been disappearing from the world and everyday fewer people speak it. Something similar occurs with the Rapa Nui’s, whose speakers don’t know how to write it and that is creating a losing of importance and credibility on the language, and in consequence, of the culture. A fact that is really vital and has a lot of blame on this losing of the native languages is the globalization, but a bigger part of the blame is of the native habitants who don’t protect their culture.
To conclude this interview, it’s good to clarify that Mr. Danny Nunez, because of his studies on philosophy, has a really complex and complete view of the topic and that most of his answers are really similar to what we think so that shows that we have a deep knowledge, and that’s really important. When we finished the interview, Mr. Nunez said to us that Mrs. Carla should put us a seven because our work was really good.
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