Languages in the Real World - Help Me With My Project?

[eido]

I always start threads that seem to go nowhere, so let's hope this one will be better than the one I started about a minuscule sound that apparently only I could hear.

So I have a project due for American Government - a college pre-req. Not a bad class, except for the final project. We have to pick something we're interested in and can get involved with that relates to government practices and policies - you know, we gotta be informed citizens an' all that.

The only things I can come up with related to my major interest is language revitalization and perhaps integrating people of different cultures into our American one. Only, I don't know how to "get involved" with that. I live in Colorado in a small city, and to my knowledge working with Native American languages isn't that big here, as say, Arizona - especially in my town. I'm also afraid I'd offend someone from that (those) community(ies) if I ever got in touch with them because I know I have some misconceptions about them that no amount of reading seems to dispel. I know we have had stories about immigrants living in churches to seek asylum on the news, but that's all I know about that debate. And that's a bit removed from the issue of languages.

Does anyone have any ideas of what I could do, or am I chasing something with no leads? I have to turn in something tangible besides putting myself out there (either by going to a meeting or volunteering) which might be a five page paper, a video, or "mixed media" (which I can't define after they explained it - at all).

I appreciate the help, even if you're just telling me I'm a dingy.

[jonm]

Hi eido, sounds interesting! Here are a couple possible leads...

For language revitalization, you could look at the Center for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the West at CU Boulder. They have a project devoted to the Arpaho language. Looks like they've developed quite a lot of material for it. Here's a newspaper article about the project. According to this, Andrew Cowell is directing the project and graduate student Irina Wagner has developed an online dictionary. You could perhaps start by contacting them. Possibly you could see if you could interview them for your paper, and with your language learning background, you could check out the materials they've come up with and maybe research the language a little. (I'm not suggesting learning the language, as there wouldn't be enough time, but if you find it interesting you could always see what can be learned about it in a short amount of time, sort of the way folks here do with the Language Jam.)

And then I think it's a great idea to look at organizations that are helping people who've recently immigrated or who are seeking asylum. You could have a look at the organizations mentioned here. If there's anything not too far from where you live, you might be able to volunteer and write about the experience and the project you participated in.

Good luck with this, seems like a really worthwhile project!

[eido]

Hi eido, sounds interesting! Here are a couple possible leads...

I emailed the teacher and it turns out he was able to modify it for me. I'll be saying why language revitalization is important to people of Native American cultures, what it is, and how they're doing it. Eep!

These links will be immensely helpful, though. I was browsing a while back for resources on Native American languages and that particular site never came up for me - maybe I was just using the wrong criteria. Universities can be pretty cool that way, I guess. Now to do the research!

Thank you, my friend!

[jonm]

You're very welcome! Wow, that's so cool that you've already gotten in touch with the professor and worked out a plan for the project. It really sounds interesting. If you feel like updating us later, I'd certainly be interested in hearing how it goes. I think this kind of work is really important, documenting languages with relatively few speakers and helping the community keep the language going strong. Good luck with the research!

[iguanamon]

I'll be saying why language revitalization is important to people of Native American cultures, what it is, and how they're doing it. ... Now to do the research!...

Since I have learned a couple of minority languages, I am very interested in the topic. I follow @indigenoustweet on twitter. It's an account documenting minority languages struggles and revivals across the world including North America. Have a look at the accounts tweets for links to lots of interesting articles, papers and research.

[eido]

My presentation is supposed to be worth five minutes of content, but I'm not actually giving it since it's an online class. I would love to incorporate @iguanamon's source into my project, but I don't think I have enough slides. I will be reading through some of those papers, though - definitely.

If anyone's interested in going through the final copy of my presentation, I might be able to get one to you. It's not very interesting or long, but I tried.

[IronMike]

If anyone's interested in going through the final copy of my presentation, I might be able to get one to you. It's not very interesting or long, but I tried.

I'd like to see it. If you're willing to share.

[jonm]

If anyone's interested in going through the final copy of my presentation, I might be able to get one to you. It's not very interesting or long, but I tried.

I'd like to see it. If you're willing to share.

Same here, I'd definitely be interested in taking a look if you're up for up for sharing it!

[eido]

I'd like to see it. If you're willing to share.

Same here, I'd definitely be interested in taking a look if you're up for up for sharing it!

I'm almost done with it. It still has to go through a critique process, but I'll probably send you the one that hasn't gone through critiques because most of my classmates don't know about languages so can't comment.