Tongues of Heaven

The documentary "Tongues of Heaven" is about how the indigenous people of Asia languages are starting to disappear. The old languages are being substituted for more popular languages like Chinese. With these languages starting to disappear so are the native people’s cultures and traditions. Only a select few young people want to learn the old indigenous languages so they can be passed on to the next generation. Without these few young people learning their native language the entire indigenous language will disappear. It is difficult for people from these small villages to teach their language and culture to new people because there are not many people in these villages. Most people in the villages are relatives of each other, so it is difficult to have more children. Many of the younger people in the villages do not want to stay and they rather move to a larger city. “I really like it here. Whether I leave to go study or do other things” ("Tongues of Heaven.", directed by Anita Chang, et al.). This is a quote from one of the younger girls who enjoys her village and wants to come back to it. Most young people want to move out of the small villages. “You can imitate culture, but you can’t imitate language” ("Tongues of Heaven.", directed by Anita Chang, et al.).  I believe this quote to be very true that disappearing languages cannot be imitated, but the culture can. It goes to show that once a language is gone, it is gone forever. “If nature does not have animals, then it is not nature. Therefore, you must have language in order to have culture” ("Tongues of Heaven.", directed by Anita Chang, et al.). This is a quote from one of the young women in Hawaii. She sees the Hawaiian culture but has not heard the Hawaiian language. This just goes to show that the language is much harder to keep than the culture.  

Comments

  1. Kayley NegastAugust 21, 2020 at 12:44 PM

    Very strong point that I also notice in the documentary. It was interesting to see how an entire language and even culture relied so heavily on the younger generations to keep it practiced. It makes me wonder how many languages and cultures are endangered around the world.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Christopher Columbus Documentary

     In the documentary Christopher Columbus, researchers believe that Columbus's had landed on the island of San Salvador. The island matches the description from Columbus’ logs, and there have been remnants found on the island from Spain. “It looks like I have found what appears to be a coin” (Clark’s History Reels. “Christopher Columbus”). Almost all of the natives of the island died from European disease and exploitation. Columbus was convinced that he had landed somewhere on the coast of China. He was originally looking to land on Japan, but he thought he was landing on the islands surrounding Japan. “Along with finding a new route to the Orient, spreading Christianity was one of Columbus’ primary intentions” (Clark’s History Reels. “Christopher Columbus”). Columbus left crosses along the coast, he did this for Spain and to Christen the land. Any natives who did not conform to Christianity were burned at the stake. They told the natives that only Christians can find ...
Read more

Haiti: Land of Tragedy, Land of Hope

  Haiti has over eight million people in the country with a life expectancy of fifty years, seventy percent of the population below the poverty line, and sixty-five percent of the population can read. This is crazy to think about that in today’s age a county can fall behind so much with the rest of society. In 1994 the country finally instilled a democratic institution to allow the country to hopefully thrive in the near future. The leaders of Haiti understand that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will Haiti. They understand it is going to take time to fix the country, but they know they are moving in the correct direction. There is now hope in the people of Haiti, hope of the people and of the national level. Some people of Haiti believe that the political leaders enjoy the power they have and do not want to give up that power. So, they decide to stay in power and people in Haiti want them out of power so the country can move forwards and be given more freedoms. The birthpl...
Read more

Rosena on the Mountain

 This story is very different from the other short stories that we have read. Rosena on the Mountain  is a short story about a young Haitian boy who wants to join the sainthood. He grew up from nothing in the slums of his town. He feels that God has to lead him to become closer to him. "I felt destined to rise at two o'clock each morning of my life and to utter only three words a week" (Rosena on the Mountain, René Despestre). The boy went to the mountains to start his journey in sainthood. There he met a girl that helps with the sainthood that is called Rosena. She would help in the kitchen, making food, and gathering water.  Rosena has her eye on the boy and the boy starts to feel a certain way with Rosena. The boy knows that he cannot sin with Rosena because it does against her beliefs. The temptation becomes too strong and Rosena and the boy sin together. The boy is in love but is distraught at the same time because he has gone against everything that he has lear...
Read more