|
Post by Kalvien on Sept 1, 2009 21:18:52 GMT -5
I wonder if any of you still speaking your ancestor's mother language or have you experienced language loss like I do?
Sometime I wish my grandparents and parents didn't cut the language heritage to their grandchildren. My grandparents (from my father) speak mandarin and my oma and opa (from mother's side) speak dutch fluently.
My mom's family speak dutch partially and the rest of the eurasian children are not being taught with dutch, so it's causing them to lose their ancestor's language.
From my father's side, I'm supposed to inherit hokkien chinese and mandarin, but they didnt inherit any to me, my recent interest to find eurasian background make me feel sorry than ever being lazy to study mandarin during my childhood.
But I suppose, my parents didn't inherit the languge because they werent highly educated, they didn't know the profit of raising multilingual child, so I'm stuck only with Indonesian, english, basic japanese, and basic german in my head. People also discouraged to speak non-indonesian language in the society back then.
I've been thinking to learn mandarin and dutch. Mandarin is proven to be useful wth rise of china, and will be great asset in future. But dutch language is hardly business language, dutch people could speak english fluently, it's almost useless. for me, dutch is language of affection, it's only for heritage and identity, nothing much. I'm still wanting to learn dutch, but not in high priority because it's not too important in business.
share your thoughts about this, any of you currently trying to learn your ancestors' language?
|
|
|
Post by mingzayni88 on Sept 3, 2009 11:33:36 GMT -5
Hi, I'm currently trying to learn my ancestor's languages too.
I never really worried about the Eurpean language too much (which would be Norwegian), but I really want to learn the Asian language, which would be some Chinese dialect and Hindi.
But, right now, I'm studying Arabic, so I'm going to wait a bit before I study one of my ancestral languages.
The first one I want to study is Hindi, just because it seems much easier to learn than Chinese, and then after I get a good grasp of Hindi, I'll like to study Mandarin.
I'm just learning them for personal reasons because they are what my ancestors spoke, but I believe they are very useful languages for other purposes.
Maybe after I study those 2, I'll take up Norwegian.
|
|
|
Post by Ganbare! on Sept 5, 2009 11:48:05 GMT -5
If you are in a cultural or professional context where you can put them into use, then sure however I wouldn't do it for the sake of nostalgia.
I'm in the process of learning mandarin for traveling purposes and not because my family didn't pass it to me.
|
|
|
Post by milkman's baby on Sept 5, 2009 22:57:31 GMT -5
If you are in a cultural or professional context where you can put them into use, then sure however I wouldn't do it for the sake of nostalgia. I'm in the process of learning mandarin for traveling purposes and not because my family didn't pass it to me. I agree - there's no use in a language if you don't use it. Your ancestors probably forgot the ancient languages of the earlier ancestors and so on and so on. Language evolves and gets lost all the time.
|
|
|
Post by Subuatai on Sept 6, 2009 0:23:22 GMT -5
I agree with Sweetfart.
Only reason you have to learn your grandparent's languages is communication. If you can already communicate, there's really no point.
My wife can speak fluent Mandarin, it never helped her to be accepted. Take note of this please, could save you a few years of hard-learning experience.
|
|
|
Post by jefe on Sept 10, 2009 1:24:54 GMT -5
^ I respect your opinion. But I couldn't disagree more. My grandparents have been dead for over 35 years. The only time I communicate directly with them is at their gravesites. And even if I go back to the ancestral village to meet distant relatives, they can understand Cantonese and Mandarin well enough to communicate just fine, and the language communication barrier is not that great. However, I still very very much want to learn my ancestral rural Southern Chinese dialect. Not only did I hear it often in my early childhood (and therefore am always greatly moved each time I hear it or use it), but it also helps me to understand the bifurcation that occurred when the family split into the descendants that stayed in China and those that went overseas. Being accepted by the ethnic group is certainly not the only reason why someone learns a language. Most foreign students of Mandarin (or any other language for that matter) are not learning so that they can be accepted as one with the relevant ethnic group. I learned Cantonese and Mandarin already and met this concept with very mixed results. I don't ever expect to accepted by any ethnic group out there. This is NO REASON whatsoever to avoid learning the language associated with that ethnic group. I am not of Filipino descent at all, but by learning some Tagalog, it has greatly enhanced my ability to feel at ease around Filipinos, and for them to feel at ease around me -- many even ask me if I am part Filipino or grew up in the Philippines. I am never expecting to be accepted as a member of the ethnic group, but it makes it MUCH easier to interact with them. Your ancestors probably forgot the ancient languages of the earlier ancestors and so on and so on. Language evolves and gets lost all the time. I do agree with this though. Your own descendants may not even know how to speak your current language(s). This is not a big deal in the long run, as it has been going on for millenia already.
|
|
scott
New Member
Posts: 33
|
Post by scott on Sept 10, 2009 6:58:27 GMT -5
How fluent are you in Tagalog, Jefe? and how did you come to be so close to the people and culture if you're not of Filipino descent yourself? Just curious. I myself am part Filipino and I'm always trying to improve my Tagalog.
|
|
|
Post by jefe on Sept 11, 2009 2:24:06 GMT -5
^ Just because I am not of Filipino descent, and have never lived there for a period of time, does not mean that I have no relationship to the people, ie,
- Many of my Dad's friends were Filipino-American (considerably more than Chinese-American friends). He preferred to hang out with them as they liked big social gatherings, and to go out to dance halls. So, I participated in more Filipino-American get-togethers growing up than Chinese-American ones. - My father's aunt migrated to the Philippines, so he has first cousins that grew up there. - my barber, family doctor, etc. growing up were Filipinos. - my godmother (Ninang) is one of my father's Filipino-American friends. So that means that I also have Filipino-American "Kinakapatid". - I had Filipino roommates for many years - I was in a Filipino cultural ensemble in NY, which put on drama performances - Lived on a street in Queens that was 30% Filipino -- They asked me "Pilipino ka ba?" and I replied, "Hindi, Ikaw?" and I was met with a very puzzled return look. :-) - Go to Philippines now to go diving - Make Pinoy friends myself along the way - Help some HK people learn more about Tagalog Filipino culture. One of my female ex-colleagues in HK now listens to Filipino pop songs and sings them at Karaoke.
I am not even Filipino, but can find dozens of ways to connect with the language, people and culture. What kinds of actions do you do?
|
|
scott
New Member
Posts: 33
|
Post by scott on Sept 12, 2009 13:31:39 GMT -5
I hope I didn't sound like I was being rude or too direct. I was only curious. That's very interesting indeed! You've had a lot more exposure to the language than I have, Jefe. I'd even go as far as saying you're more Filipino than I am. The only exposure I've had to the culture was from gatherings with my mom's family, and a friend in college who was from Manila. I'm a little white-washed but I've been trying to change that in recent years.
|
|
|
Post by toyomansi on Sept 12, 2009 13:48:33 GMT -5
They asked me "Pilipino ka ba?" and I replied, "Hindi, Ikaw?" and I was met with a very puzzled return look. :-) lol! ;D they must have thought you were joking about not being pinoy... from what you have told, I think you're even more filipino than many part-filipinos are
|
|
Shock
Full Member
Posts: 261
|
Post by Shock on Sept 13, 2009 13:15:40 GMT -5
I'm learning english and german. But as you can see I've still much work to do. Es ist gut!
|
|
|
Post by Kalvien on Sept 18, 2009 21:57:37 GMT -5
viel gluck. deutsch macht mich kopfweh
|
|
|
Post by tifonito on Oct 17, 2009 11:17:10 GMT -5
Well personally I don't think it's necessary. I believe it's still possible to feel connected to your ancestral heritage without really knowing the language.
For instance, my paternal grandparents were born and raised in Shanghai so they spoke Shanghainese at home. I only know a few stock phrases of the dialect but I feel extremely connected to Shanghai because I grew up hearing tales of my grandparents' life there before fleeing to Hong Kong in 1950.
I was in Shanghai for a few days last summer and it was moving to see the places that my grandmother mentioned in her stories. The cinema where she went to see movies every weekend still stands, and so does the church where she once gave performances - she was a budding singer in her youth. Going back to Shanghai was quite the experience... in a strange way it felt like I had come home.
|
|
|
Post by waywardwolf on Oct 19, 2009 20:38:39 GMT -5
I think a lot of us would have to be linguistic champions to cover all our ancestors' languages. Still, I could stand to learn a few.
|
|
|
Post by jefe on Oct 22, 2009 23:56:57 GMT -5
^ How about simply learning the languages of all of your grandparents and of the society you are living in?
That would be a limited number of languages in the reach of everyone.
Actually, many, if not most mono-ethnic people have multi-ethnic background somewhere back in their lineage. Obviously, some multi-ethnic ancestor simply decided NOT to learn the language of one or more ancestors, or pass it on to their children. At some point, the connection is lost.
|
|