Some student responses to our discussion on language and culture.
There are a lot of feelings which I can't express in English. Not only
feelings, but also culture, because as I'm writing now I really feel
lost from my culture. I have stayed for months without speaking my language
to anybody apart from on the phone. --Lance (Lozi)
Home wouldn't feel like home any longer. --Petter (Norwegian / Swedish)
When I started speaking English in UWC, I lacked words to express myself.
At first I blamed my weakness in English, but then realized that these
concepts did not exist in English. --Mariya (Ukrainian)
Language is something that makes me a member of a smaller group. If
only English is spoken, then all my culture would be dissolved. Tradition
would disappear, and the group wouldn't exist anymore. --Srdjan (Serbian)
What would it mean to me not to speak Finnish anymore? We got our independence
mainly due to the fact that we have a language that isn't spoken anywhere
else -- not in Russia and not in Sweden. We were also accepted as a
civilized nation because of the stones that were collected into our
national epic Kalevala. --Mia (Finnish)
Our roots also, common with the Hungarians and Estonians, would become
meaningless without the language. What a loss of special friendship!
--Mia (Finnish)
My language is my culture and my identity and forgetting it would be
the same as forgetting myself, my past, my country and that's the last
thing I could do --Iva (Croatian)
Just thinking that I wouldn't be able to read anymore my literature
and to enjoy its beauty is very painful. --Jonida (Albanian)
I'll never stop speaking Italian and remembering the ancient, beautiful
and powerful Italian literature, nor will I forget familiar expressions
I have heard since I was born. --Giulia (Italian)
I would feel a sense of loss because the language is not only the meaning
but also the sound. --Fabio (Portuguese)
My language is what makes ME! It conveys my roots, mentality, my identity!
--Shariza (Malay)
When I'm talking to the other Swedes here in Swedish I realize how
many things we automatically have in common because of our common nationality.
We can joke about scandals, news, TV shows, and about twisted words.
That it is not enough to understand a spoken language to understand
the meaning of it is quite obviously proved in the fact that not even
the Norwegians understand half of our jokes (and vice versa). --Johanna
(Swedish)
The diversity of language makes people happy. For example, when you
suddenly say something to a Norwegian in his native language, you can
see his smile and the attitude of welcome and honour. It is very nice
to exchange with different expressions in different languages. For example,
if somebody who never spoke Latvian before asks for a word in Latvian
and then says it to you, you can feel a very strange feeling that you
can't really explain. --Juris (Latvian)
So many times speaking English for a long time makes me homesick and
I feel cut off from my own culture. Sometimes there is a friendly piece
of language that you can't express in English e.g. words for comfort,
sympathy, or pity.--Agnes (Luganda)
If I speak only English from this moment I would find it hard to add
beauty and taste to what I express. --Uvindhu (Sinhalese)
The main reason not to want everyone to speak English is that I really
like languages and the fact that we can communicate in so many different
ways. --Caro (Danish)
There are many things that cannot be said in English, but as I get
more fluent in it, I miss them less and less. Also, when I now speak
Norwegian I miss some of the things I say in English, but can't in Norwegian.
All of this is learned, and a native speaker seldom misses anything
in his own language before he has learned another. --Sigbjorn (Norwegian)
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