eablanguagewatch

Language Watch
An EAB experimental project.

A record of contemporary references in the media and publications (books etc) not just to Esperanto but also to examples of ‘English linguistic imperialism’ and the fate/future of minority languages.

Please tell us about any other references to Esperanto or language inequality which you may spot - e-mail: derektatton@btinternet.com

.............................................................................................

2006 August 24th

Education Guardian Headline = Panic over languages 'freefall'. "After release of this year's results that showed a large drop in the number of entries for German and French the General Sec. of the Assoc. of School and Colleges Leaders said 'Modern languages are now in freefall and this is a major concern...' ... The Gen. Sec. of the NUT said 'I think modern languages should be a compulsory curriculum requirement at Key Stage 4 for Britain's place in the global market...'.

2006 July 15th

The Independent: Report on EU language costs - now 1bn euros spent on language services. 'New translation and interpretation rights for the Irish language will cost the European Parliament more than ... £470,000 next year. The figure has stoked the debate on whether the EU is becoming an outrageously expensive "Tower of Babel"....

2006 June 1st

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent: A programme item about the Mayor of Kelmis in Belgium (town situated near to the borders of the Netherlands and Germany). The Mayor speaks Esperanto and wants his town to adopt/use Esperanto as a 2nd language.

....................................................................

2006 May 17th

Derek,

Have you seen this area on BBC site?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/yoursay/endangered_languages.shtml


Best wishes,
David

No - but I have now, & recommend to others... DT

...........................................................

2006 May 3rd

BBC 2 TV: Holidays in Euroland 19.30hrs. Presenter, Tim Samuels.

To a background image of many translaters in the European Parliament, a female translater/MEP, Margareta Handzlik? eloquently advocated Esperanto as a second language to aid communication especially within the EU Parliament. The Presenter shouted to Tony Blair, when he was leaving the Parliament "What do you think of Esperanto, Mr Blair?" No response... The Presenter said to the viewers/listeners: "He doesn't want to speak to me about Esperanto."

From reports Erica Brook & Geoffrey Sutton. Further information on this broadcast very welcome...

....................................................

2006 May 3rd

BBC Radio Sheffield - interviews Brian O'Sullivan following the British Esperanto Congress

.........................

2006 May 1st

BBC World Service - interview with Malcolm Jones in Russian, following British Esperanto Congress

.........................

2006 May 2nd

The Guardian: P. 29 Article by French Journalist, Agnes Poirier 'Intellectuals in Britain are cut off from global debate by the obtuse imperialism of the English language'

'Guess how many books in British bookshops are translations - just 3%... In France... 25% of books are translations... The rampant imperialism of the English language contributes to the building of an ivory tower invisible to its inhabitants... In Britain only a quarter of state schools make modern languages compulsory at GCSE level. A generation of linguists is about to be lost and with it the country's capacity to understand a different world.'

......................................

2006 April 29th

Yorkshire Post - Half-page article about the British Esperanto Congress in Scarborough, with photo of Angela Tellier...

2006 April 28th

Yorkshire Coast Radio - interview with David Kelsoe, plus news bulletins about British Esperanto Congress

BBC Radio York 'Breakfast Show' - interview with Geoffrey Sutton about British Esperanto Congress

Yorkshire TV 'Calendar' interview with Brian O'Sullivan, Gillian Cartlidge and Geoffrey Wood about British Esperanto Congress

BBC Today Programme. Helen Fantom reads Hamlet's 'To be or not to be..' in Esperanto and Paul Gubbins is interviewed about the language and the EAB Congress in Scarborough.

2006 April 22nd

The Daily Express - Your Questions Answered page. A question by e-mail about Esperanto 'I thought this an excellent initiative... Why did it die a death?'

Answer: '... one of several artificial languages... done better than most(but) it has never had more than a couple of million speakers...could never compete with English as an international language... I believe, however, that it is still popular in Hungary.'

2006 April 21st

The Manx Independent: Report that 'The Manx language school will have its own head teacher for the first time from September... (the school) has gone from strength to strenth since it started life as a Manx class in 2001... The school has two teachers and a nursery nurse funded by the Department of Education.

2006 March

Monato - letter from Italian about endangered languages. Many languages threatened by globalisation and market dominance of American English... Recommends - UNESCO Red Book on Endangered Languages (www.helsinki.fi~tasalmin/endangered.html.)

2006 March 3rd

theregister.co.uk; 'UK monolingualism spurs Amazon shift to Ireland'

A report that Amazon has decided to relocate its customer service centre to Cork ...taking advantage of stronger language skills in Ireland. The HQ will stay in Slough... but call centre and support staff face relocation... A dearth of French and German speakers (in Slough) is behind the shift to Cork.

2006 February 18th

TV Channel 4 The Celts - two hour documentary presented evidence that the Celts were not/are not a 'race' but peoples who, 2000 & more years ago were spread across Europe and 'united' by language and culture... There's increased interest now in the language/s and culture/s of the Celts...

2006 February

A Note from David Bissett: referring to web-site www.arts.ed.ac.uk/celtic/poileasaidh/

which refers to the Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies which is endeavouring to establish a centre for Language Pollicy and Language Planning... within Scotland and internationally...

2006 February 15th

Education Guardian: 'Global spread of English "a threat to UK"'.

A study commissioned by the British Council reveals that as the number of people around the world who speak English increases... the advantage tradtionally enjoyed by UK citizens is disappearing, with millions of students in other countries speaking English and at least one other language.

The report's author... says that UK students should be encouraged to learn Spanish, Mandarin and Arabic, "languages of the future", if they want to keep up with their international competitors.

2006 January 30th

The Independent, p. 19. 'Launch of Romany language website aims to save culture' The University of Manchester has published a list of the world's most threatened languages. Romany has been driven to the brink of extinction. Romany is spoken by small groups in 42 European countries - the University is transcribing the many Romany dialects for the first time. The website's address is www.llc.manchester.ac.uk/Research/Projects/romani/

2006 January 17th

Radio 4, 5.00-6.00 pm Report on decision of Brighton College, in today's newspapers, to teach Chinese to all students... Representatives of various languages interviewed to present the case for study of their languages. Our President, Professor John Wells, spoke in favour of Esperanto. Esperantists, and others, who heard this item were impressed and pleased...

2005 December 22nd

Evening Standard, page 10 "Decline in languages 'harms job prospects'" short article on report published today (QCA), on decline in number of modern language students...

2005 December 22nd

The Guardian, page 5: report by the government's schools' exam regulator. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) reports a 'significant decline' in the numbers learning foreign languages and QCA says it is 'very worried' by the fact that 'large numbers...are reducing their future job prospects ... by giving up language learning at 14'.

2005 December 17th

BBC News - Web-site Lessons learnt from languages by Mike Baker, BBC news education correspondent.

Feature on soccer World Cup in Germany next June, to which 100,000 England fans are planning to travel. Only a handful able to speak German? Essence of this news feature = decline in numbers learning foreign languages in Britain while our European neighbours have been increasing their language teaching...

2005 December 12th

BBC Radio 4 Holidays in Euroland: presenter Tim Samuels interviewed several people and translaters for the European Parliament, highlighting the complexity of all the translations necessary. He then introduced (our) Polish (Esperanto) MEP, Malgorzata Handzlik, who spoke about the benefits of Esperanto as a common language for the EU and then she spoke in Esperanto for several sentences.

2005 November 26th

BBC Radio 3 'The Verb' - "Static in the Attic" - report on The Language Show in which Helen Fantom spoke about her parents and how she was brought up as an 'indigenous speaker' of Esperanto ...

2005 November 26th

The Guardian. Article, page 30 under headline Whatever happened.. to Esperanto? by journalist Iain Hollingshead. Reasonably positive: 'There's... a wealth of ..Esperanto literature...'; reference to the new EAB Springboard project etc...

2005 November 26th

The Guardian Work supplement. Article 'Should we bother to learn another language?'

Statistics about numbers of English speakers globally. Promoting idea of English as 'the most dominant language on earth'. But David Crystal, Hon. Professor of Linguistics at Bangor University, is quoted: "We need to retain linguistic diversity", says Crystal, whose first language is Welsh, "The ideal policy is wone where all languages are promoted as equal, but one is more equal than others because it has a global function."

2005 November 18th

The Evening Standard - references to irritation about voiceovers on news programmes covering the French riots. Sub-titles better for appreciating and learning other languages?

2005 November 3rd

The Times - Student Times, page 7. Article about the importance of learning second and other languages ....

2005 Autumn

Birds - RSPB publication: reference to stickers to be stuck on letters in the 1930s about oil pollution from ships damaging bird life. The stickers were available in a number of languages including Esperanto...

2005 September 24th

The Times 'So we're not worst at languages'

Half of European citizens speak a second language according to a European Union survey. The poll... found that Luxembourg had the highest % of bilingual citizens with 99% saying they could carry on a conversation in a second language. Hungary had the lowest number - 29%; Britain was second to last with 30%.

English was identified by 34% of respondents as their second language, followed by German (12%) and French (11%).... The EU spends £16 million a year on language training.'

2005 September 14th

The Independent, letter to Editor:

Language of Dogs
Sir: My parents' little dog not only recognised and responded to words relating to food (letters, 12 September), but also to discussions about whether it was time for him to be taken for a walk. This made him wild with anticipation - sometimes at inconvenient moments. My father translated awkward phrases into Esperanto, so that Ooley would not understand what he was saying. This worked very well for a few weeks, but after that.... Does anyone else know of a canine Esperantist?
Betty Grass
Bainbridge, North Yorkshire.

2005 September 1st

E-mail from Maurice = msujet@club-internet.fr referring to growing resistance at state level against prioritising the English language in several asian countries. He included reference to the JoongAng Daily, Korea 'The Education Ministry announced that universities will be banned from using foreign languages in essay questions'. Before the announcement several of Korea's most esteemed universities had announced that they would use English ... in essay questions.

Maurice recommends this book: Linguistic Imperialism by Robt. Phillipson (OUP)

2005 August 28th.

E-mail from Maurice = msujet@club-internet.fr gave these references:

The Nation. Thailand Education Minister, Chaturon Chaisang who said yesterday that most students' ability to communicate in English despite spending years learning the language pointed to a clear failure in language teaching in Thailand.

Cleveland, Ohio, USA In Norton the Mayor has rejected a newly passed resolution urging that all municipal documents in this small Summit County city be written in English...

2005 August 25th
Radio 4 'World at 1.00pm' - a lead item on the 'catastrophic' drop in numbers studying foreign languages in Schools: discussion involving education representatives and a government minister. All agreed that the study of modern languages throughout formal education in school is crucially important, not least for
Britain's economic growth and development. .
They disagreed on ways to address the problem. David Hart (see 20th August below) again stressed that the Government should ensure compulsory modern language learning
within schools for all ages.

2005 August 20th
BBC Radio 4 at 0845 on Today: The German Ambassador in Britain & David Hart (DH), General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers discussing modern language teaching following drop in numbers taking German at 'A' level (down 8%) & French (down 4%) but Spanish & Mandarin up ...
Now 2000 doing Mandarin at 'A' Level. DH said people are voting with their feet.
The Ambassador stated that foreign language learning is compulsory in German Schools from ages 6 to 18 (2 languages & often 3 taught).
DH said - make it compulsory here too. It will be in Primary Schools from 2010... Both agreed 'modern languages - a good thing to do'.

2005 August 4th: BBC Radio 4's comedy show 'The Ape That Got Lucky' included a sketch which mentioned Esperanto - a few (mis-pronounced) Esperanto sentences. The 'joke' was that English-speakers who haven't learned Esperanto will understand a question in English but won't understand the question in Esperanto.

2005 July 8th:
Tribune, p. 9 ‘Mind this language -while we can’ article by Catherine MacLeod
About the survival of Gaelic in the Western Isles - ‘Why is it that those who willingly boost the offers of the RSPB… & the NT care more about birds and buildings than Gaelic, one of Britain’s oldest indigenous languages?’

2005 July 29th:
TV Channel 4 Big Brother’s Little Brother 5.25pm (Programme about the most recent ‘goings on’ in the Big Brother House). The programme begins with the presenter quoting ‘The little show that gives the big picture’ in a different language each week. This week’s programme began with the presenter speaking the lines in Esperanto & the word Esperanto was on screen for several seconds…

2005 July.
Starting on ITV2 a repeat showing on British TV of the internationally acclaimed series Heimat. In both episodes 1 and 2 'Esperanto' is mentioned where the main character is talking about his Chilean friend, also a student with him at the music college in Munich. He says (in both episodes) 'He speaks 11 languages fluently, inc. Esp. and Japanese'.

2005 May 27th

The Friend - observations from the Quaker World: 'Esperanto lives on' Eric Walker quoted, challenging an earlier reference to the 'defunct language' and writes on the value of Esperanto with its hosting schemes and international holidays...

2005 April 7th
Kent Herald - story about the events and excursion from Boulogne Esperanto Congress to Folkstone and Dover.

2005 April 7th
Kentish Express - 'Esperanto fills the air at language gathering' (reference to the Boulogne/Folkstone event)

2005 March 30th
Radio 4 Arts Programme 1915hrs ‘Sean Scully interviewed (exhibition in Abbott Hall, Kendal) said he was a man of the 1960s, hence idealistic, E-o as an international language, universal brotherhood… (not said ironically)’

2005
Empires of the Word - A Language History of the World by Nicholas Ostler (Harper Collins)
Just one reference to Esperanto - writing about China in the early 20th century ‘A general air prevailed of bringing the country up to date, European style. One suggestion considered was even to abolish the Chinese language itself, in favour of Esperanto, an artificial but would-be international language fashioned by a Pole…and in particular vogue at the time.’
Lengthy very positive reviews of this book in the press: for instance, The Guardian’s Book of the Week, reviewed by Martin Jacques ‘This is a great book’ - interestingly, Jacques picks up on Ostler’s stress that English may well not be the dominant global language in the future…

2005 March 13th
Bremner, Bird & Fortune on Channel 4 TV - a jokey, slighting reference to Esperanto.

2005
Outwitting History: How a Young Man Saved a Million Books & Saved a Vanishing Civilisation by Aaron Lansley (Souvenir Press)

2005 March 6th
BBC Radio 4 ‘Religious and Ethical News’ an item about the above book
‘an American working with a few colleagues over four years has saved from destruction one and a half million books in Yiddish to help preserve the language and culture…’

2005 February
Esperantist corresponds with Dr. Feng about his article in the Guardian Weekly 11th Feb ‘Forced to learn a language of failure’.

2004 December 9th
The Independent, Report on the future of English ‘English was not the only language spreading, and the world, far from being dominated by English, was to become more multi-lingual - Chinese, Arabic and Spanish are all popular and likely to be languages of the future’.

2004 November 5th
Barrow-in-Furness Evening Mail - 'Esperanto society celebrates centenary' (reference to the Morecambe Bay Esperanto Society)

2004 Novenber 5th
Driffield Post - 'Esperanto speakers celebrate centenary' (picture story about Yorkshire Wolds Esperanto Group)

2004 October 20th
Southport Champion - 'Mayor speaks right lingo for centenary celebrations' (reference to South Lancs. Esperanto Group's celebrations)

2004 October 12th
Western Daily Press - 'Passwords to peace are still Poles apart' (reference to Weston Super Mare Esp. Group)

2004 October 4th
Southport Visitor - 'Spread the word about Esperanto' (reference to South Lancs. Esp. Groups celebrations)

2004 September 23rd
Stourbridge News - 'Celebrations in any lingo' (Kingswinsford & Stourbridge Esp. Group' EAB centenary celebration)

2004 September 9th
Stourbridge News - 'Esperanto thriving in Black Country' (as on 23rd Sept. above)

2004: May 1st
3-page feature article in the review section of The Guardian by Ciaran Carson about his father, a Belfast postman, who ‘espoused Esperanto as a weapon against the growing domination of English’. - photos of Zamenhof portrait & the Joint Congress of British & Irish Esperanto Associations, 1969.

2004
Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages by Mark Abley (Heinemann)
The battle to save languages may ‘be part of a wider war, perhaps the central one of our time; To fight to sustain diversity on a planet where globalising, assimilating and eradicating occur on a massive scale.’
Review of the book in The Observer (8th Feb) by Samantha Ellis refers to Esperanto… ‘Maybe English is the real Esperanto, a vital, complex language that everyone can learn.’
Another reviewer in The Guardian (Chris Lavers, 7th Feb) referred to ‘hundreds, perhaps thousands of languages may succumb… driven to the grave by the linguistic equivalent of the brown rat - English’.

2003
The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg (Hodder & Stoughton)
Reference to Esperanto at beginning of Chapter 23.

2002
Languages in Danger by Andrew Dalby (Penguin)

2000
Language Death by David Crystal (CUP) in which he states that if in future English were the only language to survive, that would be the ‘greatest intellectual disaster the world has ever known’.

1998 The Hayward Gallery - Catalogue of Thinking Aloud exhibition referred to Belgian anarchist, Gaspard Marin, as a strong supporter of Esperanto...

1995
The Search for the Perfect Language by Umberto Eco (Fontana Press pbk, 1997)
A generally sympathetic account (Chapter 16) of Esperanto by this exceptionally distinguished writer.

1990
Mother Tongue - The English Language by Bill Bryson (published by Penguin, 1991)
Not unsympathetic references to Esperanto …

.............................................................................................