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President Yoweri Museveni asks teachers and language developers in Uganda to preserve and promote local languages

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Mark
Mark
Local time: 04:38
Italian to English
Hey! Nov 9, 2012

You don’t catch me calling western languages richer than African languages:
a) because it would be rude.
b) because I'm not convinced that it can be anything other than a subjective statement.
 
Usch Pilz
Usch Pilz
Local time: 04:38
English to German
+ ...
Amazing language skills Nov 9, 2012

So many Africans have amazing language skills. I have met countless people who are fluent in 3 - 5 African languages or even more. And I am not talking about dialects or variants of one and the same language. I am talking about languages as different as say German and Portuguese.

Unfortunately this wealth of knowledge hardly ever leads to economic success for the individual language whiz, because those African languages are mostly used for communication within communities and trade on... See more
So many Africans have amazing language skills. I have met countless people who are fluent in 3 - 5 African languages or even more. And I am not talking about dialects or variants of one and the same language. I am talking about languages as different as say German and Portuguese.

Unfortunately this wealth of knowledge hardly ever leads to economic success for the individual language whiz, because those African languages are mostly used for communication within communities and trade on a small scale. They hardly ever play a significant role in commercial activities on a bigger scale, not to mention trans-continental big business.

Keeping all those languages alive is a commendable goal. Talk about cultural diversity and identity ...
But I often find myself wishing somebody would come up with a way to harness those language skills and turn into an economic asset as well.

[Edited at 2012-11-09 18:01 GMT] ▲ Collapse
 


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President Yoweri Museveni asks teachers and language developers in Uganda to preserve and promote local languages







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