Recruiting at the ACTFL conference

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) held its convention the weekend before Thanksgiving in San Diego, and we were there. About 4,500 elementary, high school, college and university teachers were there, and we got to speak with many of them.

This was our second trip to ACTFL, and so much had changed for the better. On the ACTFL side, we were in a convention center with much more room than last year. Until we began attending association conventions like this, I had no idea that they had to book venues years in advance. So if your group grows significantly, you wind up in a space that is unexpectedly tight. This year, the convention center seemed to have all the space needed.

On our side, last year we had only begun to recruit, so we could only talk about what NLSC Members might do. This year, we could talk about Members travelling from Atlanta to Thailand and Indonesia. That made for a much more effective pitch. Plus, we had our videos playing on a monitor in our booth. As a result, I think we had a more compelling story to tell when ACTFL members came to our table. Based on the number of business cards and brochures we handed out, it looks like touched close to 1,000 people. Not only that, last year there were no NLSC Members to come by and say hello! Four came by this year; see their pictures below.

Thanks ACTFL!


NLSC Charter Member Mara (center) with NLSC recruiters Charlie Pressley (left) and Bridget Baker (right)


Member Michelle with NLSC's Chief Linguist, Dr. Bill Rivers


NLSC Charter Member Amy with Bridget

Counterpoint: Is the loss of dying languages bad?

My previous post was about how many languages could be gone in the next 100 years and some of the efforts to preserve endangered languages. John McWhorter is a linguist, political commentator, and lecturer in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. In the current World Affairs Journal, he asks "Would it be inherently evil if there were not 6,000 spoken languages but one?" Read his discussion here.

Endangered languages

Did you know that nearly 80 percent of the world's population speaks only one percent of its languages, according to National Geographic?

One of the purposes for the National Language Service Corps is to recruit volunteers who speak the less-common languages in the United States. While our goal is not language preservation, I'm noticing that among language-oriented Tweeps (a contraction of "Twitter" and the slang "peeps" for people, thus: people who use Twitter) that we follow, the topic of endangered languages pops up. Endangered in the sense that there are few speakers of these languages left, and their numbers dwindling.

When we lose a language, we lose contact with the culture that expressed itself with that language. We lose a way of thinking. We lose that culture's wisdom ... "The wisdom of humanity is coded in language," says Lyle Campbell, director of the University of Utah's Center for American Indian Languages (CAIL) and professor of linguistics. "Once a language dies, the knowledge dies with it. Take for example medicinal plants. A tree bark may prevent cancer, AIDS, etc., but the name of the tree (and the associated knowledge) typically is lost when the language becomes extinct -- a loss to all humanity." (quoted from Science Daily)

Languages are disappearing completely as the remaining survivors of small language communities die. It's nothing new ... In the last 500 years, half of the world’s languages have become extinct. But now languages are dying at an even faster rate. Last month, the BBC reported predictions that half of the remaining 7,000 languages will be gone by 2100. Ethnologue lists 473 of today's language that it categorizes as already near extinction, including 76 in the United States. It also lists 65 other languages in the United States which are now extinct. This map highlights five "language hotspots" - areas in the world with high number of languages at risk of extinction.

Even though this is not a matter that gets the attention of mainstream media, when I googled "endangered lanugages" this morning, the search listed 499,000 links; "extinct languages" brought up 194,000 links.

Linguists are treating the issue as significant and serious. This month, the University of Utah's Center for American Indian Languages is hosting a workshop on the topic. And efforts are underway to preserve languages ... including those by Cambridge University to create a digital archive of languages, National Geographic to "document endangered languages and prevent language extinction", the Australian government to save aboriginal languages and the University of Chicago to study how, against the odds, the Greenlandic language is surviving and actually strengthening.

Joining APEX in LA

This past Saturday, Linda and I were in Los Angeles for the 9th annual Career Symposium hosted by the Asian Professional Exchange (APEX). Over three hundred young professionals and college students were there to hear Victor Jih, winner of the 14th season of the reality show The Amazing Race. They also participated in panel discussions and checked out the Career Expo, which were a part of.



Several came by our table ... many already knew about us because we were listed as a sponsor on the event web site, and they took the trouble to visit our site. Ricko (pictured with me, below. he's on the right), one of our current members, came by and said hello. He found out about the APEX event by reading it on one of our social networking sites.

The APEX folks were great, and the event was very well run. Thanks Karen and Maggie!

The Festival of Light

On October 4, 2009 the NLSC participated in a local recruiting event at the Diwali Mela 2009 also known as the Festival of Light. We discovered this event after speaking with the organizer from a previous event, and it was well worth the our particpation. In the words of the event organizers, the Festival of light was a celebration of the “ageless culture of India by touch and taste” and was organized by 14 local Hindu and Jain temples in the Washington Metro area.

The Festival of Light was held in Fairfax VA at the George Mason Patriot Center, and there were over 500 attendees from predominantly Hindi speaking communities from the DC, Maryland, and Virginia areas. Additionally, there were many individuals who spoke a number of less common Indian dialects represented at the festival. The one-day festival began at 12:00 pm and ended at 10:00 pm, and featured international vendors selling traditional Indian clothing, cuisine, jewelry, furniture, and other cultural items. There were also many businesses and non-profits catering to the Indian community, including a student association, real estate, insurance, and medical businesses.

Many people came to our table to inquire about the NLSC. Fortunately, we were right in front of the main stage, so we were able to watch and enjoy traditional Indian dancing and singing. Overall it was a great event, and I hope we go back next year!

An "@" by any other name ...

We in America call the "@" the "at" symbol. Other languages/countries use more colorful expressions:

• Czech (Czech Republic): Závinaĉ, which means a herring wrapped around a pickle.
• Danish: Snabel-a, "elephant’s trunk."
• Dutch: Apestaartje, "little monkey’s tail."
• Hebrew: Shablul or Shablool, "snail" or Shtrudl, "strudel."
• Hugarian: Kukac, "worm or maggot."
• Italian: Chiocciola, "Snail."
• Mandarin Chinese (Taiwan): Xiao Lao Shu, "little mouse," or Lao Shu Hao, "mouse sign."
• Russian: Sobachka, "doggie."
• Thai: Ai tua yiukyiu, "wiggling worm."

From “Send : The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home” by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe.

Anyone know other creative terms for "@" in other languages?

We've reached 1,000!

This morning, we surpassed 1,000 Charter Members, reaching 1,002. Details here.