Linguapax
The Last Speakers
K. David Harrison, a man in the intrepid business of saving languages, took time from his world travels, his lectures, and appearances on Comedy Central to speak with Flaunt about his new book, The Last Speakers (National Geographic), reminding us residents of Los Angeles-a place where sustainability looks nothing short of challenging-that we may want to learn a little something about Chumash, the native tongue of this region.
Written By Karyn Campbell
K. David Harrison, a man in the intrepid business of saving languages, took time from his world travels, his lectures, and appearances on Comedy Central to speak with Flaunt about his new book, The Last Speakers (National Geographic), reminding us residents of Los Angeles-a place where sustainability looks nothing short of challenging-that we may want to learn a little something about Chumash, the native tongue of this region. Though the Indiana Jones of linguistics does more surveying than relic rescuing, his mission to listen and record the messages of the last speakers of several indigenous languages around the world may be the holiest of all grails; his adventures unfold, after all, as our world grows hotter, the Internet dominantly spouts English, and we forget that most of human knowledge has never been written down.
"There's no reason children can't be bilingual," Harrison, the fresh-faced eco-academic insists, "There are intellectual and psychological and health advantages to being bilingual." The statement rings with a sincerity surely gathered on the road-singing with Tuvan reindeer hunters in the Siberian, exploring the remote villages of Paraguay, or studying why children elect to ditch Chamacoco for Spanish, even if they could potentially speak both. Harrison focuses on encouraging bilingualism in language hotspots (places on Earth with high language diversity and endangerment) through technology, hip hop and pop culture. His examinations of why children choose to be monolingual in hierarchal social systems reminds us all too much of the current state of education in our own country, which reinforces English-only Education.
http://www.flaunt.com/blogs/editorialdepartment/exclusive-interview-k-david-harrison-last-speakers