Language and their need of community

You need a community to have a language that lives long and prospers; what the Jewish did was exactly that, and they chose Hebrew as their community language. That is what you need to do with the Irish speaking community; they have to be willing to use it among themselves, even in front of the disapproval of their fellow English-speaking citizens. That's how French kept on in all parts of Canada where it is still spoken today, and that is what I intend to do when I'll be going back to Canada (including also all the First Nation languages in my goal).

As the Irish, speakers that is, say, Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam. A country without a language, a country without a soul.

Why keep French?

Yesterday, a very intelligent woman I met asked me the greatest question ever. She was Japanese, but was very considerate about people's background. She asked me :

"Why do the Quebeckers and all the French speakers in Canada keep French?"

I found that question very interesting, but as an answer, I asked her the following question :

"Do you want to change your language for Korean?"

She said that I probably used the best answer ever to make her understand the whole issue easily.

IVS VRBIS

You're considered a full-fledged member of a people of Canada when you participate in its community. No matter what your ancestry might be.

Of hurt and pain

You can heal while there is pain. You cannot while there is still hurt.

What I mean here is that as long as the cause is still there, you are still being hurt. Sure, it's painful, but it isn't the pain that hinders healing, but all the hurt you are still, I think, receiving.

Never ignore or, worse, forget an experience, no matter how painful it may have been.

If there is hurt, it means something is going wrong. It could be yourself, but life has taught me that most of it is not caused by yourself. (Obviously, because your part of the Universe is so small.)

So this hurt is actually a blessing; to tell you that something IS wrong.

But, yes, it still hurts, and then you feel pain. And healing isn't easy.

But if you find what is hurting you, the best advice I could give you, I received from a mentor who died over 2400 years ago. It would be Socrates :

"When you do not like the Laws of City; Leave the City."

I understood Socrates this way : if there is hurt, something is wrong. As far as I know, people do not want wrong things in their lives so, GET RID OF THEM.

Human Laws

In chemistry, you have 90-ish naturally available elements. Every atom of these elements is for all intent and purposes the same and, yet, the rules governing their relations are insanely complex. Therefore, tell me, how, for a society of millions, even billions of humans who are, for all intent and purposes DIFFERENT, the rules can be short, simple and sweet? 

The loss of liberty, insufferable.

People, when trying to discuss with me, please take some time to read those words. And reread them. And again. Up to 7, or maybe 77 times.

"History shows that hunter-gatherers can learn to do any of the jobs our society offers. I’ve flown in a helicopter piloted by a New Guinean who was born into a traditional society all but innocent of metal. And history is replete with examples of acaemically gifted Native Americans and Aborigines– like John Bungaree, who topped the class in mathematics, geography and writing in early-nineteenth-century Sydney. There are even a few examples of hunter-gatherers giving farming a try. But regardless of their accomplishments, almost all of these went back to their own culture. The truth is that hunter-gatherers find the loss of liberty we routinely endure to be insufferable."
Tim Flannery, Anthropologist

I am not from a hunter-gatherer society but, damn, how much do I understand them! So please shut up with the whole "endure this society" thing. Then, we can discuss.

(Quoted from Mark Rosenfelder's blog : http://zompist.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/why-you-want-to-be-a-hunter-gatherer/

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Humanity's Unity : Cooperation and Autonomy

At one point, Humanity will have to learn to share this lovely planet. Oceans, the Poles, Pollution etc., these are just starters, small steps into understanding that, if we are all to live together on this planet, we will have to share it. Fairly.

But, I will tell you something else I believe. You read in my earlier one that I had problems with States. Actually, we, humans, as animals, we live in "bands". For thousands of years, they were nomadic; but at one point, some of those bands built permanent settlements that we call cities. But these bands are the basic structure of humanity. Within them, we have finer distinctions (clans, families, friends, work groups, trades etc.), but in terms of social organization, I believe the basic unit is the Band, which includes all Cities. And one must make sure that these cities stay as autonomous as possible; they are the source of wealth in this world, and autonomous cities are a lot stronger.

Cooperation between cities will always be something good; something to be expected as well. Earth itself, as everyone's home planet, will have to be shared. And we should be able to share people, information and ideas as well. Exchange is important, as one community will have an idea, and this idea can spread to the whole world if it turns out to be the right thing to do. You will need all those forums. But, as far as I am concerned, they should stay forums.

Every city should have its Space Agency in the future (and everything else as well), being able to make its own stuff. Sure, because we have a single planet, we can cooperate, but I do not believe humanity is fully ready yet to cooperate completely : we have nutheads everywhere, and if we turn this whole planet into one single country, if all goes to hell, where can we flee? We can have forums about education, health and everything imaginable. By the Universe, even an International Forum on Live-Action RPGs, if I may joke a little. We will have to share the planet and its ressources (and perhaps, through cooperation, make more ressources available), but we should be able to try many things independently, to test how we can live.

The importance of cultural diversity

There is a lot more to be found in cultural diversity (and independance) than what most believe. I am no relativist; I do not believe all paths lead to something that works. But I am no absolutist, many paths may be good, and a lot, who failed or are in the process of failing, teach us stuff.

Having a way for some people to explore other cultures is great, and another to actually cross cultures and take part in the one that works is even better, that's the only purpose I can see in an intercultural language. But having many cultures have one great advantage : many experiences, many tests, going on at the same time.

Look at biology : millions of species, trillions of individual living things, all trying something out. Some die with offsprings, some die without. Think about it : trillions of individual experiences going on at the same time. If a few fail, you still have tons of others going on.

I believe the same is true about culture. Earlier this morning, I was speaking with a friend of mine about expressways. Where I live, in Japan, all expressways are toll roads, without exception. Where I come from, Quebec, all expressways are toll-free, without exception. Two different paths that have been tried and, the fun thing. Yet, Japan isn't poor; far from it. And expressways have always been tolled. What it tells me is that tolled expressways are certainly not something that will kill the economy, far from it. (There is more reflexion about that than simply this; it would take days just to explain the basics of the idea.)

But what that means is that I believe that, if I had to choose between making people pay for hospitals services and making people pay for expressway services, I will have people pay the second one first, because I can see it causes no problem at all in Japan.

And yet, if we were all one great single culture, I would never have seen that. I could have never experienced my awesome year six years ago. I would have only seen the same thing as where I come from, because there is nothing else to compare with. And, as I said, between toll expressways and free expressways, while the free one seem a lot more convenient, the toll one is probably the best option.

So that's why, according to me, cultural diversity and, especially, autonomy ARE important.

Tolkien and Modern Surveillance

This is why we all love Tolkien's "applicability".

He didn't wrought and write a story to pass on a message (he wrote himself he hated allegory with a passion), he wrote down a legend, however false it may be, that can be applied to many situations and... yes, you can even find that.

There is no morale in Tolkien's stories. Tolkien doesn't tell you power is bad, because look, Aragorn get's to be the High King and thousands of liege are rejoicing. Tolkien doesn't say technology is wrong; Gimli is explicitly telling Aragorn he will bring his best people to make the city stronger. Pollution happens and people are killed, but that is something natural : pollution kills. No morale here, just a simple truth, and list of fortunate and unfortunate events.

There are only events, flowing as a true history, that tell us how things may go. And you can make what you want of them.

Including a very good understanding of modern surveillance.

The article however fails to discuss one thing. Surveillance in Tolkien is happening on both sides; and not all information was tickling down on the "Good" side either. (I mean here Gandalf and the old Alliance of Elves, Dwarves and Men)

However, on the "Good" side, their goal wasn't domination, but simply to live as they wished. The war done, Hobbits were left alone; Rohan is still autonomous; Gondor returns to peace; the Northern Wilderness flourishes independent; little Breeland itself stays cool. The Elves left, but that was their own wish.

And, obviously, on the "Good" side, everyone trusted each other because and, ultimately, everyone was worth being a surveillance member. This meant that while the Eye could have been all-Seeing, the "Good" side could filter the load of information to actually get rid of all the noise. It also helps that, since most of what you need to know is the goal of a couple of individuals, you can focus on them.

Thank you, Tolkien.

Language vs. Culture; they are not the same thing

Discussing this article.


Daneydzaus : DING DING DING DING!
 
Nanmoro ma-Burerisnel :This article was decent for the first 10 or so paragraphs and then just started rambling.
 
Daneydzaus : Actually, more precisely, I believe that the author failed to understand that while language and culture are very distinct aspects of human brain activities, they turn out to be both very important. There is no "merely" about culture, it is an important part of living in some place.
 
He got the right thing about distinguishing language, a tool to listen to others, think and express yourself, and culture, a code through which a locality's population live, which will include many linguistic cues. What he got wrong is that culture isn't important; it is as important (and I may say, as readily explainable as language if you do the right studies; teacher's job) and it is an important aspect of internationalization.

Eris, thanks for the article; I cannot say it is perfect, as Nanmoro pointed out, but it sure was a damn good step ahead what I have heard been told around here. Using it for my Foreign Language Acquisition course
 
Eris ma-Numumésis : No article is perfect. You have to take some and leave some.
I definitely agree that culture is a big part of a language, but Japanese people do tend to make it into a bigger problem than it really is. In any case, as Daneydzaus said, it's definitely a step forward.

Nanmoro ma-Burerisnel : Yeah, I agree with that. Foreigners are still generally treated like they'll never fully grasp Japanese, which is a shame. But then the guy starts meandering into a way different territory and that's a sign of an amateur article. Published authors should know better and editors even more so.
 
Eris ma-Numumésis : I definitely agree with Nanmoro, there. The article could have been much shorter and just as incisive had he stayed on topic. That being said, I write my blog the way I speak, which means I constantly digress into totally unrelated matters
But then again, I'm not a veteran writer. Lol
 
Nanmoro ma-Burerisnel : Japan Times is plagued with bad writers, as is Weekender and most English publications in Japan, with the exception, of course, of TokyoDesu.com. I cringe to say this, but Debito Arudo, despite his overwhelming pessimism and snark, is Japan Times' most talented essayist.

Daneydzaus : Nanmoro : That is why I will use it, but I will not propose it as a great example of communication. He failed to understand many things (especially the importance of culture, as I pointed out); he's already outdated in my mind. This is why I posted my comment, so that we could discuss this matter and go further. And I believe our discussion is many steps beyond what the author wrote, and that's a great thing.

Eris ma-Numumésis : I admit I didn't know of Roger Pulvers, even though he seems to have a long career in writing. As for Debito Arudo, I gotta give it to him: he has often given a voice to until then very taboo aspects of the Japanese society, but I just can't abide his constant cynicism...

Raujbum : Gick det daligt? (Something's wrong?)

Daneydzaus : Inget gick daligt. (No.)

Raujbum : Du verkar mer deppig nu for tiden. (You made me worry for a moment just now.)

Daneydzaus : Sorry. To make your worry for a moment just now.

Raujbum : Ar det nagot som tynger dig? (Someone who troubles you?)

Daneydzaus : Det ar nagon inte. Det ar nagonting. Den ar Toyamaskultur. (Not someone, something; Toyama Culture)

It stopped to evolve and is becoming a reallife-size museum, where there is no more culture, only folklore.

Raujbum : Isn't folklore part of culture?

Daneydzaus : Traditions are part of it, if people do it for the traditions themselves and not for tourists.

But when it becomes a show for the tourists, it isn't part of the culture anymore, it is merely a museum exposition.

Raujbum : They're making their culture bend over and spread its buttcheeks for cash?

Daneydzaus : They're using what's left of their folklore to try to bring tourists, thinking it while boast their economy like in Tokyo. They will obviously fail, because they failed to understand the principle behind Tokyo's wealth, but then it turns their folklore into a caricature of themselves, and being from Toyama will be a dancer of the Etchuu Owara Kaze no Bon dance.

Raujbum : I don't know what that last part meant, but I'll assume it's not good.

Daneydzaus : What would be a caricature of a Swede?

Raujbum : A really sexy blonde chick?

Daneydzaus : No, I mean a flokloric caricature.

Raujbum : Would a norse god or a viking count?

Daneydzaus : It could. Imagine a whole region like that.

Where the only thing is that old folkloric caricature and nothing else.

Raujbum : Like a medieval fair?

Daneydzaus : Bingo

Raujbum : Is all of Toyama doing this?

Daneydzaus : Pretty much. Except for the second part : turning into an industrial suburb of Tokyo.

Raujbum : How big is Toyama?

Daneydzaus : 1 milion people, over a region that you can cross by bike in about 4 hours.

På Sverige och Kanada (For Sweden and Canada), it is a huge place. For Japan, you have Tokyo, 40 million people in a single city-region.

Raujbum : That's big by my standards. In Gothenburg I reckon there's about half a million.

Almost a million if you also count the sorrounding areas.

Daneydzaus : I know, it is by mine. By Japanese standards, it's a country side town.

Raujbum : Jelly.

Daneydzaus : And by my urban study standards, Toyama is slowly becoming a suburb of Tokyo.

And not even the focus of the suburb; its focus is in neighbouring Kanazawa city.

Reachable by train in more or less one hour.

Raujbum : Isn't Toyama on the western side of Honshu?

Daneydzaus : Technically; but the Shinkansen that's being built is not going to Osaka, and there is reason why it isn't; the most important link is towards Tokyo, not Osaka. And it isn't for Hokuriku, is for Japan. Indeed, I described Osaka as... Tokyo's branch for Western Japan.

Raujbum : Is Japan just becoming one big city?

Daneydzaus : Like any country where there is no regional autonomy.

Raujbum : And then, Japan would become just one huge city-state.

Daneydzaus : Indeed, a city-region will die if it is ruled over by another city-region. Because people will tend to gather where the decisions are taken.

In due time, it will.

Think of Sweden; everything is probably slowly turning around Stockholm.

My urban studies heart tells me so.

Raujbum : And when the surface no longer suffices to support all the people, they'll start digging into the mountains. Creating huge cities beneath the rock. But they'll dig too greedily and too deep. And then they won't be able to get out. People eventually forget about the cities in the mountains; passed off only as folklore, and after several millennia, they finally emerge from within the mountains once again. Isolated for so long, they've become a new species of human, hungry for world domination! *cue Red Alert sound track*

Daneydzaus : Haha.

But do you understand what I mean? Many of our cities that we think are cities are turning into either suburbs of the big ones (for industrial plants or other stuff that does not involve moving people around) or turning into mere villages, however big they may be.

For the economy, it's the best thing : huge cities means specialization and scale economy. For cultures, those that aren't big enough to follow the specializations and scale economies will slowly fade, trying to save their folklore, thinking that it is culture, but ultimately failing to understand that they are dying because they were not big enough to follow the big ones.

Evolution at work for the win. (Or loss, in some cases like Toyama)

It is not a fatality, far from it (nothing is fatality), but if you cannot adapt, you disappear.

Raujbum : One thing I've always wondered about is how they managed to get such huge populations in Asia compared to rest of the world. China has a higher population than all of Europe, and so does India. And look at Japan which is not that big in area, but manages to cram over a hundred million people on that space. Take Sweden for comparison, which is bigger, but hardly has ten million inhabitants.

Daneydzaus : First, food production. Rice is one of the highest yielding crop in the world. China, Japan and Indonesia are very wet countries as well, offering that possibility. Warm countries as a whole have a longer green season, enabling more people to live there. And then you have the fact that its urban civilisations go back about 5000 years ago, when we Europeans were just starting to build our first isolated farming towns.

Combine everything with the huge boom related to hygiene, and then you have the huge populations of Asia. And in many parts of Africa and Asia, the hygiene boom is done, but the cultural process leading to low birth rates in industrialized countries isn't done yet, leading to higher population growth.

Raujbum : I wonder if Europe would've had a higher population today if we had the potato from the very start.

Daneydzaus : No. Europe has generally a short green period and its warm zone is basically an agricultural wasteland (not enough water).

Raujbum : Shit...

Daneydzaus : In many parts of Asia, the whole Moonsoon thing helps to bring water inland in those regions that would otherwise be dry. Nothing like that happens in Europe.

What Europe had, and not Asia, is a relatively cool weather where insects don't thrive as much as in the south, and a very complex landshape with seas dividing regions and mountains as well making sure that in a relative small space, there can be many ･･･もっと見る

Exchange is more important than anything, and Europe got better at it quickly.

Well, since Exchange is the most important part but exchange can only occur between equals, Europe with its convention that there is no central State but States that coexist together was bound to be more quick at exchange than other countries around the world, where it usually worked as "I am the cental State, and you are my vassals".

And now you understand why being an independent State is important.

It's not for culture, it's not for nationalistic pride. It's for the purpose of being treated as an equal with other groups.