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Lingua Today

May 5, 1995

There are about 6,000-7,000 languages spoken in the world. However, almost one language dies every two weeks. It means many languages are getting near the end of their lives. Take Navajo for example. It is one of the languages spoken by the native people of North America. Today, more and more Navajo children grow up learning and speaking only English. Most of them do not even know what the 3,000-year-old Navajo language sounds like.

Chart 1 below shows that from 1980 to 1990, the percentage (%) of young Navajos (Age: 5-17) who speak only English grew quickly. Chart 2 shows that in 1992, many Navajo children under the age of six spoke English well, but not many of them spoke their parents’ language well. Clearly, the Navajo language may soon be lost if we don’t do something about it.

Froggie was a frog who never remembered where he had been. His biggest dream was to find the best pond to swim freely without worrying about water snakes. One day, Froggie hopped to a kitchen and jumped into a pot full of hot water. Froggie felt the burning heat and hurried out of the water as fast as his legs could carry him. “I almost died there!” Froggie thought.

A few days later, Froggie went back to the same kitchen, totally forgetting he had been there. He again hopped into the same pot. This time, the water inside was cool. He looked around and thought, “There’s no water snake trying to eat me and I can have this place all to myself!” At that moment, Froggie knew it was his dream pond. What he didn’t know was that the water was warming up over a low heat.

After thirty minutes of swimming, Froggie felt the water was warmer but he thought of this as a nice surprise. “This sure is the best place for swimming. I get to have a hot bath, too.” During his comfortable bath, the water kept getting warmer and warmer. Froggie was so comfortable that he fell asleep. And he never woke up.

Last night I had a bad dream. In my dream, I 32 to a room by three strange-looking people. They talked to each other in a language I didn't understand. I didn't know what they 33 to me. Would they do anything bad? I was so afraid that I started to cry. Suddenly, one of them came up to me and tried to hurt me with a knife. I cried out loudly and then I 34 up. Luckily, there were no people around — I was in my own bed!

Bill and Jill were going to visit Da-wei and Li-hua Wu in Taiwan for several days. Before they left America, Bill and Jill tried to learn about Chinese food and Taiwanese ways of doing things. They wanted to be polite. They learned that most people in Taiwan eat rice, drink tea, and take off their shoes when they go into a friend's apartment. Bill and Jill even learned to use chopsticks.

At the same time, Da-wei and Li-hua learned about American food and American ways of doing things. They wanted to be friendly. When Bill and Jill came to the Wu's house, Da-wei and Li-hua told them to keep their shoes on. Later they went out for dinner. They ate pizza and drank Coke. The next few days, they had breakfast in a coffee shop and ate hamburgers in a fast-food restaurant.

On their way back to America, Bill and Jill were thinking about why they never ate rice or drank tea or ate with chopsticks. They never took off their shoes when they visited the Wu family. They thought that living in Taiwan was just like living in America.