> I'm not worried about the potential impact of a super lingua franca...we
> have plenty of protection against the ruination of soulful expressions
> within all cultures. What we may need though is more openness to learning
> at some depth the languages of others, to "feel" what they feel when they
> converse. That is possible now. What do others think? (And...sorry for the
> length.)
Dear organlearners,
John, I agree completely with you that we need more openness to learning.
You, and Suzanne Sauve, have presented formidable arguments why you both
not worried. (See also my reply to her.) I have carefully worked through
your arguments and cannot differ much from you. I thank you for these
arguments and respect them. However, my difference is not in the things
which you say, but the things which you do not say as well as my own
experiences. Hence my 'worry' continues to nag me. I pray that my worry is
not an immature perception like the "Inner Circle -> Whole Circle" thread.
Here in South Africa many Afrikaners are perplexed that the system
apartheid which they have supported so earnestly, has derailed to such an
abominable system without them having noticed it. In other words, they try
to work out why their perceptions were so immature. Unfortunately, they do
not get much help from the other peoples of our rainbow nation. The Truth
and Reconsilliation Commission (TRC) helped much up to a certain stage to
let them see how immature their perceptions were. But unfortunately, it
nows seems that the TRC is gearing itself towards a witchhunt on as many
as possible Afrikaners to nail the perpretators of apartheid on the wall.
I think that Afrikaans, the mother tongue of white Afrikaners and the
brown peoples (Griewkas, Basters, Maleiers, etc.) and the lingua franca of
many black peoples (Tswana, Sothu, Sjangaan, Ndebele, etc.) has much to do
with it. Afrikaans is to South Africa a lingua franca as is English is to
the rest of the world. It is the brown peoples (those having Afrikaans as
mother tongue) from whom Afrikaners first have learnt the abominable
effects of Apartheid. The (in)famous Erica Theron Report is a fine
example. They were able to tell Afrikaners about soul topics. It is
through them that Afrikaners began to dismantle apartheid by making a
distinction between 'petty apartheid' and 'grand apartheid', dismantling
'petty partheid'. This began process began in the late sixties.
The contributions TO THE SOUL of the Afrikaner from the black peoples
having Afrikaans as lingua franca were (in comparison) much less and the
contributions from black people having Ebglish as lingua franca were (in
comparison) almost non-existent. It was almost as if another inverse law
was operating: the less a language touched the soul of people, the more it
was used to confront the soul of people.
At de Lange
Gold Fields Computer Centre for Education
University of Pretoria
Pretoria, South Africa
email: amdelange@gold.up.ac.za
--"Mnr AM de Lange" <AMDELANGE@gold.up.ac.za>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>