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Brazilian Kids Learning English By Video Chatting With Elderly Americans
Hugh Pickens DOT Com (2995471) writes "Tim Nudd writes that it's the perfect match: Young Brazilians want to learn English. Elderly Americans living in retirement homes just want someone to talk to. Why not connect them? The advertising company FCB Brazil did just that with its 'Speaking Exchange' project for CNA language schools where young Brazilians and older Americans connect via Web chats, and they not only begin to share a language—they develop relationships that enrich both sides culturally and emotionally. 'The goal of the Speaking Exchange project is to transform lives,' says Luciana Fortuna. 'Our students have the opportunity to practice English with people who are willing to listen. During the chat sessions, the students discuss ideas and information from their lives in Brazil with the American senior citizens, many of whom have never had contact with anyone from Brazil before.' The pilot project was implemented at a CNA school in Liberdade, Brazil, and the Windsor Park Retirement Community in Chicago. The conversations are recorded and uploaded as private YouTube videos for the teachers to evaluate the students' development. 'The idea is simple and it's a win-win proposition for both the students and the American senior citizens. It's exciting to see their reactions and contentment. It truly benefits both sides,' says Joanna Monteiro."
There are thousands of languages in the world, many not committed to writing, so there are a lot of "minor" languages for which one would have trouble finding texts. But what is the likelihood of you being interested in languages so "minor"? For languages large enough for people in other countries to hear of them, there's a good change that you can find texts on the internet if you simply look harder.
For example, I am a linguist working with minority languages of Russia, namely Mari, Chuvash, Tatar and Udmurt, and even when I started learning these languages a decade ago, there were already abundant internet resources: lots of bloggers, provincial newspapers, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has a Tatar service with long articles on their website. Text has always been easy to get, but the last five years have seen a rise in the availability of audio/video materials. State television is now regularly uploading broadcasts to YouTube, and independent media occasionally posts videos.
Plus, linguists have been one of the scholarly communities most dedicated to supporting pirate ebook sites. If you know where to look, you can find scanned and uploaded readers for nearly any documented language.
Language is the encoding and structure of the mind. It is no mystery why certain groups consistently yield the best civilization while others yield human robots and others a great deal less.
Language is culture and it is thinking and it is belief. Some languages simply need to die for the betterment of humanity. I can't speak to these languages you have been learning, but I can speak to the advancement of some languages which better humanity. The Chinese have known this for a very long time. It is still yet to be heard as 'news' by most of the world.
Nothing can limit people more than the limits of their minds. Nothing. And not all languages are equal.
Can't be bothered conversing with the old folks? Fed up with their tales of the old days and embarrassing folksy casual racism?
Problem solved! Get a developing nation child to talk with them instead, so you can get on with your busy life. All the advantages of cheap labor without the annoyance of immigration!
People succeeding and failing regardless of the language they speak? Are you seriously making that statement?
The most successful people are those that speak the lingua franca. (Yes, I know exactly what that means and where the term came from.) The Chinese are not a counter-example. When the Chinese became more unified, they did so through language unification and even simplification. The language has become very efficient. And English? Well, it's the lingua franca for now despite how bad it's getting.
I seriously don't know why I have been modded as flamebait. What have I said that's not true? It's far from pseudoscience when there have been many studies on the connection between language and intelligence which lead to this general understanding. It may be simplistic to say, but highly illustrative to the point, but languages that do not include a zero in their counting systems understandably have weaker math skills. That should come as no surprise to anyone. But as language and standards and styles of usage go, it's not hard to see where things break down and fail.
People are amazingly quick to bash, but amazingly reluctant to to offer up anything substantive to counter. (And once again, in case I wasn't clear, there is no 3000 year old Chinese language. Mandarin, in its current form doesn't go back that far. The oldest standard goes back what? Just over 600 years or so? So if you think you are right, please try again.