Lost in Translation

Reading this essay was really saddening for me. Although i'm aware of the variety of and complexity of languages fading, id never really taken the time to think seriously how much it affects the people and the culture. losing a language is a lot more than simply losing a language. it is the loss of people's identity,culture, history, background and everything that makes them who they are.

growing up in south eastern ohio i know i have a bit of a dialect hats special to this area. knowing this there have been times in my life where i have been embarrassed by it before. because of this i cant imagine being gabov and completely ashamed of my language. gabov was ashamed to speak and write in his native language because people laughed at him and this is part of the reason the language is fading out. this is such a harsh reality. people are different, its a fact of life, and they need to be able to speak in a way that reflects who they are as a person. although my example is obviously a lot less dramatic, i can still relate to those feelings.

another aspect that i found rather saddening was when the author compared losing a language to an animal species going extinct. although i dont fully agree with that comparison it still brings out the more dramatic side of a language dying out. It's not simply the loss of a language but also of the people and their culture. The language is a representation of the culture and the history behind the people who speak it, and as it fades, so does their identity as a people. this is the saddest thing about the language fading. It's a part of the people, and without it they arent the same people they were.

The part i found saddest when reading this was the part about the people were pushed into an area that did not speak the language they did originally. it would be like a group of american people who speak english that live near mexico all the sudden being forced to speak spanish. no one would want that or agree with that, and it was the same situation for these small villages.