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Languages say something about our culture and our soul, according to uTalk’s language guru (pictured).
Which is why Brian Loo Soon Hua, who knows upwards of eight languages, is worried about the number of endangered languages on the verge of becoming extinct.
‘Languages are going extinct and regional differences are slowly dying out,’ he says. People are thinking more and more alike. If language equals our culture then we’re becoming more homogenised, uniform’.
‘It’s good on one hand because people are connecting across borders. But we’ll lose some of the creativity, soul and the idiosyncrasies that make humans human,’ he adds.
uTalk supports minority as well as mainstream languages and, out of its 141 languages, more than ten are classed as endangered or vulnerable.
Dear Brian ,
I am fascinated by your tremendous work and obvious passion for languages especially the Austronesian family of languages . I am Samoan and my ‘late’ claim to understanding Samoan language and possessing the ability to teach English as a second language in China (13 years) ….landed me a fantastic job as the first Samoan Language Teacher at Beijing Foreign Studies University as well as teaching Samoan Culture . Sadly my Mandarin skills don’t match my years of bliss in China . However the Samoan Language Course is the first ever accredited Pacific Course to be taught in Chinese History !!! I love it but recognize that I have much work to do in organizing and teaching this course (started March 1 2020) This year 2021 I hope to do a Masters and would welcome your views on ideas I’m tossing about at the moment loosely based on teaching a Pacific Language in China and the development of Pacific Language Programs in Asia ? Could you please help out ? I would dearly like to chat via zoom and outline where exactly I’m at with my teaching etc …by the way I also taught in Malaysia years ago in a palm oil town called Bahau and it was there that I realized just how linguistically rich the locals were …Chinese locals spoke Chinese 4 dialects , Malay and Hindi to boot without spilling their beer and Tamils were equally proificient !…Anyway I really appreciate your lectures and have read keenly your blogs – please respond in kind if you can ..