#1Jul 19th, 2010
Its is clearly obvious that monolingualism(speaking just one language) promotes ignorance towards other cultures, societies and linguistic groups. If we look at the Roman Empire, we can see that tens of millions of people from Europe to Africa and the Middle-East all shared the same language and culture. Latin became the lingua franca of the then known world. Like all empires, they eventually collapse and the title of lingua franca passes onto another culture and language group. Few empires have been bilingual or multi-lingual, if they were it is certain they would have lasted longer than they did. If we look at the French, British, Spanish and Portuguese empires, many language groups were anihilated to make way for the French, Spanish, Portuguese and English languages. The new “empire builders” told the speakers of these indigenous African and American languages that their languages and way of life were completely inferior, banned their languages and religious beliefs. But these monolingual empires were not to last, and why is that, because they do not embrace diversity and only represent one perspective, that of the coloniser.
It is because of this, that I believe bilingualism and multi-linguism is truly the way to go, to create an open and inclusive society, where all cultures, religions, ethnic groups and linguistic minorities are valued and appreciated as they ought to be.
In Quebec, I see two "old world empires" fighting it out for language supremacy, English and French. This language strife needs to be resolved as it is detracting attention away from those new immigrants who don't speak either French or English and who are forgotten about because the language strife between the two official languages takes up so much time and space in the media. Making Montreal or even the province of Quebec bilingual would go along way to resolving the problem.
(just like these guys)
