Linguistics helps fight poverty

Coming up with ideas for this blog has, honestly, been a challenge for me. I don't particularly care for podcasts or YouTube. And when I start going to websites to read material instead, I get caught up devouring all the new information I'm learning and I struggle to isolate something to write about. I don't feel qualified as I read what all the experts have to say. 

At any rate, I Googled "linguistics," again, to see where the rabbit hole would take me. I ended up on the Canada Institute of Linguistics. The headline "Why Study Linguistics?" caught my eye right away!

Why Study Linguistics?

First, the writer reiterates what linguistics is.

"...linguistics is the study of language, how it works, how it is acquired, and how people use it to communicate."

I've already researched about how linguistics is used for Artificial Intelligence. This school goes on to explain that because linguistics helps us understand our world - it also helps us empower people.

I've never really taken the time to consider all the ways that communities could be marginalized because of their language. I mean...I have. But I tend to simplify things in my own brain...probably to make myself more comfortable. I also tend to not think about languages that aren't as common as I see Spanish and English represented well where I live and most individuals speak either Spanish, English, or both in the RGV. But I imagine there are individuals - everywhere - that live in the United States but don't speak English (or Spanish). I'm sure they face many challenges.

This brief article explaining why someone could be compelled to study linguistics points out:

"Our first language, or the “mother tongue” we grow up with, is the one we use to express what is in our hearts; it is our heart language. Many minority-language communities are marginalized because of their cultural background, or because their heart language is not the language of power. As a result, thousands of minority-language communities do not have access to education in a language they can understand. They become trapped in a cycle of poverty and discrimination simply because they are not part of the majority language and culture."

This school says that graduates are currently working in over 40 countries around the world. By working in underserved communities, they are empowering the people by giving access to more services in their heart language. This, as a result, helps fight poverty.

This totally makes sense to me. Communities can be improved when services are available in the language the population there speaks. I see that, locally. Growing up in the Midwest, forms were only available in English. I never saw any other languages represented out in public except where there were signs saying interpreters could be called if necessary (as in medical settings). I imagine this was incredibly isolating to many, many individuals.

Here, in the Rio Grande Valley, almost everything is available in Spanish and English. In fact, when I go to meetings at the schools my children have attended, most are conducted in both languages. Almost everything is available in both Spanish and English because the community, here, uses both languages almost equally. It's important to include both languages and I've seen very negative results when Spanish speakers are ignored and only English is used.

I'm still intrigued about how a LINGUIST can help serve communities if they don't speak the "heart language" of the community. All of my research on linguistics states that you don't have to know a second language in order to be linguist. As a monologuist person, I still wonder how I could make a difference in regards to social justice in a community where I don't speak the language. But I suppose that's an internet deep dive for another day.

Works cited:

“Why Study Linguistics?” Canada Institute of Linguistics, 4 July 2022, https://www.canil.ca/wordpress/about-canil/why-study-linguistics/. Accessed 06 Nov 2022.