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LET'S LEARN FOREIGN LANGUAGES!
By Cengiz Aktar
Turkish Daily News, Turkey
June 5 2007
Is it terrible if different intermingled communities know the other's
language? With this, would not we have a better chance to know each
other well?
A recent news report was reading: "Turkey planning for an effective
fight against the Armenian genocide allegations will train diplomats to
become experts on Armenia. For the first time, Turkish Foreign Ministry
sends a young diplomat abroad to learn the Armenian language. Since
there is no diplomatic relation between Turkey and Armenia, this
young diplomat will be sent to some other country providing language
courses in Armenian."However, learning Armenian in Turkey is a piece
of cake. It is the same for Greek too.
Approximately 20 Armenian and 13 Greek schools are active in
Istanbul. But these schools are only for 'regular' Turkish Armenians
and Turkish Greeks. It is almost impossible for the children of mixed
marriage or the children of converts to attend these schools. Even the
children of about 20,000 illegal workers from Armenia whom we proudly
mention about to western observers cannot attend these schools, nor
can they attend any other school though. Schools for minorities work
just like ghetto schools. As if they are open to all Turkish citizens,
the slogan, "We all are Armenian" chanted during Turkish Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink's funeral comes to realization, or the Lausanne
Treaty will be violated! But could not these educational institutions
be allowed to teach Armenian and Greek to those who are willing to
learn, including candidate diplomats, by finding an interim formula,
for instance via alumni associations?
Better chance to know each other well
All minorities living in Turkey automatically know or learn Turkish
beside their mother tongue. But overwhelming majority of Turks is
monolingual. If the easiest way to understand each other is through the
language, what needs to be done is clear. Is it terrible if different
intermingled communities know the other's language? With this, would
not we have a better chance to know each other well?
Foreign Ministry's project to teach Armenian looks like obeying the
logic of "learn your enemy's language to cope with him well". The
point here is not to better understand our fellow citizens and
neighbors who speak different tongues and also to benefit from
intellectual richness of being multilingual.The same news story
continues to read: "As a second priority the decree points at the
Middle East and Iraq. A Turkish diplomat is being sent to London in
order to have a Master's degree on Iraq's social structure. Seven new
diplomats will learn Arabic and have higher education on the Middle
East at the Middle Eastern Technical University in Ankara. Therefore,
bottleneck of having Turkish diplomats fluent in Arabic to serve
in the Middle East will be overcome. The Ministry will also provide
opportunities for young diplomats to learn Russian, Japanese, Chinese
and Greek. So far, a total of 27 Turkish diplomats were sent abroad to
learn foreign language and gain expertise, in accordance with the said
decree."Among diplomats there are those who learn foreign languages by
their own. However, there was not any planned education scheme until
this decree. Though it is late, this is something to be appraised. In
Turkey, foreign language level of foreign ministry, academia and
public in general is well known. It is limited to dominant foreign
languages. Moreover, Spanish and Russian are not among these. Since
turning our face to the West, we lost even our ability to read our
History; we either forgot the languages spoken around us or failed
to learn them. Learning Arabic and Persian was banned during K-12
education since 1929. With the abolishment of Darulfunun (higher
education system during the Ottoman) in 1934, it was even banned in
universities for a while. We have already talked about the situation
in Armenian and Greek. Forget about learning Kurdish; it does not
cross no one's mind.
Language is richness
However, language is richness first of all, a common richness of
humanity, let alone its benefits. Linguists say a bilingual or
multilingual person has higher level of intellect than a monolingual.
To store and keep different words in memory, to parse and pronounce
them later require more brain activity. Multilingual people have
broader perception and learning capacity and that make them open to
innovations and change. They are more harmonious. Monolingual people
on the other hand, have tendency to show negative or even aggressive
reactions as they have limited perception capacity compared to
multilingual persons.
By Cengiz Aktar
Turkish Daily News, Turkey
June 5 2007
Is it terrible if different intermingled communities know the other's
language? With this, would not we have a better chance to know each
other well?
A recent news report was reading: "Turkey planning for an effective
fight against the Armenian genocide allegations will train diplomats to
become experts on Armenia. For the first time, Turkish Foreign Ministry
sends a young diplomat abroad to learn the Armenian language. Since
there is no diplomatic relation between Turkey and Armenia, this
young diplomat will be sent to some other country providing language
courses in Armenian."However, learning Armenian in Turkey is a piece
of cake. It is the same for Greek too.
Approximately 20 Armenian and 13 Greek schools are active in
Istanbul. But these schools are only for 'regular' Turkish Armenians
and Turkish Greeks. It is almost impossible for the children of mixed
marriage or the children of converts to attend these schools. Even the
children of about 20,000 illegal workers from Armenia whom we proudly
mention about to western observers cannot attend these schools, nor
can they attend any other school though. Schools for minorities work
just like ghetto schools. As if they are open to all Turkish citizens,
the slogan, "We all are Armenian" chanted during Turkish Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink's funeral comes to realization, or the Lausanne
Treaty will be violated! But could not these educational institutions
be allowed to teach Armenian and Greek to those who are willing to
learn, including candidate diplomats, by finding an interim formula,
for instance via alumni associations?
Better chance to know each other well
All minorities living in Turkey automatically know or learn Turkish
beside their mother tongue. But overwhelming majority of Turks is
monolingual. If the easiest way to understand each other is through the
language, what needs to be done is clear. Is it terrible if different
intermingled communities know the other's language? With this, would
not we have a better chance to know each other well?
Foreign Ministry's project to teach Armenian looks like obeying the
logic of "learn your enemy's language to cope with him well". The
point here is not to better understand our fellow citizens and
neighbors who speak different tongues and also to benefit from
intellectual richness of being multilingual.The same news story
continues to read: "As a second priority the decree points at the
Middle East and Iraq. A Turkish diplomat is being sent to London in
order to have a Master's degree on Iraq's social structure. Seven new
diplomats will learn Arabic and have higher education on the Middle
East at the Middle Eastern Technical University in Ankara. Therefore,
bottleneck of having Turkish diplomats fluent in Arabic to serve
in the Middle East will be overcome. The Ministry will also provide
opportunities for young diplomats to learn Russian, Japanese, Chinese
and Greek. So far, a total of 27 Turkish diplomats were sent abroad to
learn foreign language and gain expertise, in accordance with the said
decree."Among diplomats there are those who learn foreign languages by
their own. However, there was not any planned education scheme until
this decree. Though it is late, this is something to be appraised. In
Turkey, foreign language level of foreign ministry, academia and
public in general is well known. It is limited to dominant foreign
languages. Moreover, Spanish and Russian are not among these. Since
turning our face to the West, we lost even our ability to read our
History; we either forgot the languages spoken around us or failed
to learn them. Learning Arabic and Persian was banned during K-12
education since 1929. With the abolishment of Darulfunun (higher
education system during the Ottoman) in 1934, it was even banned in
universities for a while. We have already talked about the situation
in Armenian and Greek. Forget about learning Kurdish; it does not
cross no one's mind.
Language is richness
However, language is richness first of all, a common richness of
humanity, let alone its benefits. Linguists say a bilingual or
multilingual person has higher level of intellect than a monolingual.
To store and keep different words in memory, to parse and pronounce
them later require more brain activity. Multilingual people have
broader perception and learning capacity and that make them open to
innovations and change. They are more harmonious. Monolingual people
on the other hand, have tendency to show negative or even aggressive
reactions as they have limited perception capacity compared to
multilingual persons.