http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0016/001611/161121e.pdf

http://50shadesgreg.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-importance-of-learning-local.html

http://www.expatforum.com/expats/general-expat-discussions/80915-how-important-learn-local-language.html

http://www.aihec.org/resources/documents/NativeLangugageImmersion.pdf

http://www.aatseel.org/resources/why/languages.htm

I live and teach in the Dhofar region of Oman. Definately, knowledge of local language endears you and empowers you to work with locals more effectively.

Http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/elibrary/situating-scholarship-teaching-and-learning-cross-disciplinary-conversation-disciplinary-st

Why It Matters

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/linguistics/endangered.jsp

At least 3,000 of the world’s 6,000-7,000 languages (about 50 percent) are about to be lost. Why should we care? Here are several reasons.

The enormous variety of these languages represents a vast, largely unmapped terrain on which linguists, cognitive scientists and philosophers can chart the full capabilities—and limits—of the human mind.

Each endangered language embodies unique local knowledge of the cultures and natural systems in the region in which it is spoken.

These languages are among our few sources of evidence for understanding human history.

Other Implications

Those who primarily speak one of the world’s major languages may find it hard to understand what losing one’s language can mean--and may even feel that the world would be better off if everyone spoke the same language. In fact, the requirement to speak one language is often associated with violence. Repressive governments forbid certain languages and cultural customs as a form of control. And conquered people resist assimilation by speaking their own languages and practicing their own customs.

On the positive side, one language can enrich another—for example, by providing words and concepts not available in the other language. Most languages (including English) have borrowed words of all kinds. Learning another language often brings an appreciation of other cultures and people.

The study of endangered languages also has implications for cognitive science because languages help illuminate how the brain functions and how we learn. “We want to know what the diversity of languages tells us about the ways the brain stores and communicates experience,” says Peg Barratt, NSF division director for behavioral and cognitive sciences. “Our focus is not just on recording examples of languages that are soon to disappear, but on understanding the grammars, vocabularies and structures of these languages.”

Preserving While Documenting

Documentation is the key to preserving endangered languages. Linguists are trying to document as many as they can by describing grammars and structural features, by recording spoken language and by using computers to store this information for study by scholars. Many endangered languages are only spoken; no written texts exist. So it is important to act quickly in order to capture them before they go extinct.

To help preserve endangered languages, E-MELD (Electronic Metastructure for Endangered Language Data) aims to boost documentation by:

duplicating and digitizing high-quality recordings in an archival form;

emphasizing self-documenting and software-independent data;

giving linguists a toolkit to analyze and compare languages;

developing a General Ontology for Linguistic Description (GOLD) to allow interoperability of archives, and comparability of data and analysis.

In another kind of archiving, Joel Sherzer, Anthony Woodbury and Mark McFarland (University of Texas at Austin) are ensuring that Latin America's endangered languages are documented through The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA). This Web-accessible database of audio and textual data features naturally–occurring discourse such as narratives, ceremonies, speeches, songs, poems and conversation. Using their Web browsers, scholars, students and indigenous people can access the database, search and browse the contents and download files using free software.

Documentation is the right thing to do for both cultural and scientific reasons. According to NSF program director Joan Maling, we must explore as many different languages as we can to fully understand this uniquely human capacity—"Language" with a capital L. “Just as biologists can learn only from looking at many different organisms, so linguists and language scientists can learn only from studying many different human languages,” she says. “Preserving linguistic diversity through documentation is critical to the scientific study of language.”

Related Links:

"Endangered Languages" - WAMU Interview with David Lightfoot, NSF Assistant Director for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences, March 7, 2007

"The Birth and Death of Languages" - Lecture (video) by David W. Lightfoot, NSF Assistant Director for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences, April 12, 2006

"The Rosetta Project" -An online digital library of reference materials for all documented human languages

Hi Randal,

Thanks for raising such an interesting topic!

I agree with Kevin who already gave a very articulate and interesting answer. I would just like to give a few personal examples and say how helpful it was to speak Creole in daily project activities.

In Haiti for instance, one problem that is often informally discussed among colleagues is the difficulty to build a strong, trust-based relationship with the communities. Indeed, the long cohabitation made of ups and downs with humanitarians sometimes led to serious misunderstandings and tensions between these two worlds. Knowing creole there was very helpful first to surprise people and have them to think of us differently, and second to have them appreciate the fact that they could communicate with you more easily than in French. This way, you not only avoid some loss of useful information but can also express your ideas and tailor your interventions in a much more culturally-sensitive and appropriate manner.

On a clinical side, regular misunderstandings were reported due to different uses of the same term, which could lead to serious diagnosis mistakes and at a broader scale affect not only efficiency and effectiveness, but also general safety. This was the case in many African countries and probably elsewhere, but to talk about what I personally observed, I can take the example of Martinique, another caribbean country where during the 50's there was almost no creole-speaking medical doctor. There for instance, the word "depression" rarely means what the DSM describes, especially if you talk with old people. For them, it refers to a psychosis, a word that does not exist in --at least caribbean-- creole. The recurrence of similar facts led to the creation of ethnopsychiatry but more broadly, to the general consensus that doctors should whenever possible be from the community they are looking after (I unfortunatelay cannot find the reference that was cited by a representative of the local medical college). Of course, in the humanitarian field it is very difficult to achieve, but at least a good knowledge of the language helps to increase our understanding of cultural perceptions, habits, taboos, and improve the general effectiveness and safety of our programs. This example may sound a bit too healthcare-oriented, but if we derive it to think more broadly about initiating/sustaining behaviour change in a particular field of action,whatever WASH, SGBV, food security, education, etc., I think it helps to grasp more or less subtle information that is very helpful to design winning strategies.

From a research project perspective, we also need, for validity purposes, to be very specific with measurement instruments, i.e., questionnaires, etc. I remember how during a pilot test conducted a few days before a survey, a pashtu speaker from our team figured out that one surveyor had misunderstood a question she was supposed to ask; instead of asking "Are y...

Aurore has alluded to the need for homegrown science and administration methods and lingo when dealing with development projects, goal setting, organizational and individual change and empowerment.

I know that in the Philippines, due to limitations in language and how language and culture carry their own baggage into diagnoses of problems and project analyses, a whole school of Filipino psychology has been developing. Is this happening in any other countries or regions of the world?

I have not found so general initiatives from my quick web-search, but a project on aging jointly led by the council for the development of social science research in Africa and the Oxford Institute of Ageing seems to be going on: http://www.codesria.org/spip.php?article2&lang=en.

African Journals Online also has a series of interesting publications (most of time in open access) that reflect how some psychological/psychiatric issues are seen and handled in Africa: http://www.ajol.info/index.php/aa/browse/category?categoryId=24

Beyond psychology, there is an ethno-sociological initiative born from the UNESCO MOST project: http://www.ethnonet-africa.org/

In terms of traditional medicine and research on local medicinal plants, many networks/initiatives exist. In the Caribbean it is led by TRAMIL: http://www.tramil.net/english/TramilInfo.html

Not only do we need to know the language of he region or locality but also the culture and people's ways of being. If I know the language but if I ignore or decide to ignore other people's culture (s), the project I might be involved in may fail. Language and culture go hand in hand and locals perceive this very easily.

Some British and North american professors give talks in some areas of Colombia. Some teachers and experts here love their talks but as these professors are not in their countries people say: "interesting" but aburrido. This happens because these international experts don't know the linguistic ways of being of people in these localities.

It is said that international visitors in the UK and the USA need to know the dominant cultures, but the opposite is also necessary when Europeans and North Americans visit other localities in the world.

This is necessary in times of conflict to reach peace.

Here are some listed websites which try to introduce the concept of "Filipino Psychology", which was developed due to the perceived inadequacy of US or Western dominated psychology. I am still interested in what other kinds of national, regional or ethnic psychologies are known and employed around the globe. --KAS

Filipino psychology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipino_psychology‎

Filipino psychology, or Sikolohiyang Pilipino, in Filipino, is defined as the psychology rooted on the experience, ideas, and cultural orientation of the Filipinos.

‎Basic orientation and context - ‎Four traditions - ‎Basic tenets

Filipino psychology concepts and methods - SlideShare

www.slideshare.net/.../filipino-psychology-concepts-and-methods‎

Dec 15, 2012 – Filipino Psychology Concepts and Methods Robert E. Javier Jr., PhD Associate Professor Department of PsychologyDe La Salle University ...

Sikolohiyang Pilipino (Filipino psychology) - Wiley Online Library

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-839X.00054/pdf‎

by R Pe‐Pua - 2000 -

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Sikolohiyang Pilipino (Filipino psychology) refers to the psychology born out of ... From these researches, a two-volume bibliography on Filipino psychology and ...

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www.amazon.com/Filipino-psychology-Third-Virgilio.../9711042037‎

Filipino psychology in the Third World [Virgilio G Enriquez] on Amazon.com. *FREE* super saver shipping on qualifying offers.

Thanks for your comments on my original question. I am about to submit my EdD Thesis at the University of Edinburgh which investigates the professional journeys of 12 exemplary field leaders in the international aid sector and I was going to propose that one cannot claim to understand a culture if he/she doesn't know the language because the two are so interconnected. At the same time, knowing the language does not guarantee one understands the culture. In the end, what really arose from my data was how 'in situ' language learning seemed to have an important role in shaping, humbling, equipping, and endearing aid workers for their job. There seems to be 'zero' research about the potentially transformational role of 'in situ' language learning among international aid workers. Any thoughts?